Business increased purchases of solar panels due to rising electricity tariffs

Businesses are increasing purchases of small solar power plants (SPPs) for their own energy supply amid a sharp increase in the tariff for electricity from the network. This year, enterprises increased the installed capacity of their own solar power plants by 16% year-on-year, to 50 MW. For the first time, the main share of SES installations fell on small and medium-sized businesses; this trend will continue, market players believe. However, the total volume of commercial solar power plants in the country is still extremely small, since for most consumers the price of electricity is not a sufficiently motivating factor, analysts say.

This year, the business installed about 50 MW of solar power plants for its own energy supply, which is 16% more than the figure for 2022. The market volume in monetary terms for 2023 may increase by 5–7% year on year, to 4 billion rubles. Such data is contained in the latest analytics of the Association of Solar Energy Enterprises (ASE) based on data on actual shipments of equipment for solar generation.

One of the main changes in the commercial solar power plant market in 2023 is the increase in demand for installations from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The share of supplies of solar power plants for SMEs for the first time occupied 55% of the market, and the share of supplies for large industry (oil and gas and mining sectors) decreased to 45%. Among SMEs, the main buyers this year were food manufacturers (24%), retail and chain stores (17%), and logistics companies (10%).

Businesses traditionally install solar power plants in the southern regions due to high insolation and the most expensive electricity in the country from the public network.

In 2023, the Southern Federal District, including the Krasnodar Territory and the Rostov Region, will account for about a third of all installations of commercial solar power plants. At the same time, Eastern Siberia and the Far East became one of the leaders in the construction of large commercial generation in 2023, which is due to the location of production enterprises, the ASE clarified.

Basically, business buys solar power plants due to rising tariffs and increased payments for technological connection (TP) to power grids, says Dmitry Konyaev, commercial director of the Smart Energy company. Thus, in the Krasnodar Territory, the cost of electricity for legal entities is the highest in the country: the final price at low voltage in October was about 10 rubles/kWh, and at average – 8.5 rubles, according to Time2Save estimates.

This year, Smart Energy installed 3 MW of solar power plants to supply energy to legal entities and individuals, which is approximately 20% more than last year, says Mr. Konyaev.

Customers mainly buy Chinese panels: their prices have been falling since the beginning of the year, says Dmitry Konyaev.

Now the average price of a turnkey solar power plant is 55–60 thousand rubles. for 1 kW (about 160 thousand rubles, including lithium-ion drives). The decrease in the price of equipment was offset by exchange rate fluctuations and the increase in the cost of logistics and installation services, said Denis Shifrin, director of Volta Energy (the official distributor of the Hevel plant). ASE claims that Russian equipment occupies 40–45% of the commercial solar power plant market, mainly due to the large business segment. The share of Russian equipment in the SME segment is about 5–10%.

Judging by the statistics, there has been a noticeable increase in the segment of commercial solar power plants, but the construction of own solar generation is still an order of magnitude inferior to the commissioning of wholesale power plants, says Sergei Sasim, director of the Center for Electric Power Research at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. At the moment, in the country, according to the Association for the Development of Renewable Energy, the commercial sector operates more than 150 MW of solar power plants, and by 2030 their volume could triple. For comparison, under the green energy support program, about 1.8 GW of solar power plants have already been launched on the wholesale energy market. The investor under the program receives a guaranteed return on investment through higher payments to industry.

The construction of commercial solar power plants is determined by economic feasibility, and the construction of wholesale solar power plants is determined by the volume of the support program, says Mr. Sasim. Consumer sensitivity to the price of electricity is often exaggerated, the analyst believes: “Productions in whose production costs electricity costs exceed 10% occupy only 2% of total electricity consumption.” In such conditions, consumers still gravitate more towards stability than autonomy, the expert concludes.

Polina Smertina