Australian businesses within the manufacturing industry highlight energy costs as the second highest burden their businesses face behind raw material costs.

And while solar has long been an option for manufacturing business to help reduce their energy costs, until now the costs of installing a large enough system to meet their energy needs has been too high for most.

Origin’s new Solar as a Service allows companies to enjoy the benefits of low cost solar energy without having to make the capital investment in the solar system.

Townsville Engineering general manager Richard Parker had been considering going solar since 2014 but never pursued it until Origin launched Solar as a Service.

Origin’s Solar as a Service option allowed Richard to install an 80kW solar system on his roof without any capital investment in the system. The system is generating a third of the businesses’ energy needs at a rate much lower than what he was paying for electricity from the grid.

“The whole process has been really easy since Origin came back to us with this new option. We’re excited to see the new electricity savings, but are also glad that we can find a way to be environmentally conscious,” he says.

Townsville Engineering’s premises covers over 5,000 m² and services local government operations, mining companies, bulk-handling facilities and maintaining an export line in mining equipment. Richard’s decision to finally move onto an efficient solar system is not only beneficial to the organisation, but also the community.

“As a business that operates for almost 10 hours a day, this is a great service. I feel very positive about the change and can’t see any negatives.”

The amount that each business can save will depend on their daytime energy needs, roof space, the size of the system installed, the length of their Solar as a Service agreement as well as what happens more generally with retail electricity rates. The customer doesn’t need to be with Origin for grid supplied electricity to take up the offer.