Bright Sunday enters a partnership with Triodos Bank.
Bright Sunday enters a partnership with the #1 ranked bank globally, Triodos Bank, to finance clean energy projects.
The collaboration means more funding to assist companies that want to reduce their CO2 footprint but don’t prioritize or feel they have the capacity to allocate people or money for this.
In addition to reducing greenhouse gasses, Bright Sunday’s customers have reduced their total energy costs. Right now the average new Bright Sunday customer will cut its electricity costs by 41%, with zero upfront investment, when entering a 15 year solar PV Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
“It is not always easy to prioritize cleantech investments in a company, given many other business needs,” says Bright Sunday’s CFO, Erik Strandberg. “Bright Sunday’s partnership with Triodos Bank further strengthens our financial capability to genuinely assist any company with high business and climate ambitions.”
“We have solid financing from our main shareholder, Niam Infrastructure, and their lead investor, the European Investment Bank,” says Bright Sunday’s CFO, Erik Strandberg. “This collaboration will further support our growth.
Bright Sunday can offer a wide range of Solar-as-a-Service solutions (PPA – Power Purchase Agreements) to support various needs of commercial and industrial clients. The new collaboration will give Bright Sunday an even better ability to support businesses of varying scales, ranging from local enterprises to large multinational corporations operating across multiple countries, as they strive to reduce both CO2 emissions and operational costs.
Miguel Angel Amores, Renewable Energy and Environmental Technologies Manager at Triodos Bank Spain, says, “Thanks to the size and diversification of the portfolio, we can efficiently provide project financing. The long-term energy sales contracts allow companies to immediately reduce their energy costs without making investments or taking on debt. In this way, we facilitate decarbonization for all types of companies, which is key to accelerating the energy transition.”
About Bright Sunday
Everything we do at Bright Sunday aims at lowering CO2 emissions on a global level by making the cleantech transformation easy and profitable for commercial and industrial customers. Our business is to offer cleantech as a service – PPA (Power Purchase Agreements) – with zero upfront investments and savings from day one.
We use premium products only and we take care of licensing, installation, maintenance, insurance and monitoring.
Through partnerships with leading local installers and maintenance partners we make our services available globally. Bright Sunday currently owns and operates a portfolio of 70+ solar PV systems.
Bright Sunday’s is a privately held company and largest owner is Niam Infrastructure with the European Investment Bank as one of the key investors.
For more information:
Niklas Engström, CEO Bright Sunday
niklas.engstrom@brightsunday.com
Bright Sunday’s new customers in Spain reduce energy cost with 41% in average
Right now the average new Bright Sunday customer will cut its electricity costs by 41%, with zero upfront investment, when entering a 15 year solar PV Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
“We have recently offered some customers in Spain 75% savings, but that is not very common. 41% savings is an average”, says Niklas Engström, CEO at Bright Sunday. The savings of course depends on the specific situation, for example geographic location and if panels are built on ground, roof or carports.
Offering significant cost savings from day one is not all. What sets Bright Sunday apart is its commitment to leveraging extensive data to optimize energy production from installed solar PV systems. All systems are connected to a central monitoring system through a mobile 5G connection completely separate from the customer’s internal networks, making it safe from IT-perspective. With more than 500 data points continuously flowing into its database, Bright Sunday can instantly act on any alarms and fix most issues remotely but also optimize performance over time. This way, energy production and customer cost savings are maximized.
“We are capturing all basic energy data, but also important metrics such as equipment temperature and real time solar irradiation from satellite measuring services. This way we can determine what each system ideally should produce at any given time. Comparing this with measured data on actual production gives us information on how to optimize production performance both short term and over time”, says Niclas Martinsson, CTO at Bright Sunday.
Bright Sunday’s ambition is to become a long term partner for commercial and industrial customers on a mission to cut both CO2 and costs. Having all the relevant data is key for success in this work.
For more information about Bright Sunday Solar and its data-driven solar solutions, please visit www.brightsunday.com
About Bright Sunday
Everything we do at Bright Sunday aims at lowering CO2 emissions on a global level by making the cleantech transformation easy and profitable for commercial and industrial customers. Our business is to offer cleantech as a service – PPA (Power Purchase Agreements) – with zero upfront investments and savings from day one.
We use premium products only and we take care of licensing, installation, maintenance, insurance and monitoring.
Through partnerships with leading local installers and maintenance partners we make our services available globally. Bright Sunday currently owns and operates a portfolio of 70+ solar PV systems.
Bright Sunday’s is a privately held company and largest owner is Niam Infrastructure with the European Investment Bank as one of the key investors.
For more information:
Niklas Engström, CEO Bright Sunday
niklas.engstrom@brightsunday.com
Stefan Nyberg new CMO at Bright Sunday
– It is with great pleasure that we welcome Stefan Nyberg as the new CMO of Bright Sunday, says Niklas Engström, CEO. With over 25 years of experience from sustainability startups, international scaleups and telcos Stefan brings a wealth of expertise relevant for our future growth. With Stefan we also get passion, customer focus, business creativity and can do-attitude – exactly what a scaleup company like Bright Sunday needs, Niklas Engström continues.
Bright Sunday’s mission is to cut CO2 emissions by making the cleantech transformation easy and profitable for commercial and industrial customers. Our core business is to offer customers self-consumption solar PV systems and ancillary services such as electric vehicle chargers and energy storage with zero upfront investments and savings from day one. Currently Bright Sunday owns and operates a portfolio of approximately 70 solar PV systems in Spain, Portugal and Sweden with a total effect of more than 20 MW.
Bright Sunday is financially backed by Niam Infra Fund and will over the coming years continue to broaden its service offering and build a €100m asset portfolio in both existing and new European markets. A key success factor for achieving our growth targets is to constantly improve the brand experience for customers and partners. Stefan Nyberg will play a pivotal role in this journey, Niklas Engström says.
– I’m thrilled about the challenge of scaling up a company that significantly contributes to reduced CO2 emissions while offering compelling financial benefits to the customers, says Stefan Nyberg.
Stefan Nyberg will be based in Stockholm, Sweden, and starts his position on October 2, 2023.
Stefan Nyberg can be reached at stefan.nyberg@brightsunday.com.
Bright Sunday funded for pan-European roll-out of solar-as-a-service
Niam Infra Fund has acquired a majority stake in Bright Sunday. With Niam Infra Fund’s support, Bright Sunday will get the financial capacity to offer attractively priced solar-as-a-service PPAs to commercial and industrial customers across Europe.
Sverker Åkerblom, CEO of Niam Infra Fund, says: “We are very impressed by Bright Sunday’s business model and ability to build a multi-market presence in the solar-as-a-service industry. With Bright Sunday we plan to build a €100m portfolio over the coming years across multiple markets in Europe.”
Niklas Engström, CEO of Bright Sunday, says: ”I am very proud of Bright Sunday’s journey so far and with Niam Infra Fund as a majority owner we will get the financial muscles needed to accelerate our growth across Europe. We already have a portfolio of close to 70 solar PV installations and together with existing and new EPC partners we will be able to help even more customers to increase their competitiveness by cutting costs and CO2 emissions.”
Existing management will remain as shareholders in the company.
Bright Sunday’s mission is to cut CO2 emissions by making the cleantech transformation easy and profitable for commercial and industrial customers. We offer solar PV electricity as a service with zero upfront investments and savings from day one. Bright Sunday is headquartered in Stockholm with offices in Spain and Portugal.
Niam invests in real assets in the Nordics and Europe with a focus on real estate and infrastructure. Through our infrastructure platform Niam Infrastructure, we see great opportunities and value in sustainable investments, and we strive to be part of the driving force for a greener and more sustainable future. This is achieved through innovation, deep knowledge and close collaboration with our partners. For more information, please visit www.niam.se/en
A long term view on inflation and electricity prices in Sweden
Everything we do at Bright Sunday aims at lowering CO2 emissions on a global level by making the cleantech transformation easy and profitable for commercial and industrial customers. Our business is to offer cleantech as a service with zero upfront investments and savings from day one.
In Sweden, the total variable electricity cost per kWh is the sum of the price offered by the electricity supplier (often based on the Nord Pool spot price plus margin), variable electricity transmission cost (“elöverföringsavgift”), tax and VAT (added also on the tax).
For electricity produced by a solar PV system Bright Sunday charges a real term “flat” cost per kWh (adjusted annually by the higher of 0% and the inflation) over a contract term of 10-20 years. Relative to the comparable variable electricity cost, Bright Sunday typically offers a discount from day one. Electricity from the solar PV system not consumed can be sold to an electricity supplier at the market price with an administrative fee of approximately 4 öre/kWh and the revenue will be collected by the customer.
Consequently, the Bright Sunday pricing will become increasingly attractive over time if variable electricity costs rise faster than inflation. This document is intended to serve as a guide to help evaluate the Bright Sunday pricing model.
Inflation
Swedish inflation last ten years, 2011-2020, averaged 1.1%. Only once in the past ten years it reached the 2% target as defined by Riksbanken (Swedish Central Bank). According to Riksbanken and Statista inflation is forecasted to rise from 0.7% in 2020 to 1.82% by 2023. Even if inflation over time would reach the Riksbanken target inflation rate of 2% the average over the coming 15 years will most likely be lower.
Inflation can be expected to average 1.5-2% 2020-2035.
Electricity prices
In the two most southern bidding areas, i.e. the areas best suited for solar PV, the Nordpool day-ahead prices for the past ten years, 2011-2020, have averaged 32.22 öre/kWh (SE3 Stockholm / mid Sweden) and 33.63 öre/kWh (SE4 Malmö / southern Sweden). Prices in the two northern bidding areas SE1-SE2 have historically been somewhat lower.
Taking the long view, energy demand is forecasted to grow significantly in coming decades, despite improvements in energy efficiency and injection of solar PV electricity “behind the meter”. On an EU-28 level, demand for electricity will rise by around 17 percent by 2050. The demand increase is largely driven by population growth, general electrification of society and by electrification of transportation and industrial processes.
The increase in demand puts pressure on increased infrastructure investments. Svenska Kraftnät (the Swedish transmission system operator) expects to increase the power transmission fees by 100% 2018-2027, i.e. with over 7% per year. This increase will impact the variable electricity transmission cost.
As electricity demand is forecasted to grow faster than production capacity of relatively cheap renewables such as wind and solar and due to expected price increases of commodities and emission rights, the general expectation is that electricity market prices will increase significantly 2020-2040 and thereafter stagnate and even fall slightly (due to high production from wind and solar).
Energy analyst firm Energy Brainpool forecasts average EU electricity market prices to reach approximately 75 €/MWh by 2035. Looking at historical data the prices at the Nordpool market have been significantly lower than the EU average. In 2019 Swedish energy trader Bixia forecasted that Nord Pool spot prices will reach 49 öre/kWh by 2030. Energimyndigheten (Swedish Energy Agency) forecasts in an EU reference scenario the price (national average) to reach approximately 52 öre/kWh by 2040. Based on an approximation (made in February 2021) of Nordpool’s SE3 forward prices for the rest of 2021 of 30 öre/kWh the compound annual growth rate the coming 15-20 years can be expected to be 3-5%.
Energy tax on electricity has been on a steady and steep increase as well. Since 1996, when the electricity market was liberalized, the compound annual growth rate exceeds 5%.
Looking beyond yearly average prices, in the future market prices can be expected to fluctuate more on a day-to-day basis and be impacted by seasonality – lower prices summertime due to large share of cheap electricity from solar PV and higher in winter due to increased demand and less electricity from solar PV.
Electricity prices can be expected to rise up to 5% per year 2020-2035
Photo by Ola Grönlund
Sources:
- Skatteverket / Ekonomifakta, energy tax for electricity 2021: 35,6 öre/kWh, some companies are exempted from the tax.
- “HICP – inflation rate”, Eurostat.
- https://www.riksbank.se/sv/penningpolitik/penningpolitisk-rapport/2021/penningpolitisk-rapport-februari-2021/ and https://www.statista.com/statistics/375283/inflation-rate-in-sweden/
- https://www.di.se/nyheter/industrin-rasar-mot-elhojningarna-avgiften-hojs-med-100-procent/
- Energy Brainpool: EU Energy Outlook 2050 – How will Europe evolve over the next 30 years?
- https://aleasoft.com/cold-snap-fall-wind-energy-production-make-electricity-markets-prices-soar/