The combination of solar canopy and EV charging infrastructure is one of the strongest business cases in commercial renewable energy right now. When designed properly, a solar canopy with integrated EV chargers generates electricity from the sun and delivers it directly to vehicles at minimal grid cost — creating a powerful loop that improves ROI for both technologies.
Why Solar + EV Is Better Than Either Alone
Solar canopy alone: Generates electricity 6-8 hours per day (daylight), some of which is consumed on-site, the rest exported at Smart Export Guarantee rates (8-15p/kWh). Export value is significantly lower than self-consumption value (22-28p/kWh avoided grid cost).
EV charging alone: Draws electricity from the grid at commercial rates. If you’re charging during peak hours (16:00-19:00), you’re paying ToU peak rates that can reach 45-60p/kWh on half-hourly settlement.
Solar canopy + EV charging: Solar generates electricity from 09:00-17:00 — exactly when business car parks are full of vehicles. EV charging during solar generation hours means each kWh is worth 22-28p (avoided import) rather than 8-15p (SEG export). This effectively doubles the economic value of daytime solar generation.
EV Charging Options for Solar Canopies
7 kW AC Type 2 (Slow / Destination Charging)
Best for: Employee cars parked 4-8 hours, visitor spaces at hotels, leisure, hospitals
Cost: £800-£1,500 per unit installed under canopy
Compatibility: Works with any EV. Adds approximately 35-40 miles of range per hour of charge.
Grid draw: 7 kW per active charger. A 20-charger installation draws max 140 kW — manageable alongside a 200 kWp solar canopy.
22 kW AC Type 2 (Fast Charging)
Best for: Fleet vehicles with faster AC charging capability, shared car parks with shorter dwell times
Cost: £2,000-£3,500 per unit installed
Compatibility: Requires vehicle to support 22 kW AC (not all vehicles do). Tesla Model 3/Y: 11 kW. Most Renault ZOE: 22 kW.
Grid draw: 22 kW per active charger. Canopy solar rarely fully covers 22 kW chargers in direct offset — but dramatically reduces net grid draw versus no solar.
50-150 kW DC Rapid (Fast / Ultra-Fast)
Best for: Fleet hubs, retail destinations, motorway-adjacent car parks, logistics
Cost: £18,000-£35,000 per unit installed
Compatibility: All modern EVs with DC charging port (CCS or CHAdeMO)
Grid draw: 50-150 kW per active charger. At this power level, solar canopy offsets are partial but still meaningful for energy cost and carbon reporting.
OZEV Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) Grant
The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) Workplace Charging Scheme provides (checked 17 September 2026):
- Up to £500 per socket for installations completed from 1 April 2026, capped at 75% of purchase and installation costs
- Up to 40 sockets across all sites per applicant — a running total, so the most one applicant can receive is £20,000
- A final year: the scheme runs until 31 March 2027
It is open to businesses, charities, public sector organisations and small accommodation businesses. A business’s WCS-funded chargers can only be used by its staff and fleets; public authorities, charities and small accommodation businesses can let anyone use them. State-funded schools and colleges have a separate strand at up to £2,000 per socket.
Combining WCS with tax relief on the solar element: the solar array can use the Annual Investment Allowance, and chargepoint equipment has its own 100% first-year allowance on spending by 31 March 2027 (corporation tax). The old Enhanced Capital Allowances for energy-saving equipment ended in April 2020, so ignore any quote that still includes them. For current charger cost benchmarks, the grid rules and how the grant works out on a real project, see our breakdown of EV canopy cost.
LEVI Fund (Local EV Infrastructure)
The Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund pays local authorities in England to plan and deliver chargepoints for residents without off-street parking; businesses cannot apply to it directly. This primarily targets public charging but some solar canopy + EV projects in publicly accessible car parks have successfully accessed LEVI funding.
Technical Integration: Solar and EV Charging
A well-designed solar canopy + EV system includes an energy management controller that:
- Monitors real-time solar generation
- Allocates generation to EV chargers first (avoiding grid import)
- Adjusts charger power dynamically (smart charging / V1G)
- Exports surplus at SEG if no EVs are charging
- Draws from grid only when solar is insufficient
This dynamic load management is the key differentiator between an integrated system and a simple side-by-side installation. Without it, you may charge EVs from the grid while exporting solar — wasting 10-20p/kWh of value.
Leading energy management platforms for this application: Indra Smart Pro, ev.energy, Zaptec, and OctopusEnergy’s own Charge Anytime platform for fleet use.
Getting the Design Right
Combining solar and EV requires careful electrical design from the outset:
- The main distribution board must be sized for combined solar export and EV import load
- DNO application must declare both solar generation and EV charging load
- Cable routes need to be planned before steel erection — retrofitting cable management is expensive
- Earth bonding between solar steelwork and EV charger enclosures must meet BS 7671
Ask the installer to handle all of this as a single coordinated project: adding EV chargers 18 months after the canopy means reopening the electrical design, the DNO application and the groundworks.
Work out what your own bay count will carry using the derived figures on our car park solar canopies page. If you are comparing structures at this stage, our solar panel canopy guide carries the spec tables.