You founded the company in 2011. What was the need you saw in Egypt which led to KarmSolar?

I never saw myself as an entrepreneur. I was working in renewable energy investment, but the revolution happened that year and I lost my job.

So you had a background in renewable energy, you knew the market and needs in Egypt?

Not really. I had been working outside of Egypt, in gas distribution and trading with Shell. But I didn’t have much experience in renewables.

Was your focus initially on off-grid?

Yes, when we started it was. We got a patent for powering submersible pumps using solar energy. We developed software to run the pumps using variable frequency drives, so the pumps could use solar power. That was new at the time. That helped us to sell our systems to farms in the western desert.

Are you still in that business?

We were out after three or four years, after small shops figured out how to use inverters and do the work much more cheaply, far less efficiently than us but it didn’t matter.

What was your next move?

We started investing in solar stations for cellular towers and signed our first contract in 2015. And we were the first company in Egypt to get licensed to sell kilowatt-hours from a solar station.

When did you move into power distribution?

In 2018 we decided to expand our business model to more than power generation. We started investing in power distribution grids, grid connected and off-grid. That business grew very quickly. Most of our business at the moment is connected to the grid, but we’re interested in off-grid as well.

What was the business case for distribution?

We realized, for renewable energy to become the mainstream source of electricity, it’s not enough to just be solar developers, it doesn’t make sense to limit investment in solar stations, because you can’t grow with the system. The solar penetration depends on the system. The way to increase the penetration is by controlling the entire system, so we are able to control the entire energy mix, not just the renewable part.

Is that part of a renewables strategy?

Yes. You phase out the fossil fuel part, bit by bit, and increase renewable energy penetration.

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