10 Years of sustainable catering deliveries in Sheffield.
We have just reached 10 years of electric van ownership , with well over 100,000 miles of sustainable Event Catering deliveries powered by 10 years of solar generation!
The beautiful sunshine this week certainly helps solar generation and the meter shows 91,124 kw generated over the last 10 years.
So how does this all work from an economic, practical and environmental standpoint?
Economic. It’s true that in the early days the cost of the electric vans was considerably more than equivalent diesel vehicles. (However, we did enjoy local council grants for the first leases). In the last three years there have been extremely good offers on one and two year leases making our electric vans far less expensive than equivalent diesels. We are also fortunate that range anxiety has rarely been an issue given we make mainly local Sheffield and Rotherham deliveries and we can recharge easily every time we get back to base. As an aside we have paid considerably more in vehicle insurance costs for electric vehicles an issue which we still find hard to understand.
Practical. In terms of load capacity its important to properly test drive potential vans before committing to either a purchase or lease. You can then assess the clear load capacity and how the battery and range will be affected by increased weights. On the plus side many councils have favourable parking arrangements saving considerable money when making multiple deliveries into town centres.
Environmental impact. I discuss below some of the cost/benefit analysis from generating our own power. In addition we are working on the environmental impact in terms of CO2 reduction. Stay tuned for an update on this.
Installation day of our solar panels in 2015
The cost of charging and the sustainability of the power used is also an issue. The solar panels have made a good contribution and when we need to use the grid our suppliers for the last five used have been 100% green energy suppliers.
Our electric delivery van and solar panels 10 years after the installation
The contribution/cost saving resulting from the 91,124 kWh generated has varied as our cost of electricity has changed. For anyone making calculations on payback for renewable solutions like solar predicting the future price of electricity is obviously a minefield. Given our price per unit in 2015 was 11.7p/kwh reaching peak of 90p in late December 2022 the benefit has increased way above the expectations in 2015. We currently pay 29p per kWh so if we use the current price the power generated by solar would have cost £26,425. The cost of the solar installation in 2015 was £11,200 plus VAT. So even given the alternative returns which could have been made investing this capital elsewhere the system has more than pis for itself. We also receive a feed in tariff contributing a further income annually.
In 2024 we installed a 15kw battery backup so that excess solar generation can be stored when it’s not required for immediate consumption. This again reduces our reliance on the national grid and potentially saving further CO2 emissions.
All in all we are very content with the choices we made back in 2015 - obviously from an environmental point of view but also financially.