Solar panels for manufacturers: General Light Industrial & Assembly

Load profile: mixed single-shift assembly, packing and light process, the default manufacturer profile.

Not every manufacturer fits a named sub-sector, and most do not need to. If your site runs assembly lines, packing, light machining, printing, coating or a mix of all of them on a daytime shift, this is your page. Solar panels for light industrial manufacturers work on the same principle as they do for a food plant or a moulding shop: your demand is daytime-weighted, so a rooftop array generates in the hours you actually use power, and most of what it produces is consumed on site at your full import rate rather than exported cheaply.

The default manufacturer load profile

A general light-industrial site typically runs one strong daytime shift, sometimes two, with a mix of assembly, conveyors, packing machinery, extraction and a compressed-air base. That produces a moderately flat daytime load, well matched to solar generation, with self-consumption commonly in the 40 to 70 percent range on a single shift and higher where a second shift or continuous packing extends the day. Payback lands around 6 years for a well-sized array, which is squarely in the middle of the manufacturing range.

Because light-industrial loads vary so much from site to site, sizing from a rule of thumb is a mistake. We pull at least twelve months of half-hourly meter data and model your demand shift by shift, then size the array to 70 to 90 percent of peak daytime demand so generation stays on site. A typical project comes out at 150 kW to 500 kW, roughly 275 to 920 panels across 900 to 3,000 square metres of roof, generating 140,000 to 460,000 kWh a year.

Half-hourly data is the whole story

The single most useful thing you can send us is twelve months of half-hourly meter data. It tells us more than a roof survey ever could: when your demand actually peaks, how flat your base is, how much your load moves with the seasons, and therefore how much of a given array you would self-consume. That is the number the whole capital case turns on, because self-consumed solar is worth 22 to 32p a unit to you while exported solar earns only the Smart Export Guarantee rate. We model your self-consumption from that data before anyone climbs on the roof.

A capital case, not a sales pitch

Whatever you make, your finance director will judge the array against every other use of the capital, so we give you the full model rather than a headline: simple payback, IRR (typically 12 to 22 percent for a UK manufacturer), NPV at your own discount rate, and LCOE, which for a light-industrial site usually sits at 4 to 7p/kWh against 22 to 32p grid retail. You get the discounted-cash-flow model to test yourself.

The three funding routes are modelled against your current tariff so the board decides on merit:

• Outright purchase for the best lifetime return, with the Annual Investment Allowance expensing 100 percent of the first £1m of qualifying spend in year one. Solar is special-rate plant and machinery, so the route is the AIA, not full expensing.
• Asset finance or a lease to spread the cost over 7 to 15 years and keep it off the production budget, usually EBITDA-positive from year one.
• A power purchase agreement for zero capital and a day-one saving, with a third party owning the array.

Our cost guide works these through and the grants and funding page covers the allowances and, for eligible energy-intensive sites, Climate Change Agreements.

Compliance and roof condition

The compliance picture for a light-industrial site is the standard manufacturing one. A G99 application to your Distribution Network Operator is required for connections above 17 kW per phase, which covers effectively every array of this size, and the DNO study alone runs around 65 working days, so we submit it on day one. MCS commercial certification is needed for Smart Export Guarantee eligibility, and CDM 2015 applies to any install above 30 person-days. A structural survey is mandatory, because most pre-2000 industrial roofs need engineer sign-off before ballast or rail loading, and asbestos-cement roofs must be replaced before PV can go on them. Permitted Development under Class A Part 14 of the GPDO 2015 covers most industrial rooftop PV, subject to the 200 mm projection limit and excluding listed or conservation cases.

Fleet, forklifts and EV charging

One of the strongest add-ons for a light-industrial site is daytime vehicle charging. Electric forklifts, plant vehicles and staff or visitor EV chargers all absorb solar generation at 100 percent self-consumption, because they charge in the same hours the array produces. Where you are electrifying a forklift fleet or adding workplace charging, we frequently design the charging infrastructure alongside the array so the two stack rather than compete.

Not sure which sector you fit?

If your operation leans toward a specific process, one of our other sector pages may fit you better: food and drink for chilled or baked production, metalworking and fabrication for machining and welding, plastics and injection moulding for moulding, or textiles and light manufacturing for spinning, weaving and finishing. If none is an obvious match, this general profile is the right starting point, and the half-hourly data will tell us the rest.

What to do next

Send twelve months of half-hourly meter data and your roof drawings and we will model your self-consumption, payback and IRR and return a sized, priced feasibility study within seven working days, with no site visit needed for that first proposal. Our engineers then visit for a single day before we issue a fixed-price proposal and a financial model your team can own. Try the savings calculator or request a free feasibility study; if your site does not suit solar, we will tell you before you commit anything.