Power purchase agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy are more reliable than government subsidies.

That’s what Nick Boyle, CEO and Founder of Lightsource Renewable Energy told ELN during the Energy Live 2016 conference in London last week.

Speaking about the outlook for solar energy in the country after the government announced subsidy cuts, he said: “From my perspective I remain very bullish. I mean we’re well over 1GW here already and we’re planning to continue that sort of aggressive trajectory.

“With the PPA, the power and purchase agreement world, we’re now in a position for the first time where it’s ourselves, the money and the actual electricity user and there’s much more purity in that relationship than there was when we were relying on subsidies from the government than could be changed on a whim.”

The impact of Brexit in the energy sector was the main topic discussed at the event and Mr Boyle said his company has found positive things from the decision to leave the EU.

He added: “There are some positives and there are some negatives. I mean it’s a horrible thing to say that inflation is going to rise and electricity prices are going to rise but we’re a generator of electricity so in that sense our revenues – because we’ve already spent the money on the generation so that’s a positive.

“But everything that we build and everything that we’ve actually installed is built in either China or Europe so you know we’re spending an awful lot more because we buy in dollars and euros.”

Keep an eye out for more stories and videos from the Energy Live 2016 conference over the coming days.