UK business shows a steep rise in on site generation


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A rapidly growing number of companies are now independently generating renewable energy each year.

Business's with projects boasting at least 50kW of capacity increased by 24% to 2,011 last year.

These commercial scale projects now have a combined capacity of more than 4.7GW, generating £768m worth of power, and accounting for 12 per cent of all renewable energy generation in the UK.

Specifically, the number of onsite projects developed by businesses on manufacturing or retail sites increased by 53 per cent and generated more than £80m worth of electricity, according to figures from Ofgem. 

Business increasingly are looking to renewable generation delivering this strong growth for the onsite renewables sector, as they looked to drive down energy bills and take advantage of feed-in tariff incentives.

But the biggest increase in independent generation last year came from farms, where 347 new projects represented a 74 per cent increase on 2011, generating more than £22m of revenue for the agricultural sector.

SmartestEnergy who put together this report, said

"For businesses and organisations faced with steep rises in energy costs, investing in their own renewable energy projects can generate significant savings and help them remain competitive," he said.

"Consumers are also increasingly interested in the sustainability of companies whose products they buy and investing in renewable energy can be used to highlight environmental credentials.

It would appear that smart business is increasingly realising that ''good business is good for business.''