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Commercial Solar

Solar for businesses where the bill is driven as much by demand charges and tariff structure as by consumption. Modelled against your meter data, delivered in stages that do not interrupt trading.

Commercial solar is a different exercise from residential solar, and not simply a larger version of it. A business bill is typically made up of consumption charges, demand charges based on your peak draw, and network tariffs that vary by time of day. A system that reduces consumption but never touches your peak can look excellent on paper and disappoint on the invoice.

Who this is for

  • Warehouses, factories and cold storage with steady daytime load
  • Retail, hospitality and healthcare sites on time-of-use or demand tariffs
  • Agricultural operations with pumping or processing loads
  • Multi-site operators wanting a consistent standard across locations

How commercial projects are scoped

  • Interval data analysis. Twelve months of meter data shows your true load shape, your peaks, and how much of each a solar system can realistically address.
  • Tariff review. There is no point optimising generation against the wrong tariff. Sometimes the tariff is the cheaper fix.
  • Structural and electrical assessment. Roof capacity, membrane condition, switchboard headroom and available space for inverters.
  • Financial modelling. Payback, internal rate of return and cash flow modelled on your actual figures, with the assumptions written down so you can challenge them.
  • Staged delivery. Larger sites are usually installed in stages, scheduled around trading hours and shutdown windows.

Certificates and compliance at commercial scale

The incentive mechanism changes with system size. Smaller commercial systems are generally handled under the small-scale renewable energy scheme through small-scale technology certificates, while systems above 100 kilowatts fall under the large-scale scheme and generate large-scale generation certificates instead, which are administered and traded differently. Which side of that line your project sits on affects both the up-front cost and the ongoing administration.

Installation and design accreditation runs through Solar Accreditation Australia, and electrical work requires an unrestricted licence valid in the relevant state or territory. Commercial installations are governed by AS/NZS 5033 and AS/NZS 4777, with AS/NZS 5139 applying where storage is included. Larger connections frequently require a more involved network application than a residential system, and that timeline needs to be built into the project plan rather than discovered halfway through.

Common questions

It is determined by your load shape rather than your roof area or your annual consumption. Twelve months of interval meter data shows when your peaks occur and how much of them solar can actually offset, which is what sets the economic system size.
Systems up to 100 kilowatts are generally handled under the small-scale renewable energy scheme and create small-scale technology certificates, usually assigned as an up-front discount. Systems above 100 kilowatts fall under the large-scale scheme and generate large-scale generation certificates, which are created over time and traded separately.
Sometimes, and only if your peak demand occurs during daylight hours. Where peaks fall outside generation hours, reducing demand charges usually requires storage or load shifting rather than additional panels. We model this before recommending anything.
Yes. Commercial installations are routinely delivered in stages scheduled around trading hours, shutdown periods and site access constraints, so the work does not interrupt operations.

Have your site modelled on real meter data

Send us twelve months of interval data and we will model the system, the tariff and the payback before anyone quotes you hardware.

Request a commercial assessment