Energy prices set to rise by 50% by 2020

Market instability is part of the reason for the steadily rising energy prices, but commercial solar can still help businesses to achieve energy security.

When it comes to energy prices, the recent forecasts don’t look particularly encouraging for businesses. One of the latest pieces of market research suggests that energy prices are set to rise between 40% and 50% over the course of just the next twelve months. For smaller businesses and SMEs, the impact could be especially severe. Thankfully, there are a number of solutions that such businesses can turn to in order to ease the strain – with commercial solar foremost amongst them.

What’s behind the rise?

There are a number of complex and interrelating causes, but we’ll spare you an economical thesis. Basically, they can be largely summed up under four main headings: volatility in the European markets, a fluctuation in European gas demand, rising carbon prices and a bullish stance in oil markets. The issue of gas is a particularly influential factor. You probably don’t need us to tell you too much about what the newspapers called ‘The Beast from the East’ last year, the cold wave which buried much of Britain and Ireland in snow. With tens of millions of thermostats being turned up across several countries, this ultimately drained gas supplies across much of Europe, and while they’re currently being replenished, the markets are still feeling the effects.

On top of this, a high carbon price is adding significant cost to the price of fossil fuel generation, due to a combined effect of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the UK’s Carbon Price Support. The UK government has frozen this rate until at least 2021/2, which is likely to keep power prices on this track for the foreseeable future. In other words, we’re not likely to see a drop in energy prices any time soon!

How can businesses protect themselves?

With all this in mind, it’s no wonder that energy security is increasingly becoming a priority for hundreds of thousands of British SMEs, and many of these businesses are turning to solar panels as a solution. As a limitless source of energy, generated right on your own premises, solar PV solutions can free your business from being so heavily dependent on the National Grid. This not only results in a tangible difference in lowering your operating costs, but also gives you an excellent level of protection from global market fluctuations – exactly the ones that are affecting so many businesses across Europe right now. In short, solar PV is one of the cheapest, easiest and most effective ways to secure your businesses’ energy generation for years or even decades to come.

Here at Low Carbon Energy, our experts have years of experience in providing tailored, efficient solar PV solutions for businesses just like yours, reducing your businesses’ carbon footprint while saving you significant amounts of money in the long term. We find that lots of business owners are often surprised when they find out just how much solar panels actually cost – especially since we offer a number of ways to pay to help you deal with the upfront costs.