October 14, 2024 Benefits of Solar PV, Solar PV

What do businesses need to know about Solar Power and Electric Vehicles?

If you are a business owner, regardless of the size of your company, you know that there is a greater need than ever to free your business from the volatility of the fossil fuel-generated energy market.

As you may already know, solar power can be the lynchpin of that low-cost, zero-carbon energy security strategy.

However, you might not know that it can bring further benefits if you operate a fleet of electric vehicles (EVs)… or even if a significant number of employees commute to your workplace by car.

If this sounds relevant to your business, this complete guide will explain what you need to know to integrate solar power into an electric vehicle charging system, the questions to consider, as well as understand the many benefits it can bring.

What do businesses need to know about electric vehicle ownership, first of all?

First of all, the most important context that businesses need to be aware of is that the UK has experienced significant growth in EV ownership – a trend that is only set to accelerate:

On UK roads, there are already 950,000 EVs, and over 570,000 hybrids.
In 2023 alone, 15% of all new vehicles registered were electric (the equivalent of one EV sold every 60 seconds.)
By 2030, there are expected to be 8-11 million EVs on our roads, and by 2040, this is expected to rise to 25.5 million.

In short, it’s not just that business owners should expect to have more EV drivers among their staff in the coming years – they will also have to accommodate them.

This isn’t simply because of the well-publicised, impending ban on the sale of electric and diesel vehicles in 2035 – but also because of a lesser-known regulation that many businesses will have to follow.

What are the regulations for electric vehicle charging points for businesses in the UK?

In basic terms, the regulation (Approved Document S, part of the Building Regulations (2010) states that businesses need to dedicate a certain amount of their parking infrastructure to electric vehicles if:

The business offers 10 or more parking spaces and;
The business is renovating their facilities or building new ones

As it stands, businesses like these need to provide 1 EV Charging Point (EVCP) per 10 spaces, with a further 20% of all available spaces having cable routes in readiness for the installation of more EV charging points.

While this narrows the pool of business who need to comply, there is still a strong case for many businesses – even with a smaller parking capacity – to install EV charging stations: thanks in no small part to a particular government incentive.

Do incentives exist for businesses to provide electric vehicle charging stations?

At the time of writing, the UK Government is providing a grant to businesses to support the installation of EVCPs at their workplaces.

Concretely, it can cover up to 75% of the cost of purchase and installation of EV charging stations – up to £500 per socket for a maximum of 20 sockets in a site.

It’s important to know as, when calculating the viability of switching from petrol/diesel vehicles to EVs – and potentially from grid electricity to solar – these grants can significantly impact the viability of such a transition, as well as reduce the time it takes to see a return on the initial investment of both systems.

With all the context established, the next question is… where does solar power fit into all of this?

How can a solar power system support businesses looking to provide electric vehicle charging facilities?

Even without mentioning electric vehicles, for many businesses looking to reduce energy costs, transitioning from grid electricity to solar power will be the most effective solution to do so.

This is because solar power is currently the cheapest source of electricity per kWh, offering a dependable source of zero-carbon electricity that isn’t subject to the volatility of the fossil-fuel-generated energy market.

While the savings from solar depend on individual business circumstances, the current cost per kWh of (commercial) electricity from the grid is approximately 28p/kWh… versus 5p/kWh from solar in many realistic cases.

Likewise, many businesses – particularly those that operate a fleet of vehicles – can expect a lower Total Cost of Operation (TCO) if those vehicles are electric.

Even with grid electricity, the average 60kWh electric car will travel 200 miles on just a £17 (normal-speed) charge. It will cost £25 to do the same in a similarly-sized petrol vehicle.

However, when combined, charging electric vehicles with solar power can bring down costs to a few pence per kWh. We will explain how.

What impact does solar power have when charging electric vehicles?

One of the reasons that the price of solar power charging is so favourable is that you have the power to avoid peak tariffs from the use of grid electricity (automatically so, if you have smart charging systems).

This is because you have the option to either:

Use solar energy to charge a vehicle immediately as it’s generated
Store it in a battery and deploy it to charge an EV at a ‘peak time’, avoiding peak tariffs from grid electricity.

Of course, while you will need the right circumstances (i.e. you generate enough energy to cover operations and charging OR you generate excess electricity that can be stored in a battery), they can reduce the cost of charging even further – to just 3-4p per kWh.

For your fleet, this significantly reduces operating costs, and for employees using your EVCPs, you can provide free charging of their vehicles at minimal cost to your business – a major benefit to them.

How can you make solar power EV charging work at your business?

Naturally, there is a stronger case for some businesses than others to invest in an integrated solar power EV charging system.

For example, it makes sense for those with electric vehicle fleets already in place, as well as businesses that don’t use all of their energy on critical operations, such as production lines (as you will benefit from using ‘spare’ energy to power EVs).

On the other hand, businesses where only a few employees use EVs, or which need to use all the electricity they generate in other operations will see less of an immediate business case – after all, solar power and EV systems have a significant upfront cost.

However, in spite of this, with the potential for a fast return on investment (in as few as 3.5 years) on many commercial solar power systems, and a pressing need to transition from petrol/diesel cars to EVs, the benefits of doing so early will be paid back quicker and more significantly than you might think.

We hope that this article has cleared up some of the key issues around EV charging and solar power at your business. Fundamentally, no two businesses are the same, and if you want to know if your business could stand to gain from installing a solar power system with EV charging infrastructure – from a single bay to carport – then all you need to do is contact us.

A free, no-obligation survey will tell you exactly how to cover all of your business’ energy needs with solar power and how to make an EV charging system pay back in as little time as possible.