ALMERE ALFEN

The energy transition offers plenty of opportunities for businesses. Like Alfen, a company with a rich history in the energy sector. Since its foundation in 1937, the company has been engaged in the production of components for transformer substations, and over the years it has grown into a leading player in Europe in the field of smart grid solutions, energy storage and charging points for electric cars. In Almere, Alfen has all the space it needs to fulfil its further (growth) ambitions.

Marco Roeleveld, managing director Alfen: "The word energy transition may sound abstract, but there are three concrete drivers behind it. First, the necessary switch from fossil fuels such as gas and oil to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. A second driver is that renewable energy is often generated decentrally, in all kinds of locations, for instance in a solar park or on the roofs of houses. This creates demand and supply imbalances in different places. Third, we see the strong emergence of the electric car.

Overloaded power grid

This third driver in particular has to do with the fact that all those electric cars also need to be charged in places that do not provide them by default, such as people's front doors. If one car in the street is charged, nothing is wrong yet, but when the whole street starts charging, the electricity grid gets overloaded. That means solutions are needed such as reinforcing electricity grids, providing charging points, but also storage systems to better match peaks and troughs. We provide those solutions.

Unique player in the energy transition

Our strength lies mainly in the fact that we can offer our customers a set of solutions that have a mutual relationship with each other. That makes us a unique player in this energy transition. With three business lines, we contribute to strengthening and accelerating the energy transition throughout Europe. For instance, we have long been a specialist in transformer substations and smart grid solutions. We also offer a complete range of charging points for electric cars and energy storage systems. But what is unique is that we can also offer integrated solutions for multidimensional electricity problems that arise with the energy transition.

Corporate social responsibility

Sustainability has played an important role in our operations for many years. We are actively working on it on many fronts. For instance, by buying electric cars and installing solar panels on our roof. It also determines the choice of materials for our products. For our transformer substations, for instance, we use concrete without reinforcement, which makes it more recyclable. But corporate social responsibility goes a step further as far as we are concerned.

Our employees are also at the heart of this. We think it is important to contribute to their development. That is why we have had our own company school since 2008, where employees are trained at MBO levels 2, 3 and 4. This allows them to progress step by step to other work fields within Alfen. This enables us to fill even the most difficult-to-fill vacancies - people with technical experience - usually well.

Strong growth

Alfen has been located at De Vaart business park in Almere since 1983. We are experiencing strong growth and Almere offers us all the space we need to realise this growth. In addition, Almere's central location makes it an ideal business location for us. In recent years, we have become one of the more dominant players in Europe in the field of energy storage and charge points.

We now have sales offices in England, Germany, France and Scandinavia, among others, and in 2020 we will have expanded our organisation to Italy, Spain and Poland. We want to expand that international position even further. So far, Almere has been able to offer us good framework conditions to realise our ambitions."

The role of the Municipality of Almere

''The Municipality of Almere wants to contribute to making energy demand more sustainable with its Sustainability Agenda. We also want to balance generation and demand in neighbourhoods. In doing so, we use local companies as much as possible. It is great to see Alfen playing a role in the solar field on the Vaart, charging infrastructure and also providing solutions for energy storage.'' - Anja de Graaff program manager Energy Works, municipality of Almere