600 kW Install on a 280-Room Midlands Conference Hotel

Modelled worked example — the figures below are built from sourced 2026 UK cost and generation benchmarks for a property of this profile, not a claimed client project.

The hotel

A 280-room independent conference and convention hotel in the West Midlands with substantial corporate-events business (40% of annual revenue), full-service F&B, leisure facilities, and 24/7 operation. Annual electricity spend £620,000. Owner-operator with strong sustainability commitment driven by corporate-events RFP demands.

The brief

Deploy a large-scale rooftop solar array to materially reduce operating cost and generate the venue sustainability evidence pack needed for major corporate-events RFPs (FTSE 100 firms, Big 4 accounting, major law firms).

The modelled system

600 kW rooftop array across the property’s three accommodation blocks plus the conference centre roof. 1,100 Tier-1 JA Solar 545W panels, central inverters with full monitoring integration. UPS coordination with the conference centre AV infrastructure to prevent frequency-sync trips during peak generation. Capital purchase with AIA tax shield + 50% FYA above the £1m AIA cap.

The numbers at year one

• Annual generation: 555,000 kWh
• Self-consumption: 93%
• Year-1 saving: £140,000
• Capex: £510,000 gross; £382,500 after AIA + FYA shield
• Effective payback: 2.7 years
• Corporate-events RFP win rate up 22% in following 12 months
• BREEAM In-Use rating improved by one band