United Kingdom

Nick Boyle's – Your Electricity Costs, Why Pay More?

Discover why businesses will benefit from switching to solar electricity.

If I said to a CFO, I will fix your transport costs or employment costs for the next 20 years…they’d rip my arm off, so why not power ?

Given the choice, any sensible business will put into place appropriate measures to hedge against the rising costs of operations; from employment and transport costs to capital expenditure and beyond.

Call it the ‘light bulb moment’ but surely it makes good business sense to approach electricity costs in the same way. With an uncertain future for wholesale prices, rising non-commodity costs and a drive in consumer demand for green credentials – why should anyone pay more?

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 great news for major energy users.

Fixing electricity costs should really be a no-brainer and this can be done via a Lightsource private wire, power purchase agreement (PPA).

It can offer significant savings – in fact, up to 30% – on all electricity utilised from the system and with no hassle and interruption to daily business. You don’t need to allocate any roof or ground space, simply indicate your interest to procure solar power and Lightsource literally takes care of the rest.

The PPA 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.

In the case of Belfast International Airport, our private wire PPA meets 27% of their annual demand and within the first month, operational costs were down 23%.

Other clients we work with include Bentley Cars and Thames Water demonstrating 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.

But as you look out of the window at a cloudy sky, you might wonder if we can ever hope to make the most of the sunshine here in the UK?

The thing to remember is, the productivity of solar generation is based on the amount of light there is during the day – not the amount of sunshine. Even in the not-so-sunny UK, Lightsource has invested £2 billion, with installations generating over 1.3 GW (enough to power 350,000 homes). Our expertise in this field means we have the know-how to utilise solar power to its full potential.

So; the proposition is pretty simple – a private wire solar PPA with Lightsource truly is a win-win.

Major energy uses can fix electricity pricing long-term, reducing operating costs whilst improving sustainability credentials, all this with no capital outlay and no interruption to day to day business.

This is the new age of electricity supply of future pricing certainty, why wouldn’t you take back control?

Blog link: https://www.energylivenews.com/2016/06/15/guest-blog-nick-boyle-your-electricity-costs-why-pay-more/

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