BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions has recently signed a partnership agreement with Chargewell. Chargewell sells and distributes EV-charging solutions including the infrastructure on the Dutch and Belgian market. This partnership underlines our Leasing Solutions strategy and focus on GreenTech.
Although Chargewell seems a relatively young player on the Belgian and Dutch EV-charging solutions market, the company has already gained many years of experience in the market with their parent company Lightwell. Lightwell was founded in 2009 and before Chargewell as a business unit was created, Lightwell was already collaborating with the Dutch government and infrastructure departments on smart and energy saving solutions in the CENT-R project in making big cities safer, more durable and future proof. The good and solid relationship with the Dutch government lead to adding EV-charging solutions to their main activities. In 2015 the company was awarded by their home city, the city of Amsterdam, as Entrepreneur of the Year.
CENT-R stands for Connective Energy Network Tool – Rotterdam. What makes the CENT-R unique is that it can be equipped with an array of smart city applications thanks to the modular design. It can be adapted to fit changing needs and new applications on an ongoing basis. Think about EV- charging, converting uninterruptible power to a DC power network, 5G, cameras, lighting and a variety of sensors.
Today the portfolio of Chargewell for the EV-charging range consists of thirteen different EV-charging applications AC and DC varying from home and business (office) locations up to and including public EV-charging facilities and even high power units for heaving user companies operating in logistics and warehousing.
Why BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions
The first contact with BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions was on the Vakbeurs Energie in the city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. This exhibition is one of the largest live BtoB events in the Netherlands focusing on energy-saving technology and sustainable energy. Chargewell was present with their stand and Diyab Mansour – Account Manager GreenTech was one of their visitors.
” Even though there is a large demand for EV-charging solutions in the Netherlands and Belgium, I was curious towards the BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions proposition and their ideas on sustainability and possible collaboration ”
Sacha Voulon-Tibboel
Sales Manager – Chargewell
The fact that Lightwell’s CEO Peter-Paul Metz has a background in managing financial services and leasing in the healthcare equipment business accelerated the start of the collaboration.
Sacha continues; ‘’Today our business is going well but we need to stay focused and be at least one step ahead of our competition and think smarter in making EV-charging solutions accessible for every company. Our collaboration with BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions therefore fits in perfectly.’’ The mutual mission in leading to a more sustainable world and the fact that BNP Paribas has a footprint in Europe in multiple countries makes the collaboration a great starting point for the future and our willingness to expand our activities outside the Netherlands and Belgium.’’ Although the spin-off is on the Dutch and Belgian market, Chargewell is already exploring markets outside this region.
- The green financing concerns a new lease construction by BNP Paribas for a project of more than 28,000 solar panels on a 7-hectare solar meadow;
- The 7-hectare solar meadow will reduce CO2 emissions by 5.1 million kilograms a year and is part of the 17-hectare Cosun Solar Park;
- Every year, 9.2 million kWh of renewable energy is generated to supply the speciality factories of the subsidiary Cosun Beet Company with green energy.
Royal Cosun, a leading international agricultural cooperative, has signed a 10-year lease contract with BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions to finance more than 28,000 solar panels located at the Cosun Solar Park in Puttershoek. This is the first green financing Cosun has concluded and it contributes to the ambition of becoming CO2 neutral by 2050. This is the third investment in solar panels that Royal Cosun has made in recent years. Solar panels had previously been installed on the roof of the cold store of Aviko, a subsidiary in Steenderen, and on the roof of the new Aviko production plant for frozen fries and potato flakes in Poperinge, Belgium. The investment in the solar meadow project, which has now been completed, will generate a total of 9.2 millionkWh per year: this is equivalent to the energy consumption of approximately 3250 Dutch households.
The lease construction, developed by BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, is a first for the financing of solar parks in the Netherlands and internationally one of the first on this scale. This customised solution provides Royal Cosun with greater flexibility in its financing options for its regular investments. The financing of solar parks is a logical next step for BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions in expanding the possibilities for the financial lease of sustainable goods such as charging stations, LED solutions, E-bikes and solar panels.
Hans Meeuwis, CEO of Royal Cosun: “We are delighted that we have secured tailor-made financing for our solar meadow with BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions. This fits in with our aim of maximum energy efficiency and making energy use greener, and it helps to further realise our CO2 reduction targets.”
Geert Lippens, CEO of BNP Paribas Nederland: “The cooperation with our partner Royal Cosun is in line with BNP Paribas’ commitment to provide green financing solutions to its customers. It is a prime example of our One Bank strategy: the interdisciplinary cooperation within BNP Paribas Netherlands has culminated in the development of a customer-oriented lease construction that can be added to the wide range of financing options that contribute to the realisation of the Paris climate objectives.”
The 17-hectare Cosun Solar Park is located on the site of the former Cosun Beet Company sugar factory. This site with industrial zoning is being redeveloped into a sustainable business park with a harbour basin. The 7-hectare solar meadow, which is owned by Cosun, is directly connected to the nearby Cosun Beet Company specialities factory to make the factory’s entire electricity consumption sustainable. The speciality factory in Roosendaal will also become more sustainable by using the surplus of renewable energy generated by the solar meadow. The Cosun Solar Park has more than 65,000 solar panels, 10 hectares of which were purchased by the Klimaatfonds Nederland at the end of 2020, and will supply energy directly to the Dutch energy grid.