Solar panels for hotels, pubs, restaurants and holiday parks

How hospitality demand lines up with solar

Hospitality covers very different energy profiles, and the case for solar varies with them.

Hotels

Hotels run 24 hours a day. Rooms need lighting, heating or cooling and hot water; kitchens serve breakfast, lunch and dinner; laundries run through the day; and many hotels have pools, spas or conference suites. Leisure hotels and resort properties are often busiest in summer, which suits solar well. Business hotels in towns may be fuller midweek, with demand that is steady across the year.

Pubs

A pub's demand often builds through the afternoon and peaks in the evening. Cellar cooling runs continuously, which gives a useful baseload, and lunchtime kitchen trade adds midday demand, but a good share of consumption happens after sunset in the winter months. Beer gardens and longer summer evenings help, since trading hours and daylight overlap more from late spring to early autumn.

Restaurants and cafés

Restaurants serving lunch use generation directly; those that open only for dinner see less overlap. Cafés with daytime trading are usually a better match than evening-only venues.

Holiday parks and campsites

Holiday parks tend to have their peak season in summer, closely matching generation. They also often have land for a ground-mounted array and central buildings such as reception, a clubhouse, a pool and a laundry. Some parks close or run at low occupancy in winter, so the model needs to reflect the full year.

Hot water and heat

Hot water is one of the largest energy uses in many hospitality businesses. If water is heated by gas, solar PV does not reduce that cost directly. Where immersion heaters, electric boilers or heat pumps are used, PV generation can heat water during the day and store the energy in the cylinder for evening showers and kitchen use, which effectively shifts some generation into the evening. If you are planning to replace gas water heating with heat pumps, tell the surveyor, as it changes the demand profile considerably.

For evening-led businesses, battery storage is often the deciding factor. It can store surplus midday generation for the evening trade, though it adds cost and the survey should show whether it pays its way.

Building and site issues a hospitality survey checks

Historic and characterful buildings

Many hotels, inns and pubs are in older buildings, some listed or in conservation areas. Slate and clay tile pitched roofs need careful fixing, and thatched roofs are not suitable for panels at all. Listed buildings normally need listed building consent for solar, and conservation areas can restrict panels visible from the road; our planning permission guide explains the main points. Outbuildings, stable blocks or modern extensions can sometimes take panels where the main building cannot.

Kitchen extraction and roof plant

Commercial kitchen extract outlets discharge warm, grease-laden air. Panels placed close to extract outlets can be soiled and the area needs to stay accessible for duct cleaning, so the surveyor designs around them.

Guests, noise and access

Installation has to fit around guests: noise limits, restricted working hours, keeping fire escapes and car parks clear, and avoiding the busiest weeks of the season. Hotels with flat roofs may have guest rooms directly below, which affects when drilling and lifting can happen.

Rural parks and private networks

Holiday parks often have their own private electricity network distributing power from a single intake to lodges, caravans and amenity buildings. The survey looks at where the array would connect, whether the network can carry the generation and how much the DNO will allow to be exported, which can be limited in rural areas.

Finance and ownership questions for hospitality

Freehold, leasehold and tied pubs

Many pubs are owned by pub companies and run by tenants or lessees. The pub company usually owns the building and must consent to roof works, and the lease or tenancy may say how improvements are treated. Some pub companies run their own energy programmes, so check before commissioning work independently. Our commercial landlords page covers the wider landlord and tenant questions.

Franchised and managed hotels

Where a hotel operates under a brand franchise or a management contract, the property owner, the operator and the brand may all have a say. The owner usually decides on capital works, but brand standards can affect what is acceptable on the building.

Seasonal cash flow

Seasonal businesses may prefer to avoid a large capital payment before the busy period. A power purchase agreement or asset finance spreads the cost, while buying outright gives the full saving and capital allowances where you pay tax. Check the treatment with your accountant.

What to have ready for a hospitality survey

• A full 12 months of half-hourly data, so seasonal peaks and quiet months both show
• Opening hours and occupancy pattern across the year
• How hot water is heated, with details of boilers, cylinders and any heat pumps
• Kitchen, laundry, pool and spa equipment that uses significant power
• Listed building or conservation area status
• The lease, tenancy or franchise terms on alterations
• For parks, a plan of the private network and any land available for a ground-mounted array

Request a free survey and the surveyor will model your season, not an average year.