Solar Panel Installation for Hospitality

Moving to renewable energy makes your operations inherently more sustainable, a factor that is increasingly vital for today’s eco-conscious consumers, travellers and event planners. If your ESG strategy includes reducing the use of fossil fuels and increasing electrification, cheap, green energy will help realise your ambitions. Securing your future energy needs can also pave the way for offering additional premium services, such as reliable EV charging for guests, enhancing your overall value proposition. 

With over 15 years of experience, our team is equipped to plan, design, and seamlessly deliver your hospitality solar panel installation (on hotels, pubs, leisure centres, or resorts), ensuring zero impact on your day-to-day guest experience or booked events.

Geo Green Power has partnered with numerous hotels, resorts, leisure centres, and event venues across the UK, successfully developing bespoke renewable energy systems for their specific operational needs. The trend for the hospitality sector is clear: operators are increasingly choosing to take control of volatile energy costs by investing in renewable energy sources. By doing so, they are not only securing a cost-effective energy supply for guest services but also enhancing their green credentials and actively supporting a low-carbon future through the adoption of solar energy within the hospitality industry. 

Types of Hospitality businesses we work with include: Boutique Hotels, Large Hotel Chains, Pubs and Restaurants, Cinema Chains, Motorway Services, Golf Clubs and Spas, Conference Centres, Leisure Parks, Holiday Cottages/Parks, and many more.

When designing your system, our expert team meticulously evaluates several key factors for your hotel, pub, or venue: 

• The total available roof space or land for installing solar arrays. 
• Your current energy consumption patterns, including peak demand times for kitchens and guest services. 
• The potential for your energy usage to increase in the future due to expansions or the addition of amenities like EV charging or the electrification of gas kitchens. 

Our design approach for hospitality solar panel installations is comprehensive. It accounts for all critical operational requirements, including the need for robust battery storage to ensure vital services run overnight, the necessity of a reliable backup power supply for emergency lighting and essential guest facilities, or the potential to export surplus energy back to the grid. 

Crucially, in planning your installation, we minimise any disruption to the guest experience. We carefully schedule the work around your operational requirements, considering check-in/check-out times, event schedules, and food and beverage service hours. Any necessary power-downs will be completed out of hours or during planned closures to ensure the smoothest possible transition. 

We are experts in delivering multi-site solar rollouts for large chains, establishing a process and procedure that works for you and your business and repeating this across your estate with tailored installs that add up to make a huge impact on your overall energy costs and carbon emissions.   

The Savoy Cinema in Worksop, a location for one of the UK’s oldest cinema chains, chose Geo Green Power to install a 195kWp solar PV system coupled with a 144kWh battery unit to address the high, continuous energy demands from its screens and facilities. The primary goal was to improve sustainability and decrease substantial utility costs.

The system is projected to achieve a rapid payback period of 4–5 years and deliver significant results over its lifespan, including an annual output of approximately 158,000kWh and an estimated saving of 39 tonnes of CO2 per year, alongside exceptional post-installation customer support.

We have produced a solar investment guide specifically for the UK hospitality sector. Within this comprehensive document, we lay out exactly what solar options are available to hospitality businesses, how they work, the high cost and carbon benefits they deliver, and how you can access them to future-proof your venues.

The investment required for each hospitality solar PV project is unique and will vary. The cost of your installation is influenced by factors such as the size of the system, the layout and complexity of the roof structure (e.g., multiple wings, service buildings), and specific installation requirements like the need for out-of-hours installation or specialised access to avoid disrupting guest parking or resort amenities. 

If you are interested in finding out what you would need to spend to achieve a healthy return, secure continuous power, and achieve significant energy savings, we can provide a strong indication over the phone. We will then finalise a detailed proposal after conducting a thorough, on-site survey of your hotel or leisure property. 

Tax Relief (Annual Investment Allowance – AIA) 

This is the most significant financial mechanism for UK businesses: 

100% Deduction: The AIA allows a business to deduct the full value of the solar PV system (which qualifies as plant and machinery) from its taxable profits in the year of purchase, up to a limit of £1 million per year. 

Benefit: This drastically reduces the business’s tax liability and lowers the effective net cost of solar investment. 

Export Payments (Smart Export Guarantee – SEG) 

The SEG is a government-mandated scheme that creates an additional revenue stream: 

Payment for Surplus: Licensed electricity suppliers must offer a tariff to pay businesses for any surplus electricity generated by the solar panels that are exported back to the national grid. 

Benefit: This helps hospitality venues generate extra income when they are closed or during periods of low internal demand, improving the overall return on investment. 

Regional and Local Authority Grants 

While national grant schemes for solar are often limited or time-bound, specific funds are available through local bodies: 

UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF): Local councils often use funds like the UKSPF to offer targeted grants for businesses within their region to invest in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies, including solar PV. 

Regional Funds: Devolved administrations (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) and certain local authorities may run specific green loans or grants (sometimes explicitly for hospitality or SMEs) to aid in energy upgrades. 

Other Financing Options 

In addition to government schemes, the sector benefits from commercial green financing: 

Green Loans: Many major UK banks now offer preferential, discounted interest rates on loans specifically for funding green investments like solar panels. 

Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): While not an incentive, a PPA allows the hospitality business to have a solar system installed on its roof with zero upfront cost, paying a fixed, discounted rate for the electricity generated. 

To find the most suitable grants for your location, it is highly recommended to check out the UK Business Climate Hub or your local council’s business support pages, as regional grants frequently change and have specific eligibility criteria. 

Geo Green Power has partnered with Moto Hospitality to install solar PV systems across 15 UK motorway service stations, including major sites like Rugby and Exeter. With a total capacity of 1,614 kWp, the project generates approximately 1.37 million kWh of renewable electricity annually, reducing Moto’s carbon footprint by 342 tonnes of CO_2 per year.

This initiative not only supports Moto’s transition toward net zero but also provides the critical energy capacity needed to power their nationwide network of EV charging stations, helping to mitigate rising energy costs within the high-demand hospitality and transport sectors.