ALUMNI IN FOCUS
DOING BUSINESS WITH THE SUN A solar installer developing solar software for other solar installers? It is unseen in the solar business. Hervé Billiet accomplished it and casts himself as an authority in the growing sector. Who is this innovative and entrepreneurial engineer? What is his background and what drove him to Washington DC to pursue a career? A portrait.
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he engineers who graduated from the then Group T university college in Leuven in 2006 are still known as the ‘golden generation’. They owe that title to a group of fifteen students who had the talent and guts to build Belgium’s first solar car and take it to Australia to compete in the World Solar Challenge, the unofficial world championship for self-built solar cars. One of the pioneers was Hervé Billiet, an Electromechanical Engineering student whose responsibilities included the technical design and construction of the solar racking system and the mechanical calculations of the structure supporting the solar panels. In between, he co-founded the Solar Olympics (now renamed Solar Olympiade), a national competition for high school students to develop creative applications on solar energy. Hervé also produced the bright idea of looking out for the follow-up after the first team had already started. In this way, he laid the foundations of what would become one of the Leuven Solar Team’s greatest assets: continuity.
After his studies, Hervé joins Atlas Copco as an Energy Audit Engineer. A year later, he leaves for Huntsville (Alabama) to pursue an MBA. However, what drew him to the US was not this degree but rather love. He found it wonderfully in Beijing during Group T’s annual study trip to China. “In a busy market, I suddenly heard English talking. It turned out to be an American young lady from Huntsville. The spark immediately struck, and we decided to stay in touch. Since then, I kept looking forward to a moment to join her. In 2008, the time finally came.”
What few inside and outside Group T would have thought possible happened. A year later, the team set off for Australia with the first Belgian solar car and finished in a more than deserving eleventh place. It marked the beginning of a success story that continues to this day and has
In Alabama, Hervé observes that there is 40% more sunshine than in Belgium, this gave him the idea to set up a solar panel business. “That turned out to be easier said than done,” Hervé continues. “To begin with, the population was not waiting for solar energy. On top of that came the
since inspired other and new student teams and start-ups. Love Seventeen years later, we find Hervé back in Washington DC as co-founder and CEO of Ipsun Solar and Ipsun Sunvoy, not coincidentally both in the solar business. His passion for renewable energy may have remained, but things have changed quite a bit since 2006.
Hervé Billiet © Julie Feyaerts
monetary crisis but also inexperience on my part. I could do something about the latter, so I took an MBA course at the University of Alabama.” Ipsun Solar In 2010, Mr and Mrs Billiet move to Washington DC. Hervé was able to join Accenture as Strategy Consultant & System Integrator. Among other things, he advised the US Department of Energy on the technical assessment of renewable energy projects and provided account strategy and sales support to major clients such as the IMF and the World Bank. For the US Postal Service, he helped to develop a mobile strategy. Six years later, Hervé and a friend from the US Department of Energy thought the time had come to do business on their
