Energy

Providing rooftop solar solutions to industrial and commercial customers across Great Britain

Macquarie Energy Leasing Limited’s new rooftop solar business, OnStream Solar, provides renewable energy to industrial and commercial customers across Great Britain, offering a practical solution for businesses to reduce their carbon footprint, while potentially saving on energy costs.

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Sector	Energy
Sub-sector	Renewables, Solar
Location	Great Britain

Opportunity

With energy prices at historic highs, and businesses looking to save on energy costs and transition to clean renewable sources of energy, the deployment of rooftop solar is steadily increasing across Great Britain.

This provides an opportunity for onsite rooftop solar Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to offer an effective solution for businesses, both financially and environmentally. With the OnStream Solar PPA, customers are likely to save on their electricity costs as the onsite PPA power price is typically lower in comparison to the price paid for grid supply.

Approach

OnStream Solar builds on Macquarie Energy Leasing Limited’s two decades of experience working in the UK on behind-the-meter energy solutions and aims to offer a broad range of financial, environmental and operational benefits to its customers.

OnStream Solar will fund, install and maintain onsite solar photovoltaic (PV) systems for medium-to-large businesses. The first stage of any installation involves a remote feasibility study to assess the roof space of the customer’s premises using satellite images and specialist software. A system layout and approximate size for the system can then be designed to utilise the roof space available and determine the expected energy production. Once this has been agreed, a solar PPA will be arranged, and the installation will be scheduled.

Under the PPA, the customer will purchase all the power generated by the installed system at a fixed price (with fixed annual escalation). This eliminates exposure to volatile electricity power prices, providing businesses with greater long-term energy price certainty. The PPA also comes with no up-front costs or capital requirements from the customer, allowing the assets to be promptly deployed and the benefits immediately realised. OnStream Solar will also provide ongoing oversight, management and maintenance of the system.

Outcome

OnStream Solar provides significant environmental benefits, that enable businesses to reduce their carbon emissions and support them in meeting their net zero emissions targets. It also provides a complete end-to-end product, managed for the full life of the PPA, allowing customers to make savings (compared to grid electricity prices) while focusing on their core business.

OnStream Solar is able to support installations of all sizes and will initially be working with businesses operating in sectors such as cold storage, warehousing, logistics, data centres, manufacturing, food and beverage and retail and tourism.

As more businesses focus on rising costs, the challenges around the energy transition are shifting. The launch of OnStream Solar marks an important milestone in our ambition to create a leading commercial and industrial rooftop solar development platform. An agile, flexible, development-focused business, backed by the global expertise, resources and reach of Macquarie, OnStream Solar is the perfect vehicle to help businesses retain competitiveness whilst delivering on their sustainability ambitions.”

Neil Denley
Managing Director
Macquarie Energy Leasing Limited

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OnStream Solar is a trading name used by Macquarie Energy Leasing Limited (a company registered in England & Wales with company number 08253776 and its registered address at Ropemaker Place, 28 Ropemaker Street, London, EC2Y 9HD), which is part of the Macquarie Group.