Last week Oil and Gas Major BP announced that the UK Operations and Maintenance Division of its awning, Lightsource BP, is for sale, probably the consolidation on the market.
According to Lightsource BP, the offer is a fully packaged, in itself a chance to acquire one of the ‘best-performing O&M platforms’ from the UK, with a 1.3GW portfolio.
Leila Garcia da Fonseca, worldwide head of onshore wind research at Wood Mackenzie, says that the disinvestment of more than a gigawatt to the market can bring a lot of consolidation to the room for solar services.
In Global Solar PV Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Service provider Dynamics 2025 Lightsource BP of the Market Intelligence company is the third largest O&M Patform in the UK. The report will be published this week.
Garcia da Fonseca points out that BP also sells 50% of its interest in the Lightsource BP Development Business, In October 2024, a complete bet bought in the companyMaking the message clear that the company of oil and gas (R&G) “comes from renewable energy sources”.
Indeed, earlier this year, BP announced a rejecting program of $ 20 billion (£ 14.7 billion) of which it said that it will “reform his downstream companies and are high-quality, focused on leading integrated positions” and the company again concentrating on oil and gas and gas and gas and again withdraw from the market for renewable energy sources.
The company has recently dismissed its US onshore Wind unit Confirmed reports that it will withdraw from the market for loading market in the workplace.
It has also promised to increase the O&G expenditure to $ 10 billion, in what it called a “large strategy shift”, aimed at stimulating the profit and trust of investors.
Santiago Beltran, global solar analyst at Wood Mackenzie, says that BP no longer has an interest in maintaining an interest in the market. He explains that, on a regional basis, the emphasis on portfolio (namely having the largest) in the O&M Market drives up competition and “It is tempting to be the number one provider for a country”.
Garcia da Fonseca agrees and notes that BP probably wants to make so much money available to carry out the remaining renewable projects if possible.
The withdrawal of BP will probably see the British O&M market concentration
With regard to the portfolio grate, Wood Mackenzie -Data RES first places in the UK Solar O&M Market for 2024, followed by Baywa.re. RES held first place in 2023 and 2024, but Baywa Re jumped in 2024 to the second place in the fourth in 2023, and Lightsource BP from fifth to third.
Garcia da Fonseca sees the Lightsource BP portfolio -sale doing one of the two things. Res or Baywa.Re can accept the portfolio to increase their market leader, or a smaller player could buy the portfolio to bring himself in the ranking.
A similar case was the acquisition of the activities of PSH by the recurrent Energy of the Canadian Solar Subsidiary recurrent energy. PSH Operations was a leader in the UK 2022 rankings of Wood Mackenzie, and after the acquisition rose recidant from 25th place to second in 2023.
The withdrawal of Lightsource BP gives a buyer access to British assets that are already in use, so “it can be a really good step for any company is looking for the best British service providers,” says Garcia da Fonseca.
The buyer would most likely be an established service provider, especially since the market currently sees a much larger trend in the direction of disinvestment.
Although the UK is an attractive investment space for solar energy, the O&M market is a challenge and work providers worldwide with “very, very” thin margins. Because of those tight margins, it is difficult for newcomers to successfully enter the market.
Santiago says that acquisitions are mainly made by experienced service providers and by extension these are the companies that currently add the highest volume to their portfolios.
“I think they are used to living with low margins. For newcomers, or companies that switch from other areas, O&M is a different mindset and the change to lower margins is scary,” he adds.
All recent movements of BP show that it is looking for rapid profitability. With the lifetime of O&G markets in question, however, this can be a regrettable step.
For the British O&M market, as existing players expand their portfolios and consolidate their offers, the price competition reduces because there are fewer participants. In theory, the result of consolidation in the Solar O&M space would therefore see a better quality of better quality as a result of falling cost competition, says Wood Mackenzie.
