EV charging, solar and batteries for industry: what pays back?

Assess manufacturing charging, solar and batteries against your site's measured demand and shift pattern. Eligible workplace charging installations can receive up to £500 per socket [S1]. Compare fully funded host income with part funded and self funded returns, then assess solar and storage separately so the same electricity benefit is not counted twice. Checked October 2026.

Last checked 16 October 2026

Why install charging, solar or batteries at an industrial site?

Start with production rather than a combined equipment package. Gather interval electricity data, shift times, vehicle departure requirements and planned process changes. A high annual bill alone does not reveal whether solar output coincides with consumption or whether there is spare capacity when vehicles plug in.

A factory should distinguish staff cars from fleet vehicles that must depart charged. An industrial unit needs landlord and roof rights checked together. A cold store should protect refrigeration loads in the design brief. A food-processing site should include wash-down areas and delivery movements in the equipment siting review.

Evaluate each investment separately, then assess the shared connection. Ask what happens on a production shutdown, a cloudy working day and a busy night shift. Use the solar and battery guide alongside fleet charging planning.

Which funding model fits staff and fleet charging?

You need control over operational access. A proposal based on general public traffic is different from a staff car park behind a security gate. Ask each bidder to price the same access rules and shift timetable.

Specify the term, exclusivity, supply responsibilities and energy settlement. Ask your solicitor to review liability, insurance, business-rates responsibility and exit or removal terms. Reserve the access your fleet needs before offering bays to other drivers. Compare funded versus owned charging.

What could industrial charging earn, and when would it pay back?

This is an illustration, not a quote. All commercial inputs are assumptions, not observed industrial prices or supplier terms. Sessions are totals for the installation. Kilowatts (kW) measure power and kilowatt-hours (kWh) measure energy. AC means alternating current.

Assume purchased energy equals billed energy. Annual energy E = sessions × 15 × 250. Sales = E × £0.40. Self funded net = E × (£0.40 − £0.20) − £800. Part funded net = that net × 60%. Fully funded income = sales × 10%, with energy and maintenance paid by the provider without a host chargeback.

Simple return on investment (ROI) = net ÷ host capital × 100; payback = capital ÷ annual net. Ranges use the capital endpoints. These figures exclude grants, tax, finance, payment fees, grid works, losses, downtime and replacements. The long low-use payback may exceed equipment life. Negative net means no simple payback. Recalculate using the ROI guide.

Free staff charging and your own fleet charging create no external charging sales. Replace the revenue line with an explicitly funded staff benefit or measured fleet operating benefit; do not count internal transfers as new business income.

How should you test solar self-use before adding a battery?

Request a roof survey and a generation profile matched to your consumption. Solar self-use means generation consumed on site rather than exported. The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) can pay for eligible exports. [S4] Use a separate rate for exported electricity rather than valuing every generated unit at your import tariff.

For a separate assumed illustration, take solar producing 85,000 kWh annually: 68,000 consumed on site and 17,000 exported. At assumed import and export values of £0.20 and £0.05 per kWh, with £1,000 annual upkeep, the annual benefit is (68,000 × £0.20) + (17,000 × £0.05) − £1,000 = £13,450. Assumed capital of £70,000–£90,000 gives simple ROI of 14.9–19.2% and payback of 5.20–6.69 years, before tax and replacements. This is not a yield forecast or an installed-price range.

Assess the battery only against the additional benefit over solar alone. Include charge energy, conversion losses, usable capacity, degradation and replacement. Do not add an unpriced backup-power benefit: require the designer to specify which loads can operate during an outage and how they are isolated.

What power, parking and planning checks does your site need?

Your distribution network operator (DNO) manages the local electricity network. G99 is the engineering standard for parallel generation connections; UK Power Networks describes the application route for solar and storage. [S3] Ask your local DNO to assess the combined proposal, including import demand and export limits.

Keep charger bays clear of goods-vehicle turning paths and emergency routes. Request an accessibility review, a battery fire-safety assessment and roof structural checks. England has a non-domestic solar permitted development category with conditions; obtain a site-specific planning assessment. [S6] Use the applicable planning system elsewhere in the UK. See load management.

What grant and tax checks should precede the order?

Ordinary business WCS applications concern staff or fleet parking. [S2]

WCS supports up to 75% of eligible charging costs, capped at 40 sockets, with funding to 31 March 2027. [S1] Check with your accountant about qualifying chargepoint expenditure: HMRC confirms the 100% first-year allowance to 31 March 2027 for Corporation Tax. [S5] Keep solar and battery tax treatment separate from that rule.

What should you do next?

Prepare interval consumption, a roof plan, shift details and vehicle needs. Then get matched with an installer that covers your area.

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