Solar carports, FAQs

Solar carports typically cost £1,200-£3,000 per kWp installed (ex-VAT), materially more than rooftop solar (£600-£1,000/kWp) because the steel structure, columns, beams, and canopy frame, is around 45% of the total. As a guide, a 100-bay scheme (roughly 150-200 kWp) runs around £180,000-£350,000, and a 200-bay scheme (roughly 300 kWp) around £290,000-£345,000. Per-kWp cost falls as the number of bays rises, so larger car parks get materially better value.

Plan around 1.5-2.0 kWp per standard parking bay (about 4-6 panels and 12 sqm of canopy per bay). At UK yields of roughly 850-1,000 kWh per kWp per year, that's about 1,200-1,300 kWh generated per bay annually. A 100-bay car park therefore generates roughly 120,000-130,000 kWh a year, enough to make a real dent in site electricity costs and feed EV charging.

In England, usually not. Since December 2023, Class OA of the General Permitted Development Order allows solar canopies on non-domestic, off-street car parks under prior approval rather than full planning, a 56-day determination on siting, design, glare, and drainage. Full planning permission is still needed for listed buildings, scheduled monuments, conservation areas, canopies over 4m high, or canopies within 10m of a residential boundary. Class OA does not currently apply in Wales or Northern Ireland.

Prior approval is a lighter-touch consent than full planning. You submit details of the proposed canopy and the local planning authority has 56 days to assess specific matters: siting, design and external appearance, the impact of glare on neighbouring occupiers, and drainage where the canopy sits above a permeable surface. If they don't refuse within 56 days, you can proceed. We prepare and submit the application, including the glare study and drainage strategy.

Yes, it's the most common configuration, and the cheapest way to deliver both. The carport provides the structure, cable routes, and a behind-the-meter solar supply that powers the chargers at your generation cost instead of full grid retail. Daytime solar directly absorbs daytime charging demand. You can also claim the Workplace Charging Scheme grant on the sockets, up to 75% of install cost, capped at £500 per socket for up to 40 sockets, to 31 March 2027.

The Workplace Charging Scheme funds the EV-charging element (up to £500 per socket, up to 40 sockets, via an OZEV-authorised installer). The PV plant qualifies for 100% Annual Investment Allowance, up to 25% effective tax relief in year one. Surplus generation earns income under the Smart Export Guarantee. Public-sector sites (NHS, councils, universities) may access the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme via Salix. Scotland and Wales have additional devolved EV and renewables support.

Typically 8-10 years for the carport on its own, longer than rooftop (5-7 years) because of the steel structure. But the right comparison includes everything the carport returns: solar bill savings, EV-charging revenue or avoided grid cost, the Workplace Charging Scheme grant, and 100% AIA tax relief. Modelled together, the blended return is considerably stronger than the panel-only payback suggests, and it improves with bay count.

Glare is the most common prior-approval condition and is fully manageable. Modern modules use anti-reflective glass, and we run a glare/glint study, the same methodology used near airports, assessing neighbouring premises, the public highway, and any nearby flight paths. The study goes straight into the Class OA prior-approval submission, which legally must consider glare impact.

The steel structure, columns, beams, purlins, and the canopy frame, accounts for roughly 45% of the total project cost. Rooftop solar reuses an existing roof, so it skips that structural spend. This fixed overhead is also why carports get much more cost-effective at scale: a 50-bay scheme spreads the steel cost across far more generating capacity than a 10-bay scheme, bringing the per-kWp cost down.

From contract to commissioning, expect roughly 4-9 months for a commercial scheme. The longest items are the Class OA prior approval (up to 56 days) and the G99 grid connection (6-18 months on capacity-constrained networks, we submit early to compress this). Physical construction of the canopy and PV is typically 4-12 weeks depending on bay count, with the car park managed in phases to keep it operational.

Only in phases. We sequence the build so most bays stay open while we erect the steel and install panels section by section. Foundation and steel erection are the most disruptive stages and are programmed around your quiet periods. The only full grid outage is the final connection (typically 4-8 hours), scheduled out of hours.

Yes, with landlord consent and a benefit-sharing agreement. Multi-let business parks and leased retail sites commonly use service-charge recovery or a landlord-funded model recovered through the lease. We provide the heads-of-terms framework and run the landlord/tenant conversation. Where the car park shares a grid connection with rooftop PV, we confirm spare DNO capacity before sizing.

Adding an impermeable canopy over a car park changes how rainwater runs off, so SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) provision is required, especially where the surface beneath is permeable. Class OA explicitly requires run-off to be directed to a permeable area within the parking site. We design the drainage strategy, gutters, downpipes, and discharge to a soakaway or permeable zone, and include it in the prior-approval submission.

Solar carports size by parking bay rather than by area. Plan about 12 sqm of canopy per standard bay, carrying around 1.5-2.0 kWp (4-6 panels) per bay. So a 200 kWp system covers roughly 100-130 bays. Tandem, double-row, and single-row canopy designs let us fit the array to almost any car park layout, including disabled and EV-priority bays.

Yes. The carport connects behind your meter, so generation first offsets on-site building load at full retail rate, then powers EV charging, and only surplus is exported under SEG. For sites with strong daytime building demand, retail, healthcare, offices, most generation is self-consumed in the building, which gives the best economics. We model your half-hourly load to optimise the split.

Annual O&M (electrical inspection, inverter checks, panel cleaning if needed) plus periodic structural inspection of the steel, fixings, and gutters. Cleaning is generally easier than rooftop because the canopy is at low level and accessible. We offer 10-25 year O&M contracts with remote performance monitoring and underperformance alerts. Typical O&M is around £8-£12 per kW per year for systems above 250 kW.

Yes. Behind-the-meter solar lowers the marginal cost of every kWh delivered to a charger, improving the margin on paid public charging and reducing the cost of free staff/fleet charging. The canopy also shelters drivers while they charge, improving the experience. For retail and leisure sites, sheltered destination charging is a genuine footfall and dwell-time driver.

Yes. Carport canopies are engineered to BS EN 1991 (Eurocode 1) for UK wind and snow loading, with foundations designed to the ground conditions found in the site survey. The steel is galvanised or coated for a 25-year-plus design life, matching the PV warranty. CDM 2015 governs the construction works, and the design is signed off by a structural engineer before fabrication.