Are you thinking of purchasing solar panels for your business?
Well, before you get your cheque book ready and start contacting your local suppliers, there are a number of factors that you need to consider, to ensure that you are selecting the right solar panels and whether it is a worthwhile investment for you and your company.
Commercial solar panels usually refers to large solar power systems that are installed in manufacturing and agricultural sectors. Commercial panels are different to business solar panels and domestic solar panels in their size and quantity.
Due to the governmental demand for larger business sectors to use renewable energy, a scheme is known as feed-in-tariffs is used, which can help save businesses money should they install solar panels for commercial use.
The price of solar panels will vary depending on the size of your company and the space available to be used for a solar power system. Typically, companies that require solar panels for commercial use will require a system with a 25kw output, but some very large industries will require up to 200kw outputs.
The average cost of a 25kw output solar power system is around £40,000, with a 200kw potentially costing more than £200,000.
Through the governmental feed-in-tariffs scheme, a commercial business can not only save money on their energy bills, but can also make a significant sum of money through their solar panels.
Essentially, any energy generated by the solar panels, but not used by your company, will be purchased by energy companies, who then export the energy back to the grid. Depending on the size of your solar power system, you could stand to make between £5,000-£40,000 per year through feed-in-tariffs.
If the main purpose of your solar panels is to provide your company with energy, you will not need to pay tax on any feed-in-tariff payments you receive. However, if the sole purpose of the purchase of solar panels is to generate a profit, any FiT payments must be declared and will be taxed accordingly.
Thankfully, you will not now require planning permission to place solar panels on your commercial properties. However, there are a couple of exemptions to consider. If your commercial property is registered as a listed building, you will be required to ask for planning permission. This will also be the case if your solar power system is over 50KWP for electricity and over 45kw for thermal energy.