Lodge & Glamping Parks: Solar panels for caravan parks

Why solar panels suit lodge and glamping parks better than almost any park type

Lodge and glamping parks sit at the premium end of the caravan park market, and they have two features that make solar unusually compelling. The first is load. Premium lodges with hot tubs are high per-unit electricity users, and hot-tub heating is a major load that runs much of the year rather than only in the summer peak, so the daytime generation has a real job to do. The second is the guest. Eco-conscious glamping and premium-lodge guests respond strongly to visible renewable credentials, and several sites now treat their solar as a core part of the marketing rather than a back-office cost saving. Where a standard caravan park sells solar to itself on the bill, a lodge or glamping park can also sell it to guests, which is a rare position to be in.

As with the rest of the holiday park sector, energy has roughly doubled since 2021 and is squeezing margins, but here the seasonal objection bites less. Year-round hot-tub demand and a higher off-peak baseload mean a lodge park consumes more of what it generates outside the August rush than a pure touring field would. Lower-density lodge and glamping sites also often have land between units for discreet ground-mount, and genuinely off-grid pods suit solar-plus-battery micro-systems, so the design options are broader than for a tightly packed static park.

The seasonal-cash-flow problem that affects every park is real here too. Most of the income arrives between April and October, yet hot-tub heating, frost protection and standing charges run on through the winter, so a lodge park carries a year-round electricity cost against a sharply seasonal revenue line. Solar does not change that revenue pattern, but it does flatten the cost side: the in-season generation offsets the busiest, most expensive months directly, and the off-season export earns SEG income during exactly the period when occupancy and cash are at their thinnest. That counter-seasonal cash flow, money coming in from export when bookings are quiet, is an underrated benefit of solar for this part of the market.

What a typical install looks like and how we size it

For a lodge and glamping park we usually design a system in the 30 to 250 kW range, roughly 55 to 460 panels across about 200 to 1,500 square metres of roof, generating in the region of 27,000 to 230,000 kWh a year and saving between 6 and 53 tonnes of CO2 annually. Sizing follows the load profile, and the hot-tub circuits are the feature that shapes it. Because hot-tub heating runs across much of the year, we often size for a higher baseload than a static park of similar pitch count would justify, and we model battery storage where the site wants to shift midday generation into the evening when lodges are occupied and hot tubs are working hardest. Where the site is lower density, we assess ground-mount between units alongside roof options, and for genuinely off-grid pods we look at solar-plus-battery micro-systems sized to carry the unit through cloudy spells. As always we pull at least twelve months of half-hourly data and overlay the occupancy calendar before finalising anything.

The site-wide versus per-unit decision plays out a little differently on a lodge or glamping park than on a static site. For most lodge parks we still recommend feeding the array into the park's private distribution network so it offsets everything the operator pays for, then either keeping the saving or recovering it through pitch or lodge electricity charges. The genuine exception is the off-grid pod or the remote glamping cluster, where there is no shared roof or ground space and no mains connection at all; there a dedicated solar-plus-battery micro-system per pod or per cluster is the right answer. We model both, and on mixed sites we frequently end up with a hybrid: a site-wide array on the central buildings plus standalone micro-systems on the genuinely remote units.

Costs, payback and tax relief

A lodge and glamping park project typically runs £32,000 to £225,000 fully installed, with a simple payback near 6.5 years, after which the generation is effectively free for the life of the system. The 100% Annual Investment Allowance lets most park businesses write off the full cost of solar, inverters, mounting and storage against profit in year one, up to the cap, worth up to a quarter of the project value back in tax for a limited company. Solar is a special-rate asset, so it uses the AIA rather than full expensing, but the AIA cap comfortably covers a single lodge park. The Smart Export Guarantee pays for the surplus you export in the quieter months, and because premium sites often run strong shoulder-season occupancy, the in-season self-consumption that drives payback tends to be healthy. Our cost guide works through the numbers, and the funding page covers export tariffs and EV charging support.

Funding routes in detail

Lodge and glamping parks have the same funding toolkit as the wider sector, and the premium positioning often makes the case easier. The 100% Annual Investment Allowance is the anchor, delivering up to a 25% effective tax saving in year one. A power purchase agreement gives zero-capex deployment with day-one savings against your current tariff, useful when reserves are being held for unit upgrades or hot-tub replacements. Asset finance spreads the cost over a typical term and is usually EBITDA-positive from year one. If you offer guest EV charging, which fits the eco-minded glamping audience particularly well, the OZEV Workplace Charging Scheme funds up to 75% of chargepoint cost, capped at £500 per socket from April 2026, up to 40 sockets, and pairs naturally with daytime solar at near-100% self-consumption. Green Tourism accreditation is not a grant but is arguably worth more to a premium park than to any other type, because the guest segment actively chooses greener sites, and your solar is the auditable evidence behind a Gold award. We model the right blend of these against your cash flow.

Compliance and sector considerations

The safety-critical compliance point for a lodge and glamping park is the hot-tub circuit. Hot tubs are high-load and need correct RCD protection and bonding under BS 7671, and we design around that wherever the PV ties into circuits serving them. Pitch electrical supply still falls under BS 7671 Section 708 for caravan and camping parks, even where the glamping structures themselves may be exempt from full building regulations. Planning sensitivity is higher than average for this sector because lodge and glamping parks are often in AONB or National Park settings, so we favour roof-mount or discreet, screened ground-mount and engage the planning authority, and where relevant the National Park authority, early with the visual-impact and landscape assessment they expect. The wider park compliance picture applies too: permitted development generally covers rooftop PV within size limits, a G99 application is needed above 17 kW per phase, capacity-constrained rural networks need a connection study before sizing, and the SPF1981 v3 rooftop fire safety standard is increasingly an insurer requirement.

How we approach this kind of project

We begin with at least twelve months of half-hourly meter data overlaid on your occupancy calendar, and we size for self-consumption against your real seasonal and year-round loads rather than a generic profile. A full BS 7671 site-electrics survey is standard, including the hot-tub and lodge supply circuits, so any necessary upgrade is captured in one coordinated plan. Because so many lodge and glamping parks sit in protected landscapes, we put real effort into sympathetic siting and early planning engagement, and we provide the landscape and visual-impact material the authority needs. We submit the G99 grid application early, design for self-consumption or add battery storage where export capacity is constrained or where off-grid pods need it, and deliver a fixed-price proposal with a 10-year insurance-backed workmanship warranty. Coastal sites get a salt-resistant specification, and we schedule disruptive work for the quiet season.

For off-grid glamping in particular, the comparison we put in front of you is direct: an on-site solar-plus-battery system against the real cost and lead time of a DNO grid extension to a remote field. A grid extension to a distant site can run into many tens of thousands of pounds with a wait of many months, and it leaves you with ongoing standing charges thereafter. A well-sized micro-system can power the shower block, lighting, pod hot tubs and a small reception directly, with storage to carry cloudy spells and overnight, and a small backup generator for the worst weeks. Where the site sits in a National Park or AONB, we lead with roof-mount on the shower block and discreet, screened ground-mount, and we provide the landscape and visual-impact assessment the authority expects, because sympathetic siting is what gets these approved. Our certifications, MCS, NICEIC or NAPIT, RECC, TrustMark and OZEV where charging is added, back the whole package.

An illustrative example

As an illustrative composite based on typical UK off-grid glamping projects, and not a real named client: a 14-pod luxury glamping site inside a National Park, around 600 metres from the nearest three-phase supply, faced a DNO quote of roughly £78,000 with an eleven-month wait to extend the grid to power its shower block, lighting, pod hot tubs and a small reception. Instead the site installed around 38 kW of PV with a 90 kWh battery, roof-mounted on the shower block plus a screened ground array, with a small backup generator for worst-case weeks. The system generated in the region of 33,000 kWh a year and let the site go fully off-grid for less than the grid-extension cost, with a payback near 4.5 years measured against the avoided connection and ongoing standing charges. Planning was approved on the roof-mount plus screened ground array, sympathetic to the National Park setting, and the eco-credentials became the site's core marketing message. The figures are illustrative and depend on your site, grid position, planning context and tariff.

If your site also runs static caravans or a touring field, see solar for caravan parks and solar for campsites. When you are ready, read the cost guide and funding routes, then request a free feasibility, or read the holiday park solar FAQs first.