Solar panels on block of flat

sebtomato

Hi,

I live in a block of flat in London that has a very large flat roof (probably 200m2).

We own the freehold for the block (about half of the leaseholders have paid for a share in the freehold company, the others are paying a rent to that company), so we can grant ourselves permission to install solar panels.

We spend around £5,000 a year in communal electricity (lights always on in communal areas, lifts, underground car park etc).

What would be the best option for installing solar panels (subject to the roof being able to carry the load), as I think we are missing an opportunity?

a) Get the people with the freeholding shares to fund for the purchase and installation of solar panels, and get a share of the feed-in income? The issue is that all leaseholders would also benefit from the free electricity reducing the service charges, but without contributing to the investment...
Also, I think the freeholding would make a profit, and therefore liable for company tax etc.

b) Rent the roof for free, and just get the free electricity (and also panel insurance etc), while the installer gets the feed-in tarif? However, I am not sure companies like "A shade greener" would install some large panels on a roof

c) Use solar panels on the roof to power individual flats (as opposed to just communal areas)? Each flat has its own electricity meter. I guess people with a share of the freehold could reclaim part of the roof. However, the cabling/installation could get complicated, as well as maintenance/repairs.

Thanks

Martyn1981

Hiya. That's a fun question. I think the first thing you need to do is get hold of some installers and ask their advice on the project. They'll need to assess the roof structurally. PV doesn't weigh that much, but it's certainly going to add up over a large roof area.

You'll also need to find out how much you can install before the DNO (district network operator) gets upset. For a domestic supply that figure is an export of 3.68kW, so inverter outputs need to be capped if the PV adds up to more. For yourselves, it'll depend on the size of your supply. Again, an installer should be able to advise.

You may also need planning permission, I'm not sure. But for a domestic install, planning permission is needed if you install on a flat roof as you are changing the profile.

Supplying individual properties sounds like a pain, especially if ownership changes. But it might be possible. I think you'd have to install in modular sections for that though, as there may be licensing issues if you theoretically became a leccy generator, then tried to 'sell' to households, I'm sure I read recently that this is tricky - something about a communal solar farm trying to supply leccy to the contributors.

If you generate on mass, and run that through the communal supply, then one way around the distribution issue might be to leave the service charges as they are, but compare post PV leccy consumption, to pre PV leccy consumption, then distribute the savings as a rebate to those that contributed to the PV install costs.

Pretty sure that you'll have to pay some tax on the FiT and export income, but that's a question for your accountant, since you'd first need to deduct for costs (capital depreciation, cost of capital, maintenance etc).

Just a thought, but if the roof is strong enough, and your main leccy supply can take a large export, then I suppose you could do the install in modular increments. It probably wouldn't cost much more than one large job. So you expand bit by bit as you see the results, and funding becomes available - but this might be too messy to bother with.

Have fun, and please update with progress, sounds very interesting.

Mart.