In addition to the obvious environmental benefits, renewable energy can save businesses money. With the upcoming election in the UK set to focus on reducing the country’s reliance on oil and gas, commercial companies stand to benefit from home-grown renewable energy sources like solar.
Businesses are increasingly partnering with solar companies through power purchase agreements (PPAs) to provide clean energy for their commercial properties. A PPA is a (usually long-term) electricity supply agreement between two parties, often a power producer and a customer.
Supporting this type of financing can be a key part of enabling a company to transition to clean energy sources. That was one of the responsibilities taken on by smart energy provider Nuvolt, which initiated PPA provisions between HT Power and Marston’s brewing company.
Beyond supporting the financing of solutions through PPAs, Nuvolt provides design, installation and maintenance services for low-carbon, behind-the-meter solutions that sit for commercial clients.
Current± sat down with Jo Horrigan, director and co-founder of Nuvolt, to talk about energy management, grid connectivity and the perks of being a small business.
What inspired the launch of Nuvolt?
We set up Nuvolt to address some of the energy issues that were very apparent during the energy crisis, predominantly around the grid and the capacity available on the UK grid.
We wanted to provide solutions that would allow companies to have a localised energy management system, which could give them business resilience, reduce their energy consumption and save them money.
Initially, we thought it would include all things low carbon: solar, battery, EV chargers, heat pumps, LED lighting, etc. However, we found very early on in our journey that the core offering that most customers were interested in was around solar, battery and commercial EV charging.
What benefits can businesses expect to see from an energy management system?
Nuvolt can provide companies with a bespoke solution to meet their business requirements, whether that be additional energy, reducing their energy consumption and saving money, or incorporating resilience into their energy management strategy. Saving energy has always been a key component of delivering this business.
From an energy perspective, we can save money, reduce energy consumption, and build resilience into a business. That means companies can consider their localised energy management solution their primary resource, with the grid as a secondary resource.
What has changed since Nuvolt began in 2021?
We’re finding now, in our third year of trading, that our proposition around commercial EV charging is now having more traction than it did two years ago; that market is changing and developing as well.
The demand for EVs has grown significantly over the last three years. With more EVs and Hybrids on the road, we are noticing enquiries from PLCs that are looking to convert their fleet to EVs and install chargers.
With sustainability and targets to meet net zero in mind, organisations are seeing value in implementing solar, battery and EV charging—either as an integrated solution without impacting the grid or some are considering them as individual measures to meet net zero and to sit within their budget requirements.
What types of organisation are you working with?
Putting renewables to grid is really problematic at the moment. So those large solar developers and wind developers are really struggling to get capacity from the grid because it’s just not there.
At the same time, those large energy companies that want to invest in solar and battery storage with commercial clients are not really interested in anything that’s less than five megawatts. So we operate in that lower-level market, which is anything from 30 kilowatts up to five megawatts.
That market is desperate for support because it consists predominantly of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It is desperate for solutions, but the big players don’t particularly see that as an attractive investment.
What does the future hold for Nuvolt?
It is all about the brand, not just the company brand, but a personal brand.
Whilst we might be a distributor, I think we will become the go-to company for those tier-one providers because we can move quicker.
Another thing we have worked on at Nuvolt is providing finance options to our end-user clients. We have asset finance in place, and the other option is a PPA. We have funders in place for larger-scale projects over a 10-, 15-, or 25-year period.
For example, with Marston’s, we brokered and brought forward the funding partners to fund that program, and we are doing the installation and the design, and will also be doing the maintenance and monitoring of those assets. But when we approach the next client, I would like to think in the next two years, we’d be in a position where potentially Nuvolt has acted as that funding partner to fund some of those assets.
Nuvolt is a finalist for an award for best smart energy system in REA’s British Renewable Energy Awards 2024.
