If your site consumes power while the sun is up, rooftop PV cuts the EAC bill directly. Industrial self-consumption is designed for payback under two years. Off-grid and net-billing-plus-storage cover the sites that do not match a pure daytime factory curve.
Farm-scale merchant parks target 8–12% equity IRR. Behind-the-meter C&I is a different product: it offsets the retail tariff you already pay.
Typically under 2 years
Factories, cold stores, and warehouses that run in daylight displace retail EAC kWh hour for hour. There is no wholesale price risk — the return is the bill you stop paying.
Diesel displacement from month one
Remote industrial sites, agricultural processing, and venues without a firm grid connection. PV plus LFP storage replaces generator runtime in solar hours and covers essential overnight load.
Faster than export-only net billing
Inside one net billing period, daytime export offsets nighttime import one for one in kWh. Only leftover surplus is paid at the published RES purchase price. A battery stores energy that a zero-export connection is not allowed to inject.
Measured client result
Hospitality and leisure load peaks in daylight — rides, kitchens, HVAC, and irrigation. A 60 kWp rooftop system was installed for self-consumption. The savings below are measured on the electricity bill, not a modelled IRR.
Figures are this client’s measured bill reduction on a 60 kWp array. Other sites vary with tariff, load shape, and roof yield. Not a guaranteed return.
From 1 January 2026, EAC Supply signs net billing and virtual net billing for photovoltaic connection applications submitted on or after that date. Net metering agreements are only for applications submitted to the DSO by 31 December 2025.
Household bill, about every two months
Day export
kWh
Night import
kWh
kWh offset
One for one, inside this bill
Leftover surplus
Euros on the next bill
At the published RES purchase price
The low-voltage purchase price is capped at 11 c/kWh under CERA decision 112/2023. That cap applies to this surplus, not to every unit exported at noon and imported at night.
This is not a kWh balance carried into the next period the way the old net-metering contracts worked.
The system never injects
Zero export is a separate DSO connection, described in EAC's curtailment FAQ.
Midday surplus
kWh
Battery
Stores it
Night comes from the battery
Lost
If it is not stored
No arrow to the grid
There is nothing to net against the night. Energy not used on site is lost unless a battery stores it.
Occasional zero export is different: the system may export until the DSO instructs it to stop.
EAC says a battery added to an existing PV system is usually connected under the zero-export scheme. A battery is how you use energy you are not allowed to inject.
Send a load profile or a daytime operating window. We will size PV and, if needed, ESS. Direct: Alexander Papacosta, +357 99 164 158.
Or email office@lighthief.com · +357 77 77 00 50
