Commercial solar for warehouses
Warehouse and logistics buildings often have large, unshaded roof area — but electricity demand varies a lot by operation, so the economics aren't automatic.
The roof is often the easy part
Large, flat, unshaded warehouse roofs are usually well suited to solar from an installation perspective. The bigger question for the economics is what's actually on the other end of the meter: a warehouse with heavy racking, lighting, and material handling equipment running through the day looks very different, electrically, from a largely unstaffed distribution shed with low baseline demand.
What's worth checking specifically
- Self-consumption realism. A low-demand warehouse may export a large share of what it generates, which changes the economics — make sure the proposal's self-consumption assumption reflects your actual operation, not the roof size.
- Roof age, loading and covenant. Warehouse roofs vary widely in condition and structural capacity; if you lease the building, check what the lease says about roof-mounted installations and end-of-term arrangements.
- Racking and layout changes. If the building's use is likely to change (different tenant, different racking, mezzanine additions), consider how that could affect access to the array or future maintenance.
- Multi-let or multi-tenant sites. If you don't occupy the whole building, check who benefits from the generation and how that's accounted for.
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