Vehicle repair workshops are no strangers to the general cost increases that society is currently experiencing. They suffer in the form of higher prices for raw materials, products used in their day-to-day operations, higher transport prices and, of course, skyrocketing electricity bills.
The list of additional workshop expenses continues to grow. Solvents used by bodyshops have seen price rises of around 30% since last year and paints, which have already risen by more than 5% by mid-2021, are expected by manufacturers and suppliers to increase by more than 7%. Spare parts, plastic parts and products, parts of all kinds, waste management, freight, cleaning and masking materials, adhesives and fasteners or outside services, etc. are some of the workshop supplies that have experienced cost increases of between 5% and 10%.
And in the case of energy supplies frequently used in the workshop, such as electricity, gas or diesel fuel for drying and heating processes, they have risen by 72%, 12% and 29% respectively, with no sign of a downward adjustment in the near future. In this context, is there anything the workshop can do to reduce energy costs?
IS IT PROFITABLE TODAY TO INSTALL SOLAR PANELS FOR THE WORKSHOP’S OWN CONSUMPTION?
In Spain, for example, according to the Association of Vehicle Repair Businesses of A Coruña (Atreve), the installation of solar panels in workshops is a “highly recommendable” investment, taking into account the current price of electricity and the possibility of compensating surpluses, which reduces the payback time.
These solar photovoltaic installations can be of two types: stand-alone installations, aimed at pumping, signalling, communications and rural electrification applications, and grid-connected installations, aimed at the sale of electricity and self-consumption, which are of most interest to automotive workshops.
To calculate whether or not it is profitable to invest in a photovoltaic installation, it is important to take the following factors into account: the size of the entire installation, the quality of the materials and the solar panels installed, the price of electricity, the hours of sunlight that the photovoltaic installation is capable of capturing and the main hours of consumption of each user.
The profitability of the installation will therefore depend on the amortisation and net profit, but in general terms, the time needed to recover the investment is, on average, between five and seven years. However, if electricity prices continue to rise as they have in recent months, this period could be even shorter.
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