Businesses are facing huge pressure to both set and achieve ambitious net zero targets as part of their wider ESG strategies. Over recent years, sustainability has moved from a nice to have to becoming an essential consideration for large businesses.
While more businesses are setting ambitious targets, the number of those firms that are confident about hitting them is declining. A study from Accenture showed that only one in six of the UK’s largest companies is currently on track to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Even more alarmingly, the same research showed that almost half of businesses surveyed are continuing to increase their carbon emissions.
Finding Practical Solutions
As businesses look at how they can take practical steps to remove carbon emissions from their supply chains, as well as introducing new green sources of energy to their facilities, turning these ESG ambitions to reality will become even more important to overcome consumer and investor scepticism.
Achieving net zero emissions on time or ahead of schedule is an accolade that can help to establish significant competitive advantages, particularly in sectors which have a reputation for high levels of emissions like manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and engineering.
For these businesses facing a gap between their current emissions and ambitious targets, an approach of continuous improvement and marginal gains is likely to take too much time to come to fruition. The pressing requirement for more sustainable operations means many businesses are searching for more significant CapEx projects.
Harnessing Solar
Among the potential solutions to the UK commercial sector’s transition to a greener and more sustainable future is solar energy. Over the last decade or so, solar panels on domestic and commercial rooftops have become a common sight, driven by government grants, more efficient solar technology and increasing awareness of the importance of sustainable energy.
While the UK has cumulatively installed more than 14.4 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity to-date, Germany’s solar capacity grew by 14.1GW in 2023 alone.
It’s clear that more needs to be done to grow the UK’s solar output and in 2024, the government announced a major push to generate more green energy through major solar farm projects. It has committed to trebling solar capacity by 2030, taking the UK’s overall capacity to 42GW.
While many businesses will already have explored and progressed potential rooftop solar power generation, one area of huge potential is the currently under-utilised car park spaces that surround many large office or commercial premises.
Making a Business Case
At Solspan we work with businesses to help them realise the potential of this space with solar carports. These large commercial solar carport projects are suitable for car parks in excess of 20 spaces and provide staff and customers with a safe, covered space to park their cars.
While data shows that the UK’s largest 500 businesses could save a total of 570,000 tonnes of CO2 every year, it’s not just carbon emissions which are reduced by making the most of this space.
Our data shows that the country’s 8,000 large businesses could also benefit from a £2.2 billion reduction in energy bills every year.
Solar carports can also be fitted with electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to power fleets or EVs belonging to staff and customers. Our data shows that businesses in the manufacturing sector alone could generate enough energy to charge 45,000 EVs a year.
Changing Regulations
While the UK has been relatively slow to realise the potential of solar panels in car parks, countries in the EU are already making legislative changes to harness this power. The EU Performance of Buildings Directive calls for solar to be installed on “all new roofed car parks physically adjacent to buildings” by the end of 2029.
France has already mandated the installation of solar carports in new large car parks, and Germany, Greece and Slovenia are among the other nations to introduce requirements for solar panels to be incorporated into new car park projects.
While legislation in the UK might be some way off, a number of businesses have already harnessed the power of solar energy to turn their previously under-utilised car park spaces into an asset, producing green energy, offsetting carbon emissions, powering EVs, and reducing fluctuating energy costs.
If you’re ready to speak to us about how a solar carport project could benefit your business, get in touch to arrange a call with one of our experts.
