Irish bank AIB is to receive what it has called the largest urban rooftop solar installation in Ireland after plans for a power purchase agreement with Power Capital were announced.
A 240kWp system, which will include a solar car port, will be installed at the bank’s headquarters in Ballsbridge, Dublin in the coming months and will be completed by the summer of 2017.
The largest reported rooftop system to date in Ireland is Kingspan Energy’s 1.3MW installation at the group’s manufacturing plant in Portadown, County Armagh. However, AIB has claimed ite new system will be the largest in an urban environment.
AIB is to lease its roof space to Power Capital before purchasing the solar energy created by the system for an undisclosed PPA price. The solar developer will build, own and maintain the plant over the lifetime of the scheme.
As well as fixing AIB’s energy costs at the site, the bank anticipates that it will save 115 tonnes CO2e annually from the installation.
However the company’s motivations for the system go beyond these benefits, with the bank seeking to position itself as a finance leader in the renewables space ahead of the introduction of a government support scheme for solar.
Ray O’Neill, head of the office of sustainable business at AIB, said: “A customer who’s thinking of an energy efficiency or renewable energy project, as many pharma, manufacturing, retail and hospitality customers are, will look to AIB as the leader in this space.”
The Irish market is still awaiting the introduction of tariff rates from the government, which launched a consultation on a Renewable Electricity Support Scheme and future REFIT tariffs in July 2015. A response was expected in June 2016 however the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR) has yet to outline its position.
Until this happens, projects like the upcoming AIB installation are gathering funding in the expectation that the subsidy will come in during the lifetime of the scheme and build revenue once it is available.
Without a high subsidy, PPA deals have rapidly emerged as a new way to garner interest in rooftop solar. A school in Greater Machester recently completed a 430kW system which will save it more than £2 million from its energy costs over the 25 year scheme.