About commercialsolarcanopy.co.uk

Who publishes this site

This site is published by SEO Dons Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16766013). It is a specialist information and assessment service for one narrow subject: solar canopies built over car parks, walkways and service yards. We do not design, manufacture or install canopies, we hold no installer accreditations of our own, and we have no completed installations to show you. If a website in this niche claims otherwise, ask it for the certificate number and check it yourself.

What we do offer is the part of a canopy project that is hardest to get independently: a clear read of how the structure is sized and priced, which consents actually apply to your site, how the grid connection works, and which funding routes are genuinely open — before anyone tries to sell you a system.

What we will and will not do

• We will show you an instant indicative estimate on every page and, if you send your details, reply by email.
• We will tell you plainly when a canopy is the wrong answer — most often when a sound, unshaded roof could carry the same array for considerably less.
• We will cite our sources and date our figures, so a finance director or estates team can check them.
• We will not run a lead auction, pass your details to installers or promise a reply time we cannot show. We reply by email.
• We will not add you to a marketing list or call you unless you ask us to.
• We will not claim installs, reviews, accreditations or a track record we do not have.

Why a canopy is its own subject

A rooftop array bolts onto a structure that already exists. A canopy is the structure: a steel frame on its own foundations, designed for wind and snow loading, with clearance for vehicles, drainage and lighting, and usually cable routes for EV chargers. That changes almost everything about the project — the cost per kilowatt, the consent route, the structural sign-off, the grid application and the business case. Most of the confusion we see comes from applying rooftop assumptions to a canopy, which is why the cost guide, the planning guide and the structure types are the most detailed pages on this site.

How to check any installer you speak to

The certifications that matter belong to the contractor who builds your canopy, so check them against the issuing body rather than a logo on a website:

• MCS — search the company on the MCS certified installer database and confirm the certificate covers solar PV.
• NICEIC — search the contractor register.
• RECC — confirm current membership of the Renewable Energy Consumer Code.
• Structural design — ask who signs off the frame and foundation design and to which standard.
• Warranty — ask who underwrites the workmanship warranty and what happens to it if the installing company ceases trading.

How our figures are sourced

Grant amounts, tariffs, thresholds and deadlines on this site carry a source and a date, and the volatile ones are re-checked rather than left to age. Where a figure is modelled — a payback period for an example car park, say — we say so. Where a scheme has closed, we say that too: the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which many canopy guides still describe as open, closed to new applications in November 2024, and the grants and funding page sets out what remains.

If you spot something out of date or wrong, tell us on the contact page and we will correct it and date the correction.