How Much Do Solar Panels for Restaurants Cost?
Restaurant-scale solar runs 15–50 kW for most venues, costing roughly £18,000 to £65,000 installed in 2026. Here are the real numbers by venue type — and the payback arithmetic behind them.
2026 price benchmarks by venue
Small commercial solar prices by the kilowatt, with meaningful economies as systems grow. Expect £1,100–£1,400 per kW at the 8–15 kW end, easing towards £950/kW as you approach 50 kW. These are fully installed figures — panels, inverter, mounting, scaffolding, electrical work, DNO paperwork, and commissioning.
| Venue | Typical system | Installed cost | Annual output | Typical payback* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Café / coffee shop | 8–20 kW | £11,000–£28,000 | 6,800–17,000 kWh | 4–6 years |
| Takeaway / QSR | 10–25 kW | £13,000–£30,000 | 8,500–21,000 kWh | 5–6 years |
| Pub / gastropub | 10–30 kW | £13,000–£36,000 | 8,500–26,000 kWh | 5–7 years |
| Independent restaurant | 15–50 kW | £18,000–£65,000 | 13,000–43,000 kWh | 5–7 years |
| Hotel with restaurant | 30–100 kW | £35,000–£110,000 | 26,000–86,000 kWh | 4–6 years |
*Simple payback at 2026 commercial electricity rates, before Annual Investment Allowance tax relief. Venue-typical self-consumption assumed; your trading pattern moves these figures, which is what the free quote establishes.
A worked example: 30 kW on a 90-cover restaurant
Take an independent restaurant trading lunch and dinner, six days, consuming 65,000 kWh a year. A 30 kW array (£33,000–£38,000 installed) generates roughly 26,000 kWh annually. With refrigeration baseload, prep-hours demand, and lunch service, the venue self-consumes about 70% — 18,200 kWh that would otherwise be bought at a blended 30p/kWh, worth £5,460 a year. The exported 7,800 kWh earns perhaps £400 under the Smart Export Guarantee. Total benefit around £5,860 a year: a 6-year simple payback that the Annual Investment Allowance shortens further by deducting the full £35,000 from year-one taxable profits — worth £8,750 to a company paying 25% corporation tax.
Then the part the spreadsheet understates: the savings are not a one-off. Panels carry 25-year performance warranties, so years seven through twenty-five generate essentially free electricity at whatever the future tariff happens to be. Energy price risk transfers from your P&L to your roof.
What moves the price up or down
Roof type: a clean pitched roof with good access prices at the bottom of the range; flat roofs add ballasted mounting; membrane roofs near end-of-life should be re-covered first (we will say so rather than install over a failing roof). Scaffolding complexity: a high-street terrace with no rear access costs more to scaffold than a standalone building with a car park. Electrical distance: long cable runs from roof to distribution board add labour and copper. Extract terminals: arrays must keep clear of grease-laden kitchen extract plumes, which on small roofs can reduce usable area. Three-phase vs single-phase: systems above 17 kW per phase need a G99 DNO application — paperwork and lead time more than cost, but it shapes the design.
Batteries: the honest version
Storage adds roughly £400–£600 per kWh of usable capacity — typically £5,000–£10,000 for the 10–20 kWh that suits restaurant scale. Whether it pays depends entirely on trading pattern. Evening-led venues gain the most: surplus afternoon generation moves into dinner service, lifting self-consumption from around 55% to 85%+. Daytime-led cafés usually should not bother — they already use what they generate. We model both configurations from your bills and show the comparison; roughly half the time our recommendation is "skip the battery", which is how you know the model is working for you rather than for us.
Tax, VAT, and the net cost
Commercial restaurant installs are standard-rated for VAT — the widely-advertised 0% rate (running to March 2027) applies to residential installations only — but VAT-registered businesses reclaim it in full, so it is a cash-flow item, not a cost. The substantive relief is the Annual Investment Allowance: solar qualifies as plant and machinery, deductible at 100% against year-one profits up to £1m of spend. The VAT and capital allowances guide walks through both, including the 50% First Year Allowance position and how sole traders differ from limited companies.
From benchmark to actual quote
The table above brackets the market; your number depends on your roof and your half-hourly pattern. The quote form takes three minutes — venue type, rough roof size or energy spend, postcode, contact — and we respond within one working day with a sized, priced, payback-modelled proposal built from your bills. The kitchen energy guide is worth a read first if you want to understand where your consumption actually goes.