Protecting C&I sites against energy price disruption with a solar shield

Clean Energy Capital’s Commercial Director, Alexander Vit, was featured in Energy Manager Magazine, a leading publication for energy and sustainability professionals. Read the full article below or view it online.

Energy Manager Magazine, May 2025 Edition.

Near-site solar power presents a way for UK energy managers to decarbonise their operations while insulating themselves against grid volatility.

Over the past five years, Energy Managers in the UK have had to contend with a series of seemingly intractable challenges. The country’s commercial and industrial (C&I) energy market has suffered repeated pricing disruptions since the 2022 energy crisis, when record spikes in the price of natural gas almost saw UK consumers face an 80% energy price cap increase before the government stepped in.

A string of macro-scale events, outside of any Energy Manager’s control, conspired to cause the recent energy price instability. Events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupted natural gas and power markets in Europe. In addition, an underperforming French nuclear fleet exacerbated price increases because normally the UK buys a percentage of its power via large subsea cables called interconnectors and this supply became uneconomic. The impact of both offshore events materialized in the sustained high wholesale market energy prices, which was paid for by government, businesses, and consumers.

The prospect of insulating individual sites from pricing volatility is a routinely difficult task for energy managers, even in 2025. However, there are funded decarbonisation solutions that can act as an energy price hedge.

The UK’s efforts to become a more energy independent “clean energy superpower” are progressing and renewables penetration is increasing at an encouraging rate. On April 1st, 2025, Great Britain achieved a new maximum solar generation record.

To meet the government’s Clean Power 2030 goals, the country’s power system will need to see “clean” energy sources produce at least as much power as Great Britain consumes in total over the whole year, with at least 95% of the power generated in the UK. Wind and solar need to reach approximately 80% share of the country’s energy mix in the next five years to achieve this, meaning that investment into renewables innovation, research, manufacturing, and construction will be pivotal.

So far, the current government has taken encouraging actions to decrease development barriers for renewables projects. The de facto ban on new onshore wind has been lifted. Recent planning rule changes have empowered local authorities to determine smaller projects thus decreasing the cost and admin burden created by central government processes. More needs to be done to unlock investments. There is nearly twice as much solar energy capacity in planning (27 GW) as the total amount that has ever been built in the UK (15.5 GW).

However, these larger renewables projects feed power into the grid, where the benefits are realised indirectly. Data centres and UK industry need to look at direct contracting strategies to secure direct benefits. The increasing viability of locally generated solar power presents an avenue for large power users to achieve annual energy cost savings and secure a hedge against future price disruptions. The two best technical solutions underpinning the hedge are onsite and nearby offsite renewables.

The simplest onsite solution is rooftop solar. Rooftop solar represents a significant source of growth for the UK’s solar capacity. There are currently 1.6 million rooftops fitted with solar technology in the United Kingdom, with more than 200,000 non-residential buildings also having been equipped. The UK’s warehousing stock has the necessary unused roof space to accommodate up to 15GW of new solar infrastructure – essentially doubling the UK’s solar PV capacity as of 2023. Building out PV solar on the largest 20% of the UK’s warehouses would provide 75 million square meters of roof space, avoiding the need to develop new land equivalent to the footprint of around half a million homes.

However, rooftop solar still doesn’t offer material impact for larger facilities like hyperscale data centres or complex industrial sites, simply because their roofs are too small. The UK’s largest power users need megawatts and gigawatts – not kilowatts. Therefore, to bypass spatial limitations, projects are often built offsite. Connecting one or more dedicated generation assets, via a private wire, to a large energy consumer’s site can provide the necessary solution at scale.

From a development and delivery perspective private wire projects are faster than grid connected renewables. Grid connection queues and costly reinforcement works are bypassed because most generation is consumed onsite and by the end user. Little volume spills over into the grid, if any. Planning for such projects is often viewed favorably because the dedicated renewables asset is being built to decarbonise a large regional employer.

As the decade continues, the UK’s power grid will become increasingly overloaded, leading large power users to face potentially painful power constraints unless urgent grid upgrades are undertaken. At a business level, power from the grid must enable all energy users to pursue the decarbonisation of their business activities. Electrification of heat and transport initiatives are too often stalled or halted due to grid upgrade requirements. These costly delays or upgrades often force customers to seek on-or-near-site solutions. The emergence of new power-hungry demand segments like hydrogen electrolysis and AI Data centres creates additional grid upgrade requirements of uncertain magnitudes.

For large energy users, the renewables business case is driven by cost certainty and cost savings. Long term renewable energy supply agreements are 30% cheaper than grid electricity because private wire projects don’t pay non-commodity costs. These cost savings create a defendable competitive advantage which allows eligible sites to outperform their competitors.

Though desirable, renewables projects are complicated and often create distractions for Energy Managers with competing priorities. Turnkey and funded solutions exist. Capex free solutions have the additional benefit of enabling large energy buyers to allocate scarce capital towards core business growth initiatives. Price certainty is achieved through different pricing and product structures. If the renewable asset is not generating because it’s not sunny or windy, the ability to import from grid remains provides resiliency and a safety net.

The UK is on track for a clean energy future but getting there will require steep renewables adoption. In the meantime, energy managers can’t afford to be at the mercy of the grid. Investing time to understand near-site renewable options is a simple step that C&I energy managers can’t afford not to explore. https://www.cleanenergycapital.co.uk.