Solar, batteries and EV charging for businesses and farms in Scotland

Offices, workshops, shops and industrial units tend to use most of their electricity during working hours, which is when solar panels generate. That makes a commercial roof one of the best places for solar: more of what the panels produce is used on site rather than exported.

The survey checks the roof structure and covering, the orientation and shading, and the capacity of your incoming supply. Flat roofs, pitched roofs and ground-mounted arrays on spare land are all possible, depending on the site.

A battery stores solar generation that the site does not need at the time, and releases it when demand rises, such as early mornings, evenings or busy shifts. It can also charge from the grid at off-peak rates where your tariff allows it.

Batteries are sized to the way your site actually uses electricity. We look at your half-hourly data where it is available, so the design is based on your own pattern of use rather than a rule of thumb.

Farms often have large shed and barn roofs, steady daytime demand from dairies, grain drying, workshops and cold stores, and space for ground-mounted panels. Solar can be designed around the working pattern of the farm, from milking times to harvest.

We take care to place equipment where it will not get in the way of machinery or livestock, and we plan cable routes and inverter locations around the yard and buildings.

Rural homes, holiday lets, estates and steadings are often a long way down the line from the nearest substation, and many rely on oil, LPG or electric heating. Solar and a battery can reduce reliance on the grid and give some resilience when the supply is weak.

Many rural properties are in SSEN territory in the north, Highlands and Islands, where network capacity can be limited. We check what the network will allow before the design is finalised.