850 kW PPA on a Golden Triangle 3PL distribution centre

This is an illustrative example based on typical projects - it is not a real named client, and the figures are indicative planning-grade numbers for a project of this type.

The brief

A third-party logistics (3PL) operator ran a 220,000 sq ft leased distribution unit in the Golden Triangle, near Daventry in the East Midlands - the DIRFT-adjacent belt where a single day’s HGV radius reaches most of the UK population. The site handled multi-client contract logistics on a two-shift pattern, with a large forklift and reach-truck fleet moving pallets across a high-bay racking floor.

Electricity was running at roughly £480,000 a year and climbing, driven by materials-handling equipment (MHE) charging, lighting and the site’s ambient conditioning. With TNUoS network charges set to rise around 60% in April 2026, every imported unit was about to cost more, and the operator’s retail customers were pushing Scope 3 targets down the supply chain into tender packs.

Two objections made this a textbook 3PL job: the operator did not own the roof (they were a tenant on the landlord’s big-box unit), and their customer contract had only five years to run - so a 25-year capex case on someone else’s building was a non-starter.

What the half-hourly data showed

We started where every warehouse project should start: twelve months of half-hourly (HH) meter data, not a roof survey. Warehouse solar is sized from the load, not the roof.

The profile told a clear story. Unlike a single-shift ambient shed, this 3PL had a firm, genuinely daytime base-load - the forklift and reach-truck fleet charged through the working day, and the two-shift operation kept demand high from early morning into the evening. That daytime consumption was substantial enough to absorb a large array without dumping cheap power back to the grid. The HH data showed we could size aggressively and still keep self-consumption high, because the MHE charging load lined up neatly with the solar generation curve.

Crucially, the constraint was not roof area. The 220,000 sq ft clear-span steel-portal roof could physically carry well over a megawatt, but sizing to the roof would have over-generated against even this strong load and exported the surplus at a loss.

The design

We sized the system to the load at 850 kW - around 1,570 panels on non-penetrative clip-fix mounting, so the standing-seam roof warranty stayed intact and there were no penetrations for the landlord to worry about. Annual generation lands at roughly 765,000 kWh/yr at the site’s ~900 kWh/kWp yield.

Because the system sat above a few hundred kW, we submitted the G99 connection application to the DNO early and confirmed the site’s agreed import capacity first - many logistics units retain generous import headroom from past industrial use, and this one did. The design targeted high self-consumption so the project would proceed without waiting on network reinforcement.

The funding was the pivot. With no roof ownership and a five-year contract horizon, we structured a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA): a third-party funder owns, installs and maintains the array, and the operator simply buys the daytime power it generates at a fixed rate below grid - zero capex, off the operator’s balance sheet, and written to align with the customer-contract term. Landlord consent came through a BBP-aligned green-lease addendum, the standard route most institutional big-box landlords now accept, with clean end-of-lease treatment agreed up front. Sprinkler clearances and insurer pre-design sign-off were built in from the start, to LPC / RISCAuthority RC62 guidance.

The outcome

The numbers, on a PPA basis:

• System size: 850 kW (~1,570 panels, non-penetrative clip-fix)
• Annual generation: ~765,000 kWh/yr
• Annual saving: ~£165,000/yr against grid-import prices
• Self-consumption: ~72%, driven by daytime MHE charging
• Capex: £0 - PPA-funded, cash-positive from month one

Because the deal is a PPA rather than a purchase, there is no payback period to wait out - the operator saved money from the first billing cycle, hedged directly against the April 2026 TNUoS rise, and now holds auditable Scope 3 generation data that sits inside their customer’s next tender pack.

Why it matters for similar operators

Most big-box logistics floorspace in the UK is leased, and most 3PL operators run on customer contracts far shorter than a solar array’s life - the exact two conditions that make operators assume solar “isn’t for us”. It is: the split-incentive and short-tenure objections are solved by the PPA-plus-green-lease structure, not by capex.

The other lesson is the sizing discipline. A roof-fill array on this unit would have looked impressive and returned poorly. Sizing from the half-hourly data - and letting a real MHE-charging load carry the self-consumption - is what turned a leased roof on a five-year contract into a saving from day one.

If you operate a distribution centre and recognise this picture, see how we approach 3PL and contract-logistics solar, review indicative warehouse solar costs and funding routes, or request a load-led feasibility quote - we model cash, asset finance and PPA side by side, using your own half-hourly data.