The renewable energy sector is a booming field that requires many different talents and skills to offer high-quality services to its clients. The meeco Group, which is one of the leading companies in the sector, has successfully gathered an international high-skilled team mastering competences ranging from communication to technical.

Strong of her impressive competences, expertise and experiences, Ms. Victoria Lazaro, Head of procurement and logistics, has been working for The meeco Group for eight years. Based in the office of meeco Services S.L. in Alicante, Spain, which is one of The meeco Group European subsidiaries, Victoria, as an essential employee of The meeco Group, supports the company in the fulfilment of its missions and the provision of clean and reliable energy worldwide.

Before being promoted Head of procurement and logistics, she gained experience and was given numerous responsibilities working as a Project Manager and Developer for various photovoltaic installations such as roof, ground-mounted and photovoltaic greenhouses.

Her linguistic skills in English, German and Spanish have allowed her to overcome many challenges that occur in such an international environment. This position at The meeco Group has provided her with an in-depth knowledge of the global PV market.

To be successful in all fields, adds Victoria, it is essential to know the country in depth, that is to say its regulation, habits, culture, religion, economy, legal procedures and finance.

The knowledge of the degree of acceptance of foreign companies, geography, products, energy, demography, prices, and distribution, as these are all the aspects that will help her to make right decisions. Logistics is one of the most difficult phases of the internationalization of a company. It includes choosing the right supply partner experts with regional knowledge, as they are key factors to the good understanding of local rules and regulations.

When she is asked about the project she enjoyed the most working on, she confesses that she particularly enjoyed the sun2roof installation carried out by The meeco Group, for the well-known fashion group Bershka at one of their flagship stores, located in the commercial and historic heart of Valencia, Spain, for which Victoria was the project manager.

The whole building was remodelled in the respect of green energy standards, using a high content of recycled materials as an exercise in optimizing energy use. The Spanish subsidiary of The meeco Goup, meeco Services S.L., was chosen to supply the turnkey photovoltaic skylight/roof of 31 kWp.

All the structures and the translucent photovoltaic modules were specially selected and tailor-made for the Bershka project. The meeco Group has developed, procured, delivered and managed the project from its very beginning up to the implementation of the installation.

Every day, Ms. Lazaro faces the responsibility of international procurement and logistics processes. The processes involve ensuring that there are no penalties or delays, that the overall order is effectively managed from the moment it is placed to the moment of its delivery, as well as making sure that customs clearance is handled in the most efficient, cost-effective and lawful way.

These steps can be difficult and challenging when dealing with new countries where meeco only recently established its local subsidiary, like Zimbabwe for example.

Ms. Lazaro informs us that last December, The meeco Group jointly with its local Zimbabwean joint venture, oursun Energy (Pvt) Ltd., have started the shipment of photovoltaic equipment to Zimbabwe where The meeco Group will be soon installing several photovoltaic projects in the size of 2 - 5 MWp each. During this long-term project that consists in the installation of an aggregate of 230 MW over 5 years in Zimbabwe, Victoria will be in charge of the procurement and logistics.

"The meeco Group has already shipped 101 containers of 40 feet of photovoltaic modules, which represent a total of 78,820 Wurth thin-film modules of different power amounting to a total of 5.072 MW. 48 of the containers have already been cleared and are now stored, 47 containers are cleared and on their way to the warehouses in Zimbabwe", declared Mrs. Lazaro.