Colliers, launches a new service for consulting and managing the process of designing and implementing photovoltaic systems. This is a response to the recent increase of interest in photovoltaics in Poland and worldwide.
Renewable energy sources play a key role in the transition towards sustainable and low-carbon economy. According to the Renewable Energy Directive, EU countries are obliged to satisfy at least 32% of their total energy needs with renewables by 2030. According to the data from the European Union, the photovoltaic sector has been growing rapidly for the past 5 years and electricity from this energy technology which has the greatest potential for continued unit cost reduction and efficiency gains.
“The strong emphasis placed by companies on ESG development has fostered growing interest in more sustainable energy sources. To meet the needs of our customers and business partners, we have expanded our offerings to include specialized technical consulting and effective project management services for photovoltaic systems. Although we have only just started with the new service, interest from customers is very high,” says Jonathan Cohen, Senior Partner and Director of Building Consultancy Services, Colliers.
“More and more developers and tenants appreciate the vast range of benefits of installing photovoltaics. Photovoltaics is associated with modernity and fits perfectly into companies’ environmental responsibility strategies. For now, it is a novelty, but given the potential to install photovoltaics commercially on the majority of buildings, we expect that in the next few years most commercial buildings will have some photovoltaic capacity. Green building certification systems BREEM or LEED already promote photovoltaic use and to generate the necessary number of points for the highest ratings, photovoltaics are pretty much essential. Especially in the context of rising energy prices, financial independence offered by photovoltaic systems is crucial,” says Kamil Koper, Senior Associate, Building Consultancy Services, Colliers.
Green savings
2020 was the best year in history for photovoltaics in Poland. According to the data from Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne S.A. (Polish Power Grid), on January 1 last year the power of photovoltaic installations was 1299.6 MW, and a year later it reached 3935.74 MW. This means a three-fold increase within just 12 months. This result gave Poland the fourth place in terms of the growth of installed PV capacity in the European Union (according to the data of Solar Power Europe for 2020). Better results were achieved only by Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.
Such intensive expansion of photovoltaics is the result of several factors, including: ever falling production costs of panels, financial incentives offered by the government, rising electricity prices
and increasing public awareness. According to the calculations by Colliers experts, an investment
in a 49.9 kWp system (requiring no permits) can be fully recouped after less than 6 years.
“Our goal is to maximize return on investment by supporting our customers at every stage of system development: from design, through paperwork, contractor selection and supervision, to installation launch,” adds Jonathan Cohen.
