More and more businesses are taking up solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on commercial premises in Australia and, according to SunWiz Managing Director Warwick Johnston*, it’s happening more frequently. Warwick talks to Sustainability Matters about some of the latest trends in commercial PV and the push and pull factors at play in Australia.
W
hile the solar industry has been ‘distracted’ by the residential solar market for some time, Warwick believes there are now greater opportunities and
less market saturation in the commercial market. “This is giving commercial PV a push,” he said, “while the pull factor, and one of the main drivers for the growth of commercial PV, is that solar is now recognised as making good financial sense. “We’ve seen a considerable decrease in pricing over the past two years, which has
The push and pull of commercial solar in Australia
made solar affordable for business,” said Warwick. “Now, with only relatively incremental improvements in solar PV efficiency and price, businesses are no longer holding off investing in solar. “Financing is also more readily available for commercial PVs than it once was.” However, businesses should take care when it comes to investing in solar. “Make sure you get a financial evaluation that takes into account your hour-by-hour energy consumption and your tariff structure,” Warwick advised. “All too often, we see businesses investing in an oversized system that doesn’t match their energy consumption profile. So what might have been an impressive return, if it was appropriately sized or positioned on a better business, might end up being a woeful financial return. “Businesses need to get an analysis that takes into account an hour-by-hour energy balance across an entire year.” Small businesses have an energy tariff structure that is pretty similar to residential structures — mainly a fixed charge and then a per-kilowatt charge over that that can be quite high, explained Warwick. “But when it comes to large industry energy users, they generally have a low kilowatt-hour charge and then have a separate charge for their peak demand.”
8 Sustainability Matters - Jun/Jul 2016
www.SustainabilityMatters.net.au