80 kW PPA on a 180-Bed Edinburgh City-Centre Hostel

The hotel

A 180-bed branded city-centre hostel in Edinburgh’s New Town, serving festival, conference, and year-round budget tourism demand. Listed Building Consent Category B (equivalent to Grade II) Georgian conversion. Annual electricity spend £155,000. Tight operating margins typical of the hostel segment ruled out capex-funded solar.

The brief

Deploy solar with zero capex from the operator. Integrate generation data with the parent brand’s group sustainability platform. Maintain Category B Listed Building Consent compliance across the Georgian conversion.

What we delivered

80 kW PPA-funded rooftop array on the rear-facing tenement roof — Category B Listed Building Consent secured in 12 weeks with City of Edinburgh Council Conservation Team pre-application engagement. PPA structured at £0.095/kWh fixed tariff with annual RPI uplift over 20 years. Brand-group monitoring platform API integration. SP Energy Networks G99 connection in 14 weeks.

The numbers at year one

• Annual generation: 74,000 kWh
• Self-consumption: 88%
• Year-1 PPA saving: £14,500 (£0.30 grid retail vs £0.095 PPA × 65,000 kWh self-consumed)
• Capex from operator: £0
• Day-one operating cashflow positive
• Brand group sustainability scoring up 9 points
• Featured in Booking.com Travel Sustainable Level 3 status

What the client said

“PPA was the only viable structure for us. They brought three UK PPA providers to the table, structured the Listed Building Consent application brilliantly, and the install happened over a low-occupancy week. Zero guest complaints.”