Pubs, Restaurants & Hospitality Venues: Solar panels for supermarkets

Why pubs and restaurants run on the same daytime power as a supermarket

A pub or restaurant carries many of the same loads that make supermarket solar pay, just on a smaller scale. Cellar cooling and refrigeration run around the clock, kitchen extraction and lighting load through the day, and demand builds steadily from the lunch service into the early evening. That steady daytime-to-evening profile is exactly what solar matches well, and self-consumption, the share of generation used on site rather than exported, is what drives the return. For an operator, electricity is now one of the largest controllable costs in the business, alongside stock and staff, and like a grocer's refrigeration bill it can be fixed for two decades with a single investment. Typical payback sits around 6.5 years, a little longer than a refrigeration-heavy store because demand is more peaked, but still a strong commercial case.

The real prize in hospitality, though, is the same one that makes supermarket solar so scalable: the estate. Managed pub and restaurant groups can roll a single design across dozens of similar units, turning what looks like a small per-site saving into a substantial portfolio number. Where roof space is tight, beer-garden canopies and car-park solar carports add capacity that the building alone cannot offer, so even a small footprint pub need not be ruled out. And for independents and groups alike, on-site generation makes a genuine brand-ESG and local-community story that customers notice. For an operator weighing solar across a hospitality estate, the combination of steady daytime load and a repeatable template is what makes the numbers work.

What a typical install looks like and how it is sized

For a pub or restaurant, systems typically fall in the 10 to 100 kW range, which is roughly 18 to 185 panels across about 60 to 600 square metres of roof, often with a beer-garden or car-park canopy added where the roof runs short. A system that size generates in the region of 9,000 to 92,000 kWh a year and saves between 2 and 21 tonnes of CO2 annually. Sizing follows the load, not the roof.

Because demand peaks around service times rather than running flat all day, a modest rooftop sized for the daytime cellar and kitchen load plus any EV charging usually beats over-sizing, and that is best settled from at least twelve months of half-hourly meter data rather than guesswork. Over-sizing a peaked demand profile simply exports the surplus at a lower rate, which dilutes the return, so the discipline here is to right-size for self-consumption and let canopies or carports add capacity only where there is daytime load to use it. Customer EV charging in the car park is one of the best ways to absorb midday generation, so that growth should be modelled into the load before the size is finalised.

One steady load underpins almost every pub, and it is the cellar. Cellar cooling and any walk-in refrigeration run around the clock to keep stock at temperature, which gives even a small site a constant baseload that mirrors, on a modest scale, the refrigeration that makes supermarket solar pay so quickly. Sizing the rooftop to comfortably cover that continuous cellar and refrigeration draw, then adding for the daytime kitchen and lighting peak, is usually the design that self-consumes best. For a destination dining pub the kitchen extraction and prep load is larger and more daytime-weighted, which lets the array grow, while a wet-led community local with a small kitchen is better served by a compact system focused on the cellar.

Costs, payback and tax relief

A pub or restaurant project typically lands between £10,000 and £90,000 depending on size and surfaces used, with a simple payback near 6.5 years and effectively free electricity for the years that follow. The 100% Annual Investment Allowance lets most single-site installs write off the full cost against profit in year one, worth up to a quarter of the project value back as tax for a company, with the 50% First-Year Allowance on spend above the cap. Solar is a special-rate asset and does not qualify for full expensing, so the AIA or FYA is the relief that applies.

The Smart Export Guarantee pays for surplus, which can matter for venues that are quieter during the day and export some midday generation. A right-sized system, though, keeps export modest and drives the return through avoided import, which is the stronger position. The cost guide works through the figures by venue type, from a small single pub roof to a flagship dining site with a canopy.

Funding routes in detail

Funding is where hospitality solar often gets unlocked, because few operators want to commit scarce capital to a roof. A PPA delivers solar with zero capital outlay, paying per kWh consumed below the grid tariff with savings from day one and the system off balance sheet, which is frequently the route that suits a single pub. Asset finance spreads cost over seven to fifteen years and is usually cash-positive from year one, and operating leases suit estates wanting a predictable per-site monthly cost across many units. Outright purchase captures the full saving and the year-one capital allowances where the cash is available.

The Workplace Charging Scheme grant funds EV chargepoints for staff and fleet parking, up to 75% of charger cost, five hundred pounds per socket from April 2026, for up to forty sockets per applicant, closing on 31 March 2027. Chargers used solely by diners fall outside the scheme, but staff and fleet charging pairs well with daytime solar, absorbing generation at full self-consumption value. For an estate operator, applying the grant across many sites turns a per-site EV cost into a portfolio saving.

Compliance and sector considerations

Two issues come up more in hospitality than anywhere else. The first is heritage: many pubs are listed or in conservation areas, so Listed Building Consent and conservation-officer engagement are often required, and where they are the design should work around the protected frontage rather than abandon the project. The second is the supply: smaller, older premises frequently have single-phase supplies that can cap system size without a DNO upgrade, so the connection should be checked early and the system designed within it or the upgrade planned.

Tied and leased houses in pubco estates need landlord or brewery consent and a wayleave before works, so it helps to have the consent and wayleave paperwork ready early. Rooftop PV otherwise falls under Permitted Development Rights within size limits, with carports and canopies needing planning permission. A G99 application is required above 3.68 kW (16 A) per phase where the system reaches that scale. Look for an installer that follows current rooftop PV fire-safety guidance (an area insurers increasingly ask about), and check the installer's MCS certificate on mcscertified.com, along with NICEIC, RECC, TrustMark and OZEV status.

The roof itself deserves an early look on older premises. Pubs vary enormously in age and construction, and some carry asbestos cement on the building or its outbuildings, which cannot be retrofitted with panels and needs replacing first. Where the main roof is unsuitable, whether through asbestos, listing or simple lack of area, the beer-garden canopy, the car-park carport and any outbuildings become the route to capacity, which is why every surface on the plot should be assessed rather than the main roof alone. For leased units, the proposed MEES EPC B requirement (from 2031 for rented buildings over 1,000 square metres, subject to legislation) is increasingly a reason landlords support or even fund a pub install, because on-site solar improves the EPC rating and protects the lettability and value of the asset.

How to approach this kind of project

Sizing should start from your half-hourly meter data, matching a modest, well-targeted system to the real cellar, kitchen and lighting load rather than over-sizing a peaked demand profile. The electrical supply is worth checking early, because a single-phase connection on an older pub is a known constraint that is far better found before the proposal than after. Where the building is listed, engage the conservation officer early and look to beer-garden canopies, outbuildings or car-park carports if the main roof is protected.

For tied and leased houses, the brewery and landlord side needs consent and wayleave paperwork, and agreeing a template once saves the operator repeating the conversation. The G99 application, where needed, can be submitted alongside the survey. For estate operators, the efficient approach is one repeatable template, rooftop plus optional canopy plus EV charging, that rolls across every site with one monitoring dashboard, portfolio pricing and a phased capital plan. This standardised approach is the same one that lets supermarket and managed estates deploy a single design across hundreds of premises, so a group that wants solar across forty pubs does not need bespoke engineering each time. Installs can be scheduled around service times so trading is not disrupted, with the only real outage being the short final grid connection booked for a quiet period. When comparing quotes, ask each installer about workmanship warranty terms, operation and maintenance, and remote monitoring.

An illustrative example

As a hypothetical illustration only, not a real client: take a managed pub-and-restaurant group considering solar on a flagship roadside dining pub with a large flat-roofed kitchen extension and a 60-space car park, running heavy kitchen extraction, cellar cooling and lighting, and wanting a repeatable template before committing to its wider estate. A system of roughly 92 kW on the roof, with a 40 kW beer-garden canopy as an option, would generate in the region of 85,000 kWh a year, for a saving around twenty one thousand pounds and a payback near 6 years. A single standardised design, rooftop plus optional canopy plus EV charging plus one monitoring dashboard, could then be rolled out across forty estate sites, with the brewery wayleave template agreed once and reused, and portfolio pricing with a phased three-year capital plan. The figures are illustrative and depend on your venue, surfaces, tariff and estate.

If your group spans more than pubs, the guides on supermarket and convenience solar and gym and health-club solar may also apply. When you are ready, see the full cost guide, read about grants and funding, send an enquiry, or browse the FAQs first.