October 14, 2024 Commercial Solar Power
A Complete Guide to What to Expect from the Solar Installation Process
For commercial businesses interested in switching to solar power and saving money, a solar installation is one of the most cost-effective ways to ensure energy security. It guarantees a return on your investment, sometimes in as little as 3.5 years, secures a source of zero-carbon energy for your business, and best of all, it saves money as soon as you start generating, all year round – even in winter.
With such a big project, it’s easy to think that switching your source of energy to a zero-carbon renewable could be a difficult undertaking – and while the impact is significant, the steps taken to achieve it aren’t.
That’s why we will explain everything involved in a solar installation project step-by-step, so you can understand what a solar installation entails, how long you might expect an average project to take… and just how simple, yet safe the process really is.
The Solar Panel Installation Process
The process of switching to solar power – from first enquiry to energy generation – varies from installer to installer, but with Innasol Solar, it is based around 4 broad stages:
- Pre-qualifying questionnaire
- Initial project proposal
- Technical survey and final post-survey proposal
- Acceptance of contract, project commencement and installation
With a new solar installation — and a lot riding on a successful transition to solar power — transparency matters. This is why we will explain each of these steps in detail, and what you might expect at each stage of the process.
1. Pre-qualifying questionnaire
Time to complete: at your leisure
A pre-qualifying questionnaire is a simple 10-question questionnaire that enables us to understand important things about your business and its aptness for solar power.
This includes simple questions around your energy consumption (taken from readings from your meter), what available space for solar PV you have, and other concerns that might impact a project, such as whether you are located in a conservation area.
You might be surprised to know that this basic information is all we need to give an accurate indication of the design and cost of a solar power system for your business.
The information you provide is transformed into an initial project proposal – and this, is entirely free of charge.
2. Initial Project Proposal
Time to complete: approximately 3-5 working days
The initial project proposal is a top-level overview of the bespoke solar power system that will be designed for your business.
Within it, you can learn significant details, such as:
- Your system’s estimated yearly output (in kWh) with monthly performance
- The amount of CO2 emissions you will avoid per year
- The configuration of the system (products used and how they will appear on your site)
- System cost, annual savings, and the return-on-investment period
At this stage, you will also understand what additional systems, if any, you may need to augment your solar PV system.
For example, if you generate excess electricity, you may require a battery to store it.
Equally, high consumers of electricity in manufacturing or utilities may require additional monitoring capabilities that help them maintain systems, report and comply with environmental frameworks such as the emissions trading scheme (UKETS).
Most importantly, however, at this stage you will learn whether or not your business can host a solar power system profitably.
While every business can benefit from solar power, conservation regulations may prevent it – but equally, overly long payback periods may mean another source of renewable energy is more appropriate, for which we can recommend reliable installers.
If we recommend a system, you will also be able to use this proposal to consider financial options – which we can advise on – and secure funding from external sources, for example, if your organisation has charitable status or an investment management board.
This doesn’t prevent us from continuing to the next phase – the technical survey.
3. Technical Survey and updated proposal
Time to complete: approximately 3-5 working days
The technical survey is an on-site visit from an Innasol project leader and local installer partner.
This step is critical. Not only does this allow us to refine the findings of the initial proposal into its most accurate form, but it simply lets installers know about other potential project constraints.
It may seem like a small detail, but without a technical survey, installations can be significantly held up by simple site access issues or environmental health and safety hazards.
This survey, carried out by an installer partner local to you, ensures that your project runs smoothly, and when generating power, your solar power system performs to its full potential.
Once complete, the results of the technical survey are transformed into an updated proposal, which is the information you need to determine whether or not you wish to proceed with Solar power.
4. Acceptance of contract, project commencement and installation
Time to complete: approximately 4-6 working weeks (contract to start); approximately 4 working weeks (project start to completion).
If you have decided to proceed with the solar power project at your business, financial and legal particulars are confirmed at this stage, and contracts are signed.
At this stage, the exciting part begins – the project to install your commercial solar power system.
With the design of an Innasol solar power system at the proposal stages being meticulous to ensure performance and efficiency, the installation of the system itself is a careful, but rapid process.
The installation phases involves commissioning and securing the infrastructure, testing it, and implementing safeguards such as emergency shut offs.
However, for a majority of sub-50kW systems, this process is simple, and upon completion of the installation, you can expect immediate cost-savings as soon as it starts generating electricity.
All that remains at this stage is to start using your clean, low-cost source of renewable electricity.
What about systems over 50kW?
Of course, the size of the solar power system will have an impact on project speed.
This isn’t just based on the complexity of the installation, but also in the participation of other parties who need to ensure your infrastructure conforms to planning regulations (such as permitted development rights, PDR) and the capacity of the local District Network Operator (DNO) to support your infrastructure.
This may only apply to larger installations above 50kW in some parts of the UK, and these restrictions are significantly decreasing in a short space of time.
Is your business ready to start saving with solar power?
Solar power provides businesses with a predictably low-cost source of energy that can free them from the volatility of the grid, cut their CO2 emissions to zero, and secure their energy supply for good.
At a time when businesses have to choose between investing in their growth and turning on the lights, its impact can’t be understated.
Our commitment at Innasol Solar is to generate the maximum possible energy for the minimum possible cost for your business, and if a solar power system is almost right, it’s not right.
It doesn’t matter if you are ready to choose a solar power provider, or you are curious enough to wonder if solar power will be right for you – all you need to do is complete a short pre-qualifying questionnaire to learn the answers you need and start the process.
Simply contact our team or call us on 01621 892613.
Note: project times given are indicative of average turnaround periods. Your solar project may end up taking more or less time, particularly where third parties such as Local Authorities and DNOs are required to be involved.
