Solar by sector
Load profiles differ enormously between a cold store and a school. Find the sector closest to your operation to see what usually works, and what usually does not.
Commercial
Car dealerships
Showroom lighting, workshop load and customer charging on one supply.
Offices
Weekday daytime load that matches solar generation closely.
Retail
Long trading hours, heavy lighting and refrigeration load.
Hospitality
Kitchens, laundry and long evening hours on a seasonal curve.
Care homes
Continuous heating, laundry and hot water, twenty four hours a day.
Data centres
Dense, constant load where every on site unit counts.
Managed facilities
Portfolio decisions across many buildings and many meters.
Property developers
Design solar in at RIBA stage, not as a late retrofit.
Industrial
Warehouses
Vast clear roofs, modest load, and a big export question.
Manufacturing
Heavy shift load, high unit rates and painful demand charges.
Distribution and logistics
Fleet electrification is the load that changes the sums.
Farms and agriculture
Barn roofs, irrigation, grain drying and diversified income.
Horticulture
Glasshouse lighting and climate control, heavy and controllable.
Cold storage
Continuous refrigeration, thermal inertia and flexibility value.
Public and community
Schools
Term time load, summer holidays, and a curriculum angle.
Universities
Estate wide programmes with real net zero commitments.
Hospitals
Round the clock clinical load with strict resilience rules.
Local councils
Mixed estates, declared climate targets and framework procurement.
Sports venues
Pool plant, floodlighting and large simple roof structures.
Student accommodation
All inclusive bills, term time occupancy and communal load.
Related reading
Solutions
- Commercial solar panelsRooftop PV sized around how your building actually uses power.
- Battery storageStore midday generation and use it when your tariff is dearest.
- EV chargingWorkplace and fleet charging planned around your available capacity.
- Operations and maintenanceKeep the yield you paid for across twenty five years.