____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Energy
The energy market turmoil raised concerns in Europe about the security of supply of commodities that were once considered readily available
panels ($ 4808 per kilowatt in 2010 to $ 857 per kilowatt in 2021 ) has increased the competitiveness of solar photovoltaics versus fossil technologies ( Exhibit 2 ). This decline in price has sparked interest among large industrial energy consumers .
But the approach of generating power on-site or off-site has potential drawbacks . For example , weather at a company ’ s location can be a limiting factor for solar and wind power generation , or a company may lack suitable rooftops or access to enough land to make an investment worthwhile . Moreover , off-site power generation requires significant capital spending . Such investment could exceed a company ’ s budget or could be used on projects with higher returns elsewhere . Last , there are questions regarding whether investing in these assets is core to a company ’ s mission or if doing so is something that a third-party provider could do .
Power purchase agreements
PPAs to supply renewable energy may be an alternative to own generation in that they typically require no capital spending . PPAs can take many forms . A typical PPA could be a contract lasting ten years or more in which an industrial company pays a fixed price in exchange for a defined amount of electricity produced by a generator . The industrial company gets a stable price for a given volume of renewably generated electricity while the producer has a guarantee that
manufacturing-today . com 31