A remote solar survey is a desktop assessment of your building's solar potential, produced without a site visit. Absolar uses AI and LiDAR aerial data to model your roof in 3D, calculate usable area, simulate solar generation at half-hourly resolution, and estimate costs, savings and payback. You receive a full report within 2 working days of requesting one.
The survey is free for individual buildings, with no obligation to proceed. We offer it free because it is the fastest way for both sides to establish whether a project is worth pursuing. It is intended for enquiries about a small number of buildings you own or occupy. If you want to assess a larger property portfolio, our portfolio assessment service is designed for exactly that, and we would be glad to talk it through.
Very accurate for feasibility purposes. LiDAR data captures roof geometry, orientation, pitch and shading obstructions to a resolution that manual measurement rarely matches. Absolar has assessed over 5,000 UK buildings using this method. If a project proceeds, we carry out a physical structural and electrical survey before final design, so nothing is installed on desktop data alone.
Only your building's address and a contact email. If you can share half-hourly electricity consumption data from your supplier, we can also model self-consumption and payback with much greater precision, but it is not required for the initial report.
The report covers recommended system size, expected annual generation, estimated installation cost, projected savings on your electricity bills, payback period, and carbon reduction figures for your building. You can view an example report here to see exactly what you will receive.
No. Absolar works exclusively with commercial buildings, including offices, warehouses, factories, schools, science parks and multi-site property portfolios across the UK.
Most commercial roofs are. Flat roofs, pitched metal roofs and standing seam roofs are all commonly used for solar. Key factors are structural capacity, roof condition, orientation and shading. The remote survey identifies all of these before anyone visits your site.
It depends on how much of the generated power you can use on site. Solar delivers the strongest returns when generation is consumed by the building rather than exported. Where on-site consumption is low, options include battery storage, export agreements, or supplying power to tenants. The remote survey will tell you honestly whether the numbers work.
Yes. Portfolio assessment is one of Absolar's specialisms. Because the survey is remote, we can assess dozens or hundreds of buildings quickly and rank them by return on investment, so you invest in the strongest sites first.
In most cases, no. Rooftop solar on commercial buildings usually falls under permitted development rights in England. Exceptions include listed buildings, conservation areas, and very large systems. We flag any planning considerations in the feasibility stage and can manage applications where needed.
It varies with system size, roof type and site access. As a general guide, commercial rooftop systems typically cost between £700 and £1,000 per kWp installed. A 100 kWp system, roughly suitable for a mid-sized warehouse, would therefore sit in the £70,000 to £100,000 range. Your remote survey report gives a costed estimate specific to your building.
Typically 3 to 6 years for commercial buildings with good daytime electricity use, with systems generating for 25 years or morTypically 3 to 6 years for commercial buildings with good daytime electricity use, with systems generating for 25 years or more beyond that. As an example, our 520 kWp installation for Draper Tools achieved a modelled payback of four years. To run the numbers for your own project, try our solar finance calculator.
It is exported to the grid and you are paid for it through an export agreement with your energy supplier. Export rates are lower than the price you pay for imported electricity, which is why systems are sized to maximise on-site consumption, and why battery storage is often worth considering.
Yes. Solar PV qualifies for capital allowances, allowing businesses to deduct the cost from taxable profits. Your accountant can confirm how this applies to your circumstances, and we can provide the figures they need.
Yes. Alongside outright purchase, we offer asset finance through our finance partner, allowing you to spread the cost of the system while owning the asset and keeping the full electricity savings. We do not offer power purchase agreements (PPAs) directly, but if you want to see how a PPA might compare, our commercial solar finance calculator provides indicative figures for cash purchase, loan financing and PPA side by side.
Absolar's own in-house installation team. We do not subcontract the core installation work, which means the engineers who design your system are accountable for delivering it.
Most commercial rooftop installations take 2 to 6 weeks on site depending on system size. The full project, from signed proposal through structural survey, DNO approval and installation to commissioning, typically runs 3 to 6 months.
Minimal disruption is the norm. Most of the work happens on the roof, away from your operations. The main interruption is a short planned power shutdown during final connection, which we schedule around your business, often out of hours.
The DNO (Distribution Network Operator) manages the local electricity grid, and their permission is needed to connect a solar system. For most commercial systems this is a formal application we handle on your behalf. It is a standard step and we factor the timescales into your project plan.
Yes. Absolar designs and installs commercial battery energy storage systems (BESS), either alongside solar or as standalone projects. Batteries let you store surplus daytime generation for use later, reduce peak demand charges, and in some cases earn revenue from grid services.
Every Absolar installation includes monitoring through PhotonScope, our own platform. It tracks generation, consumption and savings in real time, and flags underperformance so issues are caught early rather than discovered on your energy bill.
Very little. Solar PV has no moving parts. We recommend an annual inspection and periodic panel cleaning, and PhotonScope monitoring means faults are identified remotely. Inverters typically need replacing once during the system's 25-year-plus life.
Panels typically carry a 25-year performance warranty and inverters 10 years or more from the manufacturer, alongside our workmanship warranty on the installation itself. Full warranty terms are set out in every proposal.
25 to 30 years or more. Panels degrade slowly, usually losing under half a percent of output per year, so a system installed today will still be producing well over 85 percent of its original output after 25 years.
Solar is a well-proven technology, but it is not right for every building. The main risks are poor roof condition, shading, limited grid capacity, changes in electricity prices, and over-sizing the system relative to your consumption. Each of these can be identified and managed before you commit, which is what the feasibility stage is for. The questions below cover each one honestly.
A solar system will sit on your roof for 25 years or more, so the roof needs to outlast it. If your roof covering is near the end of its life, it is usually better to re-roof first, or to combine re-roofing with the solar installation, than to pay for panels to be removed and reinstated later. Structural capacity matters too, and we carry out a structural assessment before any installation is confirmed.
Significantly, if it is not designed around. Shading from adjacent buildings, rooftop plant, parapets or trees can reduce output well beyond the shaded area itself. Our LiDAR-based assessment models shading across the whole year, so shaded roof zones are excluded from the design rather than discovered after installation. Where partial shading is unavoidable, design choices such as optimisers can limit the impact.
Yes, and it is one of the most common constraints on commercial solar. The local grid may not have capacity to accept the full export from the system you want, and the DNO may cap export or require network upgrades. Upgrade costs and timescales vary widely by location. We submit the DNO application early in the process so any constraint is known before you commit to a system size.
Your savings would reduce, because the value of solar comes largely from the grid electricity you no longer buy. Payback periods would lengthen if grid prices fell over a sustained period. Most forecasts point to continued volatility rather than sustained falls, and generating your own power reduces your exposure to price movements in either direction. We model proposals on current tariffs and can run sensitivity scenarios if you want to stress test the numbers.
Yes. An over-sized system exports a large share of its generation to the grid, and export rates are much lower than the price of the electricity you avoid buying. That drags down the return on investment. The right system size is driven by your consumption profile rather than the maximum your roof can hold, which is why half-hourly consumption data makes such a difference to the quality of the design.
We are based at the University of Southampton Science Park and work with commercial clients across the UK. Because initial assessment is done remotely, distance is no barrier to getting started.
Three things. First, our AI and LiDAR assessment technology, developed from University of Southampton research, which has assessed over 5,000 UK buildings and powers the solar tools used by NatWest. Second, we deliver everything in house, from assessment and design through installation to monitoring. Third, PhotonScope, our own monitoring platform, keeps us accountable for performance long after installation.
Clients include Draper Tools (520 kWp installation), the University of Southampton Science Park campus programme covering more than 12 buildings and 1,290 kWp, NatWest, and commercial property owners and occupiers across the UK. Case studies are available on our projects page.
Request a free remote solar survey using the button at the top of this page. You will receive your report within 2 working days, and there is no obligation to go further.
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