Impact

Outcomes and Impacts

Energy costs have increased from 8 euro cents per kWh in 2020 to 22 in 2023, carbon prices have risen fourfold from 2020 to 88 Euro per ton of CO2e in June 2023.

Levelized energy costs for rooftop solar are 6-11 euro cents per kWh, dropping to 3-6 cents by 2030 (Fraunhofer ISE, 2021). So every kWh of solar energy decreases energy costs by 9-19 cents/kWh. Solar power is intermittent, so many rooftop PV installations also include a battery. That however increases the levelized energy costs by 30% to 80% to 8-20 cents per kWh.

Impact of our innovation: We propose to increase solar self-consumption by adapting production activity to solar generation.

We assume the average manufacturer with solar receives a 13% solar contribution to total energy use, and a self-consumption rate of 50% (i.e. the other 50% of solar generation is fed into the grid). For them increasing self-consumption from 50% to 65% would save €6,000 per year, or 5% of energy costs.

However with more solar panels per factory (total roof space plus car park etc.) up to a 30% solar contribution (our 2029 estimate), that same increase in self-consumption would be worth €10,500, or a 11% saving on their energy cost.

For some sectors that benefit is much higher - for example €211,000 in metals and €147,000 in chemicals (focus sectors for us).

The impact across the EU (2024) with a 13% solar contribution would be a saving of €602mln/year, with a 30% solar contribution (2029) €3.9bn/year.

Target Groups

The target customers are factories with solar across Europe, plus companies in adjacent sectors, e.g. food, agriculture, warehousing and other energy intensive sectors, also with solar.

The 2 million factories in Europe consume 26% of EU energy (just after transport and households). They face 3x higher energy costs and 4x higher carbon costs compared to 2020. 6% of European rooftops have solar, so we estimate that 3% of factories have solar (60,000), rising to 19% (489,000) in 2030, growing at 30% per year (rooftop solar growth rate in Europe).

End-user Need: Factories with solar PV face the disappearance of previously profitable feed-in tariffs, so any solar-generated electricity that is fed into the grid is worthless. Battery storage is expensive. This proposal aims to investigate how 'soaking up' solar energy by increasing production during solar hours can be achieved in different sectors (Diversey, Metal Office, TEC Eurolab).

'Soaking up solar energy' requires companies to make changes in their production schedules, shift patterns and working hours, and so requires precise solar generation forecasts which can then be aligned with order management, factory logistics, shift planning and production line systems. A simple start will be to use the solar energy generated on weekends, by automatically switching on a self-contained production process.

Needs of other parties: GridDuck has an open API for partners and innovators. Suppliers of solar systems, factory management systems and energy consultants can benefit from bundling this innovation into their offering, with the user dashboard in their brand. Innovators can use the API to write their own software and mobile apps. Having partners from RIS countries ensures that this innovation can disseminate to companies in RIS countries. Implementing agencies benefit from having an innovation that helps decarbonise high energy consuming industries with renewables, to drive forward the energy transition.