Solar for London Retail
Retail buildings are quiet solar over-performers: refrigeration, lighting and cooling run through every trading hour, so the array’s output gets used the moment it is made.
Why retail loads suit solar
A food store’s refrigeration never switches off; a fashion retailer’s lighting and cooling run through every daylight trading hour. That profile is why retail self-consumption sits near the top of the commercial range — generated units are used on site rather than exported, and every one of them displaces power bought at London’s delivered rate, which averaged 24.14p/kWh including CCL in Q1 2026 (DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices). Sunday trading, seasonal peaks and cooling-heavy summers all push consumption toward exactly the hours the array produces.
The retail specifics we design around
- Roof-to-floor ratio. Single-storey stores and retail parks have the most generous roofs per trading square metre in the city; multi-storey high-street units share ours with plant, and the layout respects the 1 m edge setback and height limits that keep the array permitted development under Class J.
- Tenure. Most London retail is leased — the workable structures (licence to alter, roof lease, funder-owned) are the same as for offices, and lease length against payback is the first feasibility question.
- Grid. Refrigeration-heavy stores often already run a healthy supply capacity, which helps the UKPN G99 application — every commercial array is over the 3.68 kW-per-phase G98 line.
- Money. Owned systems take the Annual Investment Allowance (100% year-one relief up to £1m; solar does not qualify for full expensing) and stay outside the rateable value until 1 April 2035. A feasibility study puts all of it against your half-hourly data before design money is spent.
Installed pricing sits in the same bands as the rest of the market — see London commercial solar costs.
London retail solar questions
Does a retail unit have enough roof to matter?
Often yes — single-storey retail has the best roof-to-floor ratio on the high street, and even a partial roof moves the energy line when the load underneath is refrigeration.
We lease the building. Is solar still possible?
Yes — with the landlord’s consent, usually as a licence to alter for a tenant-funded system or a roof lease for a funded one. Lease length against payback is the number to check first, and the feasibility study checks it.
What does planning look like for a shop?
The same Class J permitted development right as every commercial building — the retail wrinkle is conservation-area high streets, where the borough’s Article 4 map gets checked before design.
Get a fixed-price proposal for your building
Tell us where the building is and what it does. You get a priced, planning-checked proposal — no site visit needed to start, no obligation.