Solar developer RES is to refocus its corporate strategy and enter the commercial solar sector in order to adapt to the UK’s changing solar market.
The company is to now focus on three core divisions: its asset management portfolio which RES intends to expand, the acquisition of new ground-mounted utility-scale projects; and the commercial solar market which RES will enter for the first time.
RES is to increase its asset management business beyond its current portfolio of 200MW and will work with smaller developers in order to increase its market share, while acquiring early-stage utility-scale projects and portfolios on brownfield sites and low-grade agricultural land.
The company’s decision to diversify into the commercial solar sector is down to what Tom Fewster, head of UK solar at RES, has labelled a “massively underutilised” area, and Fewster said the company plans to combine solar power generation with on-site storage solutions in order to crack the market.
The commercial market was recently given two shots in the arm with policy decisions related to permitted development and so-called ‘lift and shift’ proposals, and Fewster said the changing UK market had triggered the company’s change in focus.
“The last three years have seen enormous cost reductions in solar power and achieving grid parity is key to the development of the UK solar market.
“Although political uncertainty is affecting future energy policy and the future of the UK solar power market is therefore unclear, our view is that further cost reductions will keep solar power a commercially attractive energy options, particularly when combined with energy storage,” he said.