E.ON and Solar Markt signed an exclusive strategic cooperation agreement creating Green Cloud, a decarbonisation service package, which provides independent green energy from dedicated solar power plants to corporate customers in Hungary.
“Through our strategic partnership, we are in a unique position on the Hungarian market to provide green energy to environmentally conscious businesses, contributing this way to our country’s net-zero ambitions,” said Zsolt Jamniczky, Deputy CEO of E.ON Hungária Group said.
“Sustainability and carbon neutrality are competitive advantages today but will be an expectation in the future – which concerns customers, partners and investors as well. We can help companies to go green,” underlined Mr Jamniczky.
As part of the Green Cloud decarbonisation service package, Solar Markt provides its customers with green energy by building and operating the country’s largest market-based solar power system. The solar farms will transmit electricity into the distribution grid. E.ON will take the green energy and supplement it with conventionally generated electricity if necessary to ensure total security of supply. To use the service, customers sign a direct, long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the producer and a partial supply contract with the trader, thus they get a predictable, secure energy supply for the long term.
“Green energy will soon be in shortage in our country,” said Imre Mécs, the CEO of Solar Markt Group highlighting that if a company cannot ensure access to enough carbon-neutral energy today, it may have problems within a few years; the company’s climate strategy will be undermined, its investors and customers will turn away from it, but it may also face significantly higher costs to meet its energy needs given the current price increase.
The service package will initially be based on a 268 MWp portfolio, the first component of which will be a solar power plant built on 100 hectares with a capacity of 67 MWp. This will cut back CO2 emissions by nearly 63 thousand tonnes per year, which in terms of residential consumption could provide energy to around 11 400 households in an environmentally sustainable way.
The power plant will use bi-facial rotation technology, which harnesses not only direct but also reflected sunlight, increasing the overall output of the plant. Solar Markt is preparing to build three more large-capacity power plants, and its long-term goal is to create the largest green energy platform in Central Europe, independent of supply chains.
According to the project partners, the Green Cloud decarbonisation service package could bring a breakthrough in green energy consumption of Hungarian companies. They specifically recommend the product to companies that want to secure their long-term access to green energy now, ahead of the others, and aim for full decarbonisation and green transition in a few years. The indirect objective of the service is to provide companies with a sustainable economic competitive advantage.
The companies note that in the current high price environment, the green energy provided in the service package is no more expensive than conventional fossil energy, while at the same time it is making a significant contribution to the decarbonisation and climate of companies and providing a financially predictable, long-term, secure supply.
