CRN Tech Impact 2022: How solar panels offered Novatech a six-year payback

CRN explores the economic case for investing in sustainable infrastructure with Novatech CEO David Furby

With the UK this week formally entering a recession, concerns are growing that sustainability could drop down the investment pecking order for some CEOs.

But in the short film above - aired during CRN Tech Impact 2022 - we explore an example of how investing in more sustainable infrastructure can pay for itself in a relatively short timeframe.

Having gone live on a 400-kilowatt solar panel rollout this summer, Novatech expects the £250,000 project to produce a return on investment in six years.

And its calculations were carried out before the current energy crisis kicked in.

"Everything we're driving towards is to get to the point where we're, over a period of a year, an energy exporter, rather than a user," Furby told CRN when we dropped in on him at his Portsmouth HQ.

"Even if you're on a 10-year lease with a building, it might be worth [it], because you'll get a payback on it. There is a long waiting list [for solar panels] now, because everybody's worked out is the right thing to do. So get in there and crack on with it."