Greater Manchester’s industry isn’t only in the city. Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Bolton, Wigan and Tameside are full of manufacturers, engineering firms, food producers and trade businesses, many of them in mills, sheds and units they own, alongside the big estates at Trafford Park and along the M60 and M62. BrightEdge Solar designs and installs commercial solar PV and battery storage for factories, warehouses, farms and public buildings across Manchester and Greater Manchester. We’re based in Beverley, East Yorkshire, and travel nationally for larger commercial projects, including seven industrial units in Chadderton, Oldham.
Machine shops, presses, compressors, extraction, cold rooms and lighting run through the working day, which is when solar generates.
Suppliers to larger manufacturers and retailers are increasingly asked about energy and carbon.
From first call to aftercare
Initial call: we look at your bills and, ideally, half-hourly data. Desktop design: satellite imagery and mapping give us an initial layout and estimate, often before we visit.
Site survey: roof, structure, electrical supply, existing G99 approvals and access. Proposal: final design, expected generation, costs and timescale.
G99 application: we submit and track it, along with any planning application. Installation and commissioning: MCS-compliant, planned around your busy periods.
Remote monitoring, plus optional annual maintenance to MCS MIS3002.
Initial call: we look at your bills and, ideally, half-hourly data. Desktop design: satellite imagery and mapping give us an initial layout and estimate, often before we visit.
Site survey: roof, structure, electrical supply, existing G99 approvals and access. Proposal: final design, expected generation, costs and timescale.
G99 application: we submit and track it, along with any planning application. Installation and commissioning: MCS-compliant, planned around your busy periods.
Remote monitoring, plus optional annual maintenance to MCS MIS3002.
See our recent projects
Factories and engineering firms. Manufacturers, engineers, food producers, printers and textile firms in Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Bolton, Wigan, Tameside and Stockport, including the advanced-manufacturing sites growing along the M62 in the Atom Valley zone.
Industrial estates and warehouses. Trafford Park, the M60 and M62 estates and multi-let parks. In Chadderton we installed 99.44 kWp across seven units on one estate, each with its own system, inverter and meter. See warehouse and industrial solar.
Farms and rural businesses. Hill farms and rural workshops on the Pennine edge around Saddleworth and the moorland fringe of Rochdale, Bolton and Wigan. See agricultural and farm solar.
Schools and colleges. Daytime use in term matches solar generation well. We plan work around the school calendar.
Churches and charities. Halls, community centres and charity premises. We give trustees plain figures for their committee.
Public sector. Council, NHS and emergency-service buildings, depots and leisure sites. We hold CHAS accreditation, which public bodies and main contractors often ask for. See office and public sector solar.
Including on systems installed by other firms: inspection, fixing and re-certifying non-compliant systems, and ongoing maintenance.
Yes. We cover all ten Greater Manchester boroughs, and we’ve installed 99.44 kWp across seven industrial units on one estate in Chadderton, Oldham.
SP Electricity North West, formerly Electricity North West. We handle the G99 application with them, which typically adds 8–12 weeks before installation.
Often, yes. South-facing slopes on northlight and multi-bay roofs can usually take panels, subject to the structure, the condition of the sheeting and any listing or conservation-area controls. We check all of this at survey.
Typically about £17,000–£21,000 for 30 kWp, £28,000–£37,000 for 50 kWp and £50,000–£65,000 for 100 kWp, excluding VAT. Systems of 150 kWp and above are typically about £420–£650 per kWp. Book a free survey for an accurate quote.
Yes. In Chadderton we designed seven separate systems, each with its own inverter and metering, sized to each unit’s roof. Each unit had its own G99 connection.
Many rooftop systems on commercial buildings fall under permitted development, subject to conditions and size limits. Ground-mounted arrays are more likely to need planning permission, and listed buildings and protected areas can need extra checks. We’ll check for your site and apply if it’s needed.
We work with businesses and organisations across:
These are areas we cover, not a list of past installs. We also cover commercial solar in Lancashire and commercial solar in Cheshire.
A battery stores midday surplus for early starts, late shifts and the evening, instead of exporting it at a low rate. It can also help where the network operator limits your export, and on some tariffs it can trim short demand peaks. We size batteries from your half-hourly data, your tariff and your solar generation, and we’ll tell you if a battery doesn’t pay its way. Commercial battery storage typically costs about £350–£450 per kWh installed, including the hybrid inverter. More detail: commercial battery storage.
Greater Manchester’s local network is run by SP Electricity North West (formerly Electricity North West). Almost every commercial system needs G99 approval before installation. We prepare and submit the application with the technical details and single-line diagrams the DNO needs, and deal with any queries. Approval typically adds 8–12 weeks before installation, so we start it early. On multi-let estates each unit can have its own connection, as in Chadderton, where seven separate G99 connections were commissioned.
If the DNO limits your export, a G100 export limitation scheme or a battery means you still use what you generate on site. Already have G99 approval for an older system? Tell us at the start. Read more: G99 applications explained.
Many rooftop systems on commercial buildings fall under permitted development, subject to conditions and size limits. Local factors that can change that:
We’ll check for your site and apply if it’s needed.
Indicative installed costs for commercial solar PV, by system size:
Commercial battery storage typically costs about £350–£450 per kWh installed, including the hybrid inverter. As a real example, a 42 kWh battery with a 20 kW hybrid inverter added to an existing system came to about £16,000.
Prices exclude VAT, which is charged at 20% on commercial installs. Simple roofs with good access sit at the lower end. Fibre-cement roofs, premium panels, scaffolding and safety systems such as rooflight protection or Man-Safe lifelines push the price up. Every quote sets out equipment, installation, scaffolding and DNO costs separately, so you can compare like for like.
Payback depends on how much of the generation you use on site, your unit rate, the system size and how easy the roof is to work on. We model it from your half-hourly data and show the expected payback in your proposal.
Send us a recent electricity bill, your half-hourly data if you have it, and details of any existing G99 approval. We’ll come back with an initial view on system size and whether solar makes sense for your building.
Book a free survey · Call 01482 765063 · info@brightedgesolar.com
BrightEdge Solar Ltd, Colonial House, Swinemoor Lane, Beverley HU17 0LS. MCS certified (NIC-601602). RECC member.