Solar as a Service: self-generated power made easy

Businesses are facing unprecedented energy challenges. Volatile prices and pressure to meet sustainability targets are squeezing margins and creating uncertainty. But what if you could lock in predictable energy costs, all while reducing your carbon footprint? Diane Abrahams, Managing Director Europe, Wewise and Stephen Casey, DCC’s Managing Director Energy Consulting explain how.

“Adding solar PV generation is one of the most valuable things a business can do to help the environment,” says Stephen Casey, DCC’s Managing Director Energy Consulting. And now’s a great time to buy in, he says. “Panel prices are lower than they ever have been and there can be strong payback for businesses putting solar in place.”

A move towards cleaner, affordable energy that you have control over makes sense for any kind of business. It’s even more compelling with the introduction of DCC Energy’s Solar as a Service offering this month.

“Solar as a Service allows our customers to pay a fixed monthly fee for the electricity generated from the panels on their roof,” says Diane Abrahams, Managing Director of DCC Energy’s pan-European solar energy network Wewise.

“It really is as simple as instead of customers paying for the installation of the solar panels, they pay a fixed monthly fee for using the solar energy,” Stephen says. “And at the end of the term – usually 15 or 20 years – the panels become theirs for €1.” It’s a straightforward, reliable way of getting certainty over energy costs not just now but for decades to come.

What type of business is DCC’s Solar as a Service for?

All types of businesses are saying that volatility in energy prices is affecting margins. “For a manufacturing business, variability in electricity prices can be crippling,” Stephen says. “Customers like the idea of a competitive, fixed-price offer from solar a lot. To be able to tie in that certainty on price for a long period of time is a very, very compelling proposition.”

Businesses wanting to use upfront investment for core business activities, rather than on renewable energy solutions, find spreading the cost particularly appealing. Diane explains how, for a mid-sized industrial company, the use of capital expenditure is often critical. “With Solar as a Service it becomes an operating cost rather than capex for our customers,” she says.

Stephen concurs: “I think there’s a certain type of customer who, just for capital allocation reasons, doesn't want to spend at least a six-figure sum putting solar panels on their warehouse roof,” he says. “But they’re very keen to get the benefit via lower electricity prices and meet sustainability targets. Maintenance and insurance are also included so customers can expect maximum productivity from their solar solution for the duration of the contact. For all these reasons, we expect to see new customers coming to us.”

How is the monthly cost calculated with Solar as a Service?

Isn’t it difficult to know what prices should be two decades into the future? “Well, that’s the beauty of it,” Stephen says. “The price is driven off how much it costs to install the panels and their output. We work out a price based on how much energy we know the panels will produce. That’s usually fairly predictable, despite differences in weather, if you take a long enough view on it. That’s then applied over the term. So, it’s in no way tied to the future cost of electricity or what other people may pay for their electricity from the wholesale market.”

“We’re offering a really innovative solution here,” says Diane. “It streamlines the whole process of integrating new technologies and the renewable energy transition for the customer. They avoid the complexity of contracting with several companies – one for the installation, another for the financing solution – because we provide all of it at the same time.”

What advantages does Solar as a Service give DCC?

For Wewise and for DCC, the advantage is a closer, long-term relationship with the customer and a competitive edge as we aim for market leadership. It gives the opportunity to find out a customer’s further needs and generate new recurring revenue streams from energy efficiency services, energy storage and energy software solutions.

The benefits of scale are clear. “Stephen and the DCC team have produced the centralised Solar as a Service model and we then tailor that according to the market and the regulatory environment in each country in which DCC Energy has solar operations,” explains Diane. “We’re starting with France and Ireland, rolling out next to the UK, Germany and Austria and then to the entire Wewise network. Without the centralised model, it would be very hard to design that from scratch for each individual business or even for each country.”

Both Diane and Stephen have been getting a very positive response. “The rooftop solar market in Europe is growing fast,” says Stephen. “We have a pipeline of customers ready to use our power purchase solution.”

“It’s a great example of what DCC’s scale and the power of the Wewise network enables us to do,” Diane says.