Commercial solar PV, by sector
An office, a manufacturing plant and a distribution warehouse all use their roofs and their power very differently, so they need different solar. A good design builds around the operation rather than swapping a noun on a template. Pick your sector for typical sizing, payback and the blocker that usually decides the project.
Offices
Typical 30-150 kW, 7-year payback. £30,000-£150,000.
View offices solar →
Warehouses
Typical 100-500 kW, 6-year payback. £85,000-£425,000.
View warehouses solar →
Manufacturing
Typical 200 kW-2 MW, 5-year payback. £150,000-£1.5m.
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Retail
Typical 40-250 kW, 6-year payback. £36,000-£210,000.
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Agricultural
Typical 50-500 kW, 6-year payback. £45,000-£425,000.
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Hospitality
Typical 50-300 kW, 7-year payback. £45,000-£270,000.
View hospitality solar →
Public sector
Typical 50-500 kW, 7-year payback. £45,000-£425,000.
View public sector solar →
Why the building type changes the system
Sector is a shorthand for a demand pattern, and the demand pattern is what actually sizes a commercial PV system. Two buildings with the same roof area can justify capacities almost twice apart, because one draws power steadily through daylight and the other empties at four o'clock and stays dark all weekend.
That is why the pages below quote different typical capacities and payback ranges rather than one national average. A refrigerated warehouse carries a night-time base load and consumes most of what it generates, so it reaches the short end of the five to eight year payback range. An office with light weekend occupancy exports more of its generation and sits at the longer end. Roof construction matters too: a profiled metal industrial roof takes non-penetrative clip-fix mounting that preserves the roof warranty, while a membrane roof needs either mechanical fixing or ballast, and ballast adds dead load a structure may not have been designed for.
Pick the closest match below for typical figures, then read how a commercial PV system is specified for the reasoning that applies to any building type. Real prices are on the cost guide, the tax and funding routes on the grants and funding page, and an indicative figure comes from the savings calculator.
Whichever building type applies, the underlying engineering is the same: see how a commercial PV system is specified and what a commercial PV installation actually involves.