Irish energy firm Flogas has revealed ambitious plans to deliver €50 million (£41.87 million) of solar energy projects over the next five years under its new solar as a service scheme.
The Solar as a Service (SaaS) offering allows businesses to reduce their emissions and energy bills by installing rooftop and ground mounted solar PV on their sites, without the need for upfront capital. Partnering with Alternative Energy Ireland (AEI) and Wewise, the SaaS offering provides bespoke financing packages, installation, real time monitoring and maintenance for on-premises solar projects. Steven Bray, managing director at AEI explained that the “model enables businesses to leverage solar energy without the financial burden of purchasing and maintaining the technology”.
Under this initiative, Flogas is targeting 50MW of installed solar PV capacity across around 100 large businesses in Ireland, which is expected to generate around 50GWh of energy annually. Barry Murphy, energy services and renewables director at Flogas, called this investment “central” to Flogas’ renewable energy ambitions, adding that “it supports our vision of becoming a green energy leader by driving the adoption of SaaS among large businesses, ultimately reducing carbon emissions and energy costs”.
Irish solar still needs growth
The Irish solar sector is still operating at a relatively small scale, with only 1.9% of Ireland’s electricity supply coming from solar PV installation. As of the end of 2023, Ireland had 700MW of installed solar capacity.
While the most recent round of the Irish Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS 4) saw 960MW of solar PV procured, a result which energy market analytics firm Aurora Energy Research called “surprisingly” successful, business installations of solar power are still hampered by the broader issue of high upfront costs for solar installations.
However, there are some signs that the Irish solar market is becoming more significant. As part of its most recent European Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) report, which showed the average price of European solar PPAs begin to stabilise after an extended period of decline, LevelTen Energy chose to feature Ireland for the first time. Ireland had the highest average solar PPA price among all European countries profiled, with an average price of £101.85/MWh.
Several renewable energy majors have started to develop their first solar projects on the Emerald Isle, with Ørsted announcing in September that it had contracted Voltalia to build its first Irish solar power plant, a 128MW development in County Carlow. Meanwhile, Baywa.re recently secured planning consent for its own solar debut in Ireland, the 60MWp Springmount Solar Farm.
Highfield Solar has also been increasing its solar ambitions in Ireland. The company, a joint venture between renewable energy developers ib vogt, Highfield Energy, and Aura Power, plus Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A., announced earlier this month that it had secured an undisclosed sum to fund the 70MWp Clonin North solar plant and the 62MWp North Arklow project.
