Sunrock

Leading company in energy transition uses Grexx to link its operations.

Sunrock, a leading Dutch renewable energy company, specializes in developing and operating large-scale solar energy projects on rooftops and on water.

Sunrock, een toonaangevend Nederlands bedrijf in de sector van duurzame energie, specialiseert zich in het ontwikkelen en exploiteren van grootschalige zonne-energieprojecten op daken en op water.

With a team of approximately 200 employees, Sunrock stands out as one of the leading sustainable energy companies in the Netherlands. Specializing in large-scale roof-mounted solar power projects, they have a strong presence throughout Europe. 

Sunrock has a simple principle: they rent the large roof surfaces of shopping centers, distribution centers, warehouses, and other buildings and equip them with solar panels that generate energy. The building owner can purchase this energy yield, while the excess is returned to the grid. Sunrock handles all aspects of these solar projects, from development and financing to implementation and management. Currently, they have over 5 million square meters of sustainable energy-producing roofs throughout Europe.

Sunrock is dedicated to providing clean, local energy solutions not just on rooftops, but also on the ground and in the water. They offer options such as installing batteries to store extra solar energy and setting up charging stations for electric vehicles. By utilizing a smart energy management system, Sunrock guarantees an optimized and lucrative flow of energy.

Big energy player with a lot of data

With various ongoing projects, Sunrock collects a vast amount of data. This encompasses yield, consumption, and sensor readings from all active projects, as well as information on installations, locations, contracts, project status, connections, local subsidies, and planning details. Until recently, all this information was stored in one internally developed data management system which had its advantages but also led to endless scrolling and clicking as the company continued to grow. In short: there was room for improvement to streamline their data management processes.

Building with Sunrock

During the Summer of 2022, we collaborated with Sunrock to enhance the operational system and make it more user-friendly. Our goal was to create a system that would display all project-related data in a clear and easy-to-use interface. We focused on making data search and editing simple and straightforward.

Within a few months, we successfully rebuilt the foundation of the operating system on the Grexx Platform. This allowed us to make significant improvements in key areas such as introducing roles and rights, restructuring the data model, and implementing proper relationships between data. By Autumn of 2022, the new foundation was already up and running.

In the following year, together with Sunrock, we continued to expand and improve upon the system. This included integrating it with the customer portal (where customers can view their consumption), establishing a link with Microsoft Power BI, automating contract generation, and applying business logic throughout the system.

What’s next?

Currently, the operating system is mainly used for accessing data. However, there are plans to integrate more business logic into it in the future. A great example of this is the inclusion of information on network congestion and its potential impact on projects. By retrieving weekly congestion management data from specific locations, project managers can quickly adapt to changes on the network.

Sunrock is constantly adapting to the ever-changing market and regulations in their dynamic sector so for them flexibility in software is a fundamental factor. “With the help of Grexx and their low code software, we can efficiently create new functionalities that bring added value to our business,” thus, Arne Krijnsen.

All in one case…

Our Grexx Platform is a perfect fit for Sunrock’s particular case due to its unique architecture. Everything within our system is treated as a case, regardless of whether it's an object, process, or interface. This allows for easy retrieval and combination of all these elements at the back end. For Sunrock, this means they have access to limitless types of data at once – which was precisely what they required.

💡 Interested in learning more about All in one case? Take a look at our whitepaper on the architecture of the Grexx Platform.

While our team at Grexx has primarily focused on reconstructing the foundation of their operating system, Sunrock will handle the ongoing development and administration of the application within their company. Through the Grexx Enabled training program, Sunrock employees have learned how to become proficient and independent citizen developers. Want to know more about this process? Schedule a discovery call with one of our colleagues.

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