Businesses are having to constantly change and innovate in today's world to remain profitable, relevant, and sustainable. The push from consumers for more sustainable alternatives is strong, with the government adding pressure too. The increased cost of operating has become noticeably apparent since the start of the pandemic which is leading more businesses to look into alternative ways of doing things. One of these things is solar energy.
Below we outline 5 benefits that businesses have to gain from adopting solar:
1. Improved sustainability
Of course, the most common reason businesses look to solar is to improve their sustainability. There is a strong push for them to do their part to reduce emissions and fight climate change to keep up and remain competitive in the market. Solar improves sustainability by allowing the business to run on clean energy rather than grid power that, although primarily renewable in NZ, is topped up with fossil fuels.
2. Lower power bills
Having solar energy can drastically cut power bills, especially for businesses using the majority of their power during the day. The more of their operations that are during sunlight hours the more they can capitalise on solar energy. This leaves their energy bill to just consist of the grid power needed outside of sunlight hours.
3. Income from selling back to the grid
Excess power generated by the solar panels can be sold back to the grid, usually at around 8 or 9 cents a kW. However, buy-back rates vary across power companies. This can further offset the cost of grid power needed to top up a business's energy needs making the savings even greater. Some businesses may choose to capitalise on this as an income source further by installing much more solar panels than they need to sell even more energy to the grid.
4. Improved CSR
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a big thing for businesses, that they are giving back to their community, stakeholders and the environment. By installing solar energy and selling it back to the grid the benefit is given to the community around them too. This is because it is contributing to powering more homes and businesses with clean energy creating a domino effect on their sustainability. The more clean energy fed into the grid the less demand there is for fossil fuel energy to top it up to meet demand.
5. Cleaner fleet
Businesses that have a fleet of electric vehicles will be able to further reduce the overall emissions of the vehicle if they power it with solar energy. If powered by grid power this is still using "dirty" energy that was created with fossil fuels. By using solar energy to power the vehicles they are even better for the environment.
If you have any questions about solar for your business enquire today: sales@chargesmart.co.nz