How to reduce electric costs and gain tax benefits by doing so? With solar energy as a Service

Solar energy will be one of the keys in achieving sustainable energy production. That’s why we need doers like Solnet Green Energy – a Cleantech company which enables large scale utilization of solar electricity in companies infrastructure.

– We are not reinventing the wheel, we are fine tuning the engine to bring investors security and the highest return on investments, as well as help them in achieving sustainability targets, describes Arttur Kulvik, a Co-founder of the Solnet Green Energy.

Kulvik had experience from wide variety of industries from the fields of media, digitalisation and teleoperators, but he had suffered from a sort of a “midlife crisis”.

– At the certain age you start to wonder is the payslip the only thing you work for and what’s my impact in the bigger picture, Kulvik ponders and refers to the occurring unsustainable path of our planet.

An unbelievable coincidence led Kulvik and his partner Kaj Kangasmäki together. They both had pitched exactly the same business idea for their mutual friends.

The two agreed to meet to exchange ideas, and after a half an hour of discussion the men decided to found a company together. Solnet Green Energy was born.

“We needed to make it easy to start the utilization of solar energy to reach a scale with ecological significance”

– When we begun in 2014 the investment in solar panels was economically beneficial, but still the amount of installations was not increasing as it should and most of them concentrated in the B2C market. We needed to make it easy to start the utilization of solar energy for the bigger companies to reach a scale with ecological significance, Kulvik describes.

It meant that Solnet needed to take responsibility for multiple issues on behalf of their customers, like managing the investment subsidies, coupling of the solar panels, tracking of the energy usage and surveillance of the service.

Solnet build their offer around the key producers of Solar Panels and related services such as SolarEdge and Jinko Solar.

– When product requires 25 year warranties, it’s better to co-operate with reliable, big players, Kulvik says.   

The Port of Helsinki has Solnet’s solar panels in the newly constructed West Terminal 2 in Jätkäsaari. The Smart Solar provides electricity for lighting and AC in the terminal.

Why real estate owners should invest in solar panels? According to Arttur Kulvik, in today’s world solar utilities offer a perfect match of a secure high return investment and building sustainable corporate brand value.

While the governments are dodging common environmental responsibilities, Donald Trump’s america in the forefront, the companies of the future are already going green.

– Sustainability and corporate responsibility have become a requirement for successful business. Utilising solar energy helps our customers meet their sustainability goals and can be leveraged in corporate and marketing communications.

The economic benefits depend on the system size and operation country but even the most northern and snowy parts of Europe yield a first year ROI starting from 7%.

“Sustainability and corporate responsibility have become a requirement for successful business”

Solar electricity for self consumption reduces operational cost, can be leveraged in electricity procurement and yield additional points in LEED and BREEAM certification.

With the background of the founders at the IT industry Solnet has as a strong technical aspect to its service. The solar utilities are IoT enabled and are hence managed remotely as a fleet making centralized monitoring easy and cost efficient.

What kind of companies can leverage smart Solar energy? According to Kulvik, any company with for instance an office building, retail store or production facility that runs with a high energy consumption is suitable.

– Our customers include pension funds, retail conglomerates and asset management companies demanding outstanding performance from their partners. From financing to hardware procurement, installations to repairs, we take responsibility for everything based on our customers needs. Our track record shows we can deliver on our promise, Kulvik ends.

See Solnet Green Energy’s website