Businesses around the world are currently faced with especially volatile energy prices and the complicated task of planning operational costs amid times of uncertainty. Companies whose operations are energy-intensive and whose costs significantly depend on energy prices are especially vulnerable and risk losing their competitive edge against those that invest in energy efficiency, self-production and self-consumption of electricity.
Many industrial players turn to photovoltaic as the most viable approach to protecting themselves against the fluctuation of the energy prices. In comparison with other methods of fuel-free energy production, photovoltaics have multiple advantages including:
almost universal suitability for integration with most profiles of electricity consumption including businesses with production processes whose optimisation is costly or difficult;
easily predictable in terms of annual yields and operational costs;
flexible, easy to transport and upgradable;
simple to build and operate, independent of local environmental specifics;
Of course, no two businesses consume energy in the same way and some consumption profiles allow for a higher efficiency ratio of their photovoltaics than others. The best examples for a highly self-sufficient company with respect to energy consumption would be a company that operates during working hours, seven days a week. In this case, the photovoltaic system installed could cover more than 40% of the energy consumption needs of the business. However, even if the consumption scenario is less favorable, a well-sized photovoltaic system can easily contribute to a self-sufficiency of at least 15%. Bulgarian photovoltaic solutions company FILKAB Solar provided us with an example on the effectiveness of the photovoltaics system they have installed for a small-scale company - a fish farm situated in south-central Bulgaria. The farm is operating a permanent photovoltaic system with installed power of 57,75 kWp. Even without permission for grid feed-in of any surplus energy, which usually allows for higher efficiency, this business is enjoying self-sufficiency ratios as high as 27% in some months and the average annual efficiency rate is 17%.
|
Time period
|
Total consumption [MWh]
|
Grid-supplied power [MWh]
|
Total generation [MWh]
|
Self-sufficiency quota
|
|
Jan
|
44,04
|
41,12
|
2,92
|
7%
|
|
Feb
|
38,88
|
34,61
|
4,27
|
11%
|
|
Mar
|
41,77
|
34,82
|
6,95
|
17%
|
|
Apr
|
39,61
|
31,3
|
8,31
|
21%
|
|
May
|
38,82
|
30,41
|
8,41
|
22%
|
|
Jun
|
34,38
|
25,1
|
9,28
|
27%
|
|
Jul
|
37,85
|
27,75
|
10,1
|
27%
|
|
Aug
|
38,77
|
28,83
|
9,94
|
26%
|
|
Sep
|
37,14
|
29,43
|
7,71
|
21%
|
|
Oct
|
32,45
|
26,15
|
6,3
|
19%
|
|
Nov
|
42,49
|
40,13
|
2,36
|
6%
|
|
Dec
|
44,66
|
41,89
|
2,77
|
6%
|
| |
470,86
|
391,54
|
79,32
|
17%
|
About the company
FILKAB Solar designs and builds custom photovoltaic solutions for the specific consumption profile of industrial consumers since 2010. FILKAB Solar is part of one of Bulgaria’s biggest groups of companies providing wholesale, manufacturing and project implementation services in the electrical industry. The company has operations in seven Bulgarian cities and has subsidiaries in Serbia, North Macedonia and Hungary.