Clear answer
Clear answer, explained.
If a facility has addressable demand charges, poorly scheduled HVAC, or aging lighting across large production areas, reducing that load first means a solar system can be sized for the optimized facility rather than the current one. The Ce De Candy program delivered $7.2M in lifetime savings using exactly this sequence — efficiency and generation planned across 11 projects over several years.
Key points
What this means in practice.
- For facilities targeting full or near-full offset, looking at efficiency and generation together produces better outcomes
- Reducing demand charges and consumption first allows solar to be sized to the optimised facility baseline
- Addressable loads include demand charge spikes, poorly scheduled HVAC, and aging high-wattage lighting
- The Ce De Candy program delivered $7.2M in lifetime savings using efficiency-first then generation sequence
- Ce De Candy: efficiency and generation planned across 11 projects over several years
- Not every facility warrants the combined approach — scoping identifies where it changes the economics materially
When this applies
Best-fit environments.
- Your manufacturing facility has addressable HVAC inefficiencies or aging lighting and you are also evaluating solar
- You want to understand whether addressing efficiency first would meaningfully change the solar system size and cost
- You are planning a multi-year energy capital programme and need to determine the right investment sequence
- Your CFO wants to understand the case for a phased approach — efficiency first, then generation
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