20 years of Solara
From the very beginning, Thomas Rudolph focused on off-grid applications when he founded Solara together with Hans Jacobs in 1996. Frank Heise, now a managing partner, was already there at the time. Expert advice made it possible to take away the initial scepticism from customers about the technology, which was initially still quite young – transparent depictions of the realistic yield did the rest. Customer experiences were in turn passed on to the producers. Solara entered international business just one year after its foundation. Soon the premises at the headquarters – a shop with office and warehouse in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel – became too small and the company moved to Hamburg-Altona. In 2001, the Solara solar power plant started production, which was set up with the support of the physicist Ralf Hennings. The Wismar production site soon employed over 200 people. After having teamed up with other companies for CentroSolar AG in the meantime, Solara is now performing independently again. The modules still come from Wismar and have proven their worth especially in off-grid applications.