Independent & supplier-neutral · Sources read 14 October 2026
Hotels with solar panels are no longer rare in the UK, but finding out what comparable properties actually installed — and what the numbers were — means reading installer case studies, local press and trade titles one at a time. This register does that reading. Each entry below is a hotel with solar panels whose project has been published by the installer, the operator or the press, with the figures exactly as published, the date of the publication, and the date this page last read it. Where a source leaves a field out, the entry says "not published" rather than filling the gap.
The register
Figures are as published by the named source. "Roof" and "ground" describe where the array sits. Nothing here has been verified on site by this publisher, and the inclusion of a project is not a recommendation of its installer.
| Hotel | System | Generation / carbon | Cost / payback | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old Thorns Hotel & Resort, Liphook (Hampshire) | 217 kWp, 572 panels (roof) | "over 200,000 kWh per year"; "more than 90 tonnes" CO₂ annually | 6-year payback, 19% IRR | 2021 | Spirit Energy, solar-panels-for-hotels page (read 14 Oct 2026). The installer's blog counts 630 panels across three roofs; the figures here are the ones on its hotels page. |
| Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa, Windermere (English Lakes Hotels) | 385 panels across five buildings (kWp not published) | Annual generation "over 130,000 kWh"; about 33 tonnes CO₂ a year | £195,000 investment; projected payback around six years; lifetime savings "over £1.3m" | May 2025 | LH Magazine, 13 May 2025 (installer RJ Solar, Kirkby Lonsdale). The resort also reports 209,269 kWh of hydro generation in 2024. |
| Avisford Park Hotel (Crest Hotels Limited) | 163.24 kWp, 308 × DAS Solar 590 W bifacial — ground-mounted on an unused tennis court | Not published; 200 kWh battery storage (two Dyness BF100-C100 cabinets) | £300,000; onsite power costed at 5.88p/kWh over a 25-year lifespan | July 2026 | Solar Power Portal, 20 July 2026 (installer Novalux Solar). The report does not state the hotel's location. |
| Hampton by Hilton Blackburn | 50.84 kWp, 124 × Risen Energy 410 W panels, two 20 kW inverters (roof) | 100% of generation used on site, nothing exported; 246 tonnes CO₂ reduction expected over 25 years | Not published | January 2024 | Marketing Lancashire, 10 January 2024 (installer Perfect Sense Energy). |
| Holiday Inn, Corby | 179 kWp | Year-1 generation stated as 30,000 kWh | Year-1 saving stated as £4,230 | Not stated | Perfect Sense Energy, hotels sector page (read 14 Oct 2026). The generation figure is low for the stated capacity and the page gives no explanation; it is reproduced as published. |
| Holiday Inn Express, Cambridge | 14.30 kW (Canadian Solar panels, Solis string inverter, K2 mounting) | Not published | Not published | 2019 | Harvest Green Developments case study (installation by Cannock Building Services). |
| Premier Inn estate (Whitbread) — 88 UK sites | 1.44 MW across 88 Premier Inn sites, "over 12% of the Premier Inn estate" | "enough to power over 300 homes"; "361 t of carbon saved each year" | "a cost saving benefit of around £340 000 each year" once all 88 are complete (£140,000 a year from the 41 sites fitted in 2015/16) | 2015/16 programme | Cian Hatton, head of energy and environment, Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants, writing in Modern Building Services, 1 December 2016. |
| Premier Inn, Salisbury | Not published | Not published | 8-year payback, 12% IRR | Not stated | Spirit Energy payback table on its solar-panels-for-hotels page (read 14 Oct 2026). |
Projects published without figures
Shawton Energy's hotel and leisure sector page lists case-study cards for Dakota Hotels (Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester and Eurocentral), Park Hall Hotel, Crowne Plaza, Brooklands Hotel, The Westminster Hotel and a DoubleTree by Hilton, with a testimonial from the hotel manager at Dakota Eurocentral about its new solar-panelled roof. The page publishes no system size, generation or saving for any individual project, only unattributed averages for "the average hospitality business", so those projects are recorded here as existing but unquantified (read 14 October 2026).
Wider hospitality, for scale
The largest published hospitality solar programme in the UK is not a hotel estate. Geo Green Power's case study for Mitchells & Butlers — the pub and restaurant group behind Toby Carvery, Harvester, Miller & Carter and All Bar One — reports solar PV across up to 125 sites, 60 of them completed by the end of 2024, in systems of 20 kWp to 60 kWp each, for a total of 4,263 kWp producing 3,930,000 kWh a year and saving 983 tonnes of CO₂ annually (read 14 October 2026). The company's stated aim is to generate over 20% of the energy it uses. The per-site sizes are a useful benchmark for a hotel with a restaurant-led load — see restaurant solar panels for hotels.
What the published projects have in common
- Estate programmes run at 15–30 kWp a site. Whitbread's 88-site Premier Inn programme totals 1.44 MW, which averages about 16 kWp a hotel — budget-brand roofs are small and the Whitbread figure was described as enough to power over 300 homes rather than as a share of hotel demand. Mitchells & Butlers' pub and restaurant programme runs at 20–60 kWp a site.
- Single-site roof arrays cluster between 50 kWp and 220 kWp. Blackburn (50.84 kWp), Corby (179 kWp) and Old Thorns (217 kWp) bracket the range a mid-sized UK hotel roof supports; Spirit Energy's own guidance on its hotels page puts a medium hotel at 100 to 300 kWp. The 14.3 kW Cambridge system shows a limited-service property can start small.
- Where the roof runs out, the estate steps in. Avisford Park's 163.24 kWp sits on a disused tennis court, and Low Wood Bay spread 385 panels across five buildings. Country-house and resort hotels with land have options that an urban hotel does not — the trade-offs are set out in rooftop versus ground-mount for hotels.
- Self-consumption is the model. Hampton by Hilton Blackburn states that 100% of its generation is used on site with nothing exported. That matches the demand profile that makes solar panels for hotels work: 24-hour hot water, refrigeration, HVAC and lighting absorb the array's output.
- Published paybacks are six to eight years. Old Thorns reports six years at a 19% IRR, Premier Inn Salisbury eight years at 12% IRR, and Low Wood Bay projects around six years on £195,000. All three are the operators' or installers' figures at the prices of their install dates; a 2026 project should be modelled on 2026 tariffs and its own half-hourly data, which is what the hotel solar cost guide covers.
- Storage is appearing. Avisford Park paired its array with 200 kWh of battery storage. For the chemistry and siting questions that raises for a hotel, see hotel battery storage.
How to read an installer case study
Three habits make the published figures comparable. First, separate nameplate capacity (kWp) from generation (kWh a year): a 179 kWp array in the English Midlands would normally be expected to produce well over 100,000 kWh a year, so a year-one figure of 30,000 kWh — as published for Corby — is either a partial year, a constrained export, or an error, and the case study does not say which. Second, check whether a payback is pre- or post-tax: the Annual Investment Allowance gives a tax-paying operator 100% first-year relief on qualifying solar capex, which shortens a six-year simple payback materially, but most installer case studies quote the pre-tax figure. Third, note the date: a 2021 payback was computed on 2021 electricity prices. The methodology behind the modelled figures on this site is in the hotel solar payback guide.
Listed and conservation-area hotels in the register
None of the published projects above describes its planning route, which is itself informative: the roof-mounted installations on modern chain buildings (Blackburn, Corby, Cambridge) fall under Class J non-domestic permitted development, and Avisford Park's ground array on a tennis court would have needed a planning application. Where a hotel is listed or sits in a conservation area the consent position changes — see solar panels on listed buildings for hotels and solar panels in a conservation area for hotels. The devolved rules in Scotland and Wales differ again.
Adding a project
The register grows from the public record only. A hotel whose installation has been written up by its installer, reported in the press, or decided in a published planning decision can be added with the same six fields as the entries above. Send the link through the form below; entries are checked against the source before they appear, and nothing is added from a private claim.
Quote in 7 working days
Model your own hotel against the register
Free desk-based feasibility from your half-hourly meter data. Fixed-price proposal within 7 working days. All funding routes modelled — PPA, AIA, hire purchase, lease. Listed Building Consent and brand engineering included.
- ✓ MCS-certified UK specialists across boutique, chain, country house, B&B, conference
- ✓ Honest "no" if your hotel doesn't suit solar — we'll say so before you commit
- ✓ All funding routes modelled (PPA, AIA, hire purchase, operating lease)
- ✓ Listed Building Consent and Hilton/IHG/Marriott/Accor brand engineering included
UK hotels with solar panels — FAQs
Which UK hotels have solar panels?
Published examples include Old Thorns Hotel and Resort in Liphook (217 kWp, Spirit Energy, 2021), Low Wood Bay Resort and Spa on Windermere (385 panels across five buildings, 2025), Avisford Park Hotel (163.24 kWp ground-mounted with 200 kWh of storage, 2026), Hampton by Hilton Blackburn (50.84 kWp, 2024), Holiday Inn Corby (179 kWp) and Holiday Inn Express Cambridge (14.3 kW, 2019), and Whitbread fitted 1.44 MW across 88 Premier Inn sites in a programme completed around 2016. Shawton Energy also lists Dakota Hotels, Park Hall Hotel, Crowne Plaza, Brooklands Hotel, The Westminster Hotel and a DoubleTree by Hilton as projects without publishing figures.
How big are the published hotel solar arrays?
The roof-mounted examples run from 14.3 kW on a Holiday Inn Express to 217 kWp on a golf resort hotel. The one published ground-mounted hotel array is 163.24 kWp on a disused tennis court. Spirit Energy says a medium hotel typically takes 100 to 300 kWp.
What payback do the published hotel projects report?
Where a payback is published it sits at six to eight years: Old Thorns six years at a 19% IRR, Premier Inn Salisbury eight years at 12% IRR (both from Spirit Energy), and Low Wood Bay a projected six years on a £195,000 investment. These are the installers' and operators' own figures, not ours.
Are these your installations?
No. This site is an independent information and installer-matching service and installs nothing. The register collects what installers, operators and the trade press have put on the public record, with a source and read date against each entry, so a hotel operator can see what comparable properties actually did.
Can you add our hotel to the register?
Yes if the installation is on the public record. Send a link to the published case study, press release or planning decision through the quote form and it will be checked against the source and added with the same fields as the other entries.