A solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) is a long-term electricity supply agreement that enables you to install a solar system on your business premises – without any capital outlay or ongoing system maintenance.

With a Smart Ease PPA, the solar system on your premises is installed, owned and maintained by the PPA provider. The electricity generated by the system is sold back to you at an agreed rate, which is generally much lower than your grid electricity rates.

Why a PPA?

Commercial PPAs have grown increasingly popular due to their many benefits:

• No capital outlay on the solar system installation
• Long-term savings on your monthly energy bills
• Expert maintenance and management of your solar system
• Reduced carbon emissions that can be accurately tracked and reported on

Read: Cloudy Bay’s solar PPA success story

What type of business would suit a PPA?

While a PPA is universally appealing, it’s not actually suited for every type of business.

Onsite solar PPAs are ideal for larger businesses that operate during daylight hours and that typically require big or complex systems. They are suited to both building owners and tenants.

A PPA best suits businesses that:

• Require solar systems sized over 70kW
• Have minimum monthly power bills of £2,000 or more
• Heavy users of daytime electricity: industrial or large-scale enterprises
• Have consistent rather than choppy loads, and
• Prefer to outsource the maintenance and upkeep of the system.

PPAs are typically in place for 7−30 years, so they are best suited to businesses that are well established. Examples include shopping centres, schools, cold-storage facilities, distribution centres, supermarkets and agricultural businesses.

What type of business would not be suited to a PPA?

A PPA would likely not suit businesses that:

• Operate before or after daylight hours, e.g. dairy farms, cocktail bars, etc.
• Production-run business with bursts of intense use and lots of downtime in between, e.g. printing press
• Seasonal business, e.g. fruit growers.

If a PPA isn’t suitable for your business, don’t worry! We offer other equally beneficial payment solutions for every type of business – because all organisations should be able to access and adopt decarbonisation technologies.