If you said to a CFO, “I will fix your transport costs or employment costs for the next 20 years”, they’d rip your arm off, so why not power asks Nick Boyle, CEO Lightsource.
Lightsource Renewable Energy is pioneering a new world of electricity supply for major energy users through its fully-funded private-wire offering to allow businesses to fix their electricity costs long term. By 2017, it is widely accepted that non-commodity charges (those costs over and above the wholesale price of the electricity) will become the largest proportion of the delivered cost of electricity. With increased costs mostly coming from distribution, balancing services and levies non-commodity charges are set to increase substantially by 2019 – by as much as 3p/kWh.
By installing a utility-scale solar plant and connecting it behind the meter the delivered cost of power is avoided and therefore protection against these rising costs is achieved.
Nick Boyle, CEO at Lightsource, says: “The old mind-set of the past 100 years – that a company can only future-proof their electricity costs for 12 or 18 months is now obsolete. Solar power is turning this legacy approach on its head, which is creating a viable long-term solution to major energy users looking to reduce their energy overheads.”
Through its private-wire offering, Lightsource is able to finance and develop utility-scale solar and energy storage solutions using land near to site – connecting them directly into the supply of major energy users such as factories, warehouses, data centres, transport hubs, leisure centres, chemical plants and water treatment facilities.
A private-wire can help businesses reduce exposure to energy market volatility and enable load shifting to avoid peak pricing by giving access to clean power at below the cost of importing power from the grid. Drawing power from an off-site solar installation also creates excellent CSR opportunities by helping businesses meet energy and carbon reduction targets without impacting site operations.
Nick explains: “By hard-wiring an off-site solar installation into your business you can generate savings of up to 30% on all electricity utilised from the system. The price we offer is lower, because it is competing with the Fully Delivered Cost of Electricity (FDCoE). All you have to do is pay the agreed price for the solar electricity supplied, this will typically be a percentage of your annual electricity demand. With sustainability now a key requirement in many tendering processes, businesses large and small are also looking to switch to renewable energy to give them a competitive edge.”
The growth and impact of solar power over the last five years in the UK has been nothing short of remarkable – from humble beginnings of 25MWp in 2010, to an installed capacity of 12GWp by March 2016.
Falling product and installation costs (85% reduction in five years) along with a growing appetite from investors for a technology that is predictable, low in maintenance and has a zero fuel cost have helped solar mature to become one of the cheapest forms of renewable generation.
Many leading businesses have already turned to solar as a means of future-proofing their energy bills. Belfast International Airport is one of Lightsource’s most recent clients after signing up to a 25-year agreement.
Lightsource funded and installed a 4.84 megawatt (MW) off-site solar farm and hardwired it into the airport’s private network. The installation generates around 4,000 megawatt hours a year – equivalent to the annual consumption of around 1,200 homes – meeting 27% of their annual energy demand and within the first month operational costs were down 23%.
In just five years, Lightsource has invested £2 billion, and manages installations generating over 1.3 GW (enough to power 350,000 homes) – including Europe’s largest floating solar array on Thames Water’s QE2 reservoir, in London. The floating solar installation is used to help power the nearby water treatment works. It will have a total installed peak capacity of 6.3 megawatts and is expected to generate 5.8 million kilowatt hours in its first year.
Other clients Lightsource has worked with to provide a private wire solutions include Bentley Motors and waste-management firm AmeyCespa.
Nick, says: “There is a great need from energy intensive industries to reduce their carbon footprint, as well as the amount they are spending on electricity and solar can be the perfect solution. This is the new world of electricity supply where our customers can now choose to procure sustainable, locally generated electricity with future pricing certainty.
“The many projects we have already completed demonstrate that solar power is a predictable and reliable source of electricity supply and if the sun doesn’t come up one day, then we will all have bigger things to worry about.”
For more details, please visit www.lightsource-re.co.uk
