Solar Power for Campsites and Touring Caravan Sites

Why solar works hard for touring and camping sites despite the lower capital

Touring and camping sites are the most seasonal corner of the holiday park sector, and they are also where the simplest solar paybacks often hide. The dominant loads on a touring or camping site are shower-block hot water and lighting, and those align almost perfectly with summer occupancy and daytime sun. When the site is full in July and August, the showers are running flat out in the middle of the day, which is exactly when an amenity-block array generates the most, so self-consumption in season is excellent. Electric hook-up (EHU) pitch demand peaks at the same time. The result is that even a modest, lower-capital system on the amenity-block roof tends to deliver a strong simple payback, because almost everything it makes is used on site during the busy months.

There is a second, more strategic case for many touring sites: they are rural, and a good number sit on weak or non-existent three-phase supplies. Where a site needs more capacity, the choice is often between an expensive DNO grid extension and an on-site solar-plus-battery system, and solar frequently wins on both cost and timescale. For a remote field that has been managing on a limited supply, that can be the difference between expanding the facilities and being stuck. Energy costs have risen sharply across the sector since 2021, and on a thin-margin touring operation a fixed, low electricity bill for two decades is a genuine prize.

Touring sites are also feeling the same guest pressure for sustainability credentials as the rest of the sector, and for a camping or touring audience that pressure is often stronger, because the people who choose a campsite tend to value the outdoors and respond well to a genuine green story. Green Tourism is a certification scheme, not a grant; on-site solar can count as evidence in an application, so check the scheme's current criteria. Guest EV charging is becoming expected too, and on a touring site the daytime occupancy that drives the showers also makes daytime guest charging a near-perfect match for solar generation, absorbing the power at close to full self-consumption rather than exporting it cheaply.

What a typical install looks like and how it is sized

For a touring and camping site a system is usually designed in the 20 to 150 kW range, roughly 37 to 275 panels across about 120 to 900 square metres of amenity and shower-block roof plus reception, generating in the region of 18,000 to 138,000 kWh a year and saving between 4 and 31 tonnes of CO2 annually. Sizing is anchored on the shower-block hot water and lighting load, the dominant draw, and on the EHU pitch demand that peaks in season. Because the demand is so concentrated in the sunny months, daytime self-consumption can be sized with confidence because the generation curve and the occupancy curve move together. For off-grid or rural sites with weak supply solar-plus-battery is worth modelling as an alternative to a DNO grid extension, with the storage sized to carry the site through cloudy spells and overnight. As always, the starting point is at least twelve months of half-hourly data, or a realistic profile where metering is limited, overlaid with the occupancy calendar before the design is finalised. Whether that seasonality still pays is the question in is solar worth it for caravan parks.

On a touring or camping site the metering question is almost always answered in favour of a site-wide array. The electric hook-up pitches, the shower block, reception and lighting are all part of the operator's own supply, so an amenity-block array offsets exactly the loads you pay for, and the saving stays with you or is recovered through your hook-up charges. Per-pitch generation rarely makes sense on a touring site, where pitches change occupants constantly. Where the amenity-block roof is too small for the load, a discreet ground array on unused land is worth considering, subject to planning, and on genuinely off-grid sites the whole thing is best treated as a standalone solar-plus-battery system rather than a grid-tied one. The array should be sized to what the site genuinely draws rather than to an optimistic peak, so it is consumed rather than dumped to export at a low tariff. For the roof-versus-ground decision in more detail, see rooftop vs ground-mounted solar for caravan parks.

Costs, payback and tax relief

A touring and camping site project typically runs £22,000 to £135,000 fully installed, with a simple payback near 7 years on amenity-block roofs, after which the generation is effectively free for the life of the system. These are lower-capital projects with strong simple paybacks, which makes them an easy first step for an owner testing the water before a larger scheme. The 100% Annual Investment Allowance lets most site 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 value back in tax for a limited company; solar is a special-rate asset so it uses the AIA, not full expensing. The Smart Export Guarantee pays for surplus exported in the off-season, though on a well-sized touring system the bulk of the value comes from avoided import during the busy daytime months. Our cost guide shows worked figures, and the funding page covers export tariffs. These cost and payback figures are illustrative estimates, not quotes.

Funding routes in detail

Because touring and camping projects are smaller, they often fall comfortably inside a single year's Annual Investment Allowance, so the 100% AIA writes the whole cost off against profit in year one for most operators. Where capital is tight, a power purchase agreement gives zero-capex deployment with day-one savings, and asset finance spreads the cost over a typical term. For sites offering EV hook-ups or guest charging, 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. The off-grid case has its own funding logic: a solar-plus-battery system is frequently cheaper than a DNO grid extension outright, so the comparison is not solar against doing nothing but solar against a large one-off connection bill plus ongoing standing charges. The right route depends on cash flow and the site's grid position.

Compliance and sector considerations

Electric hook-up pitches on a touring and camping site fall under BS 7671 Section 708 for caravan and camping parks, with the same socket-outlet, RCD and IP-rating requirements as a static park. The sector-specific wrinkle is the grid: many touring sites are rural with weak or no three-phase supply, and an off-grid solar-plus-battery system often beats a DNO connection upgrade on both cost and lead time. Some touring and camping sites also operate under seasonal-licence or limited-period planning conditions, which should be checked early because they can affect both the install and the supply design. The wider sector compliance picture applies too: permitted development generally covers rooftop PV on amenity buildings in England under Class J of Part 14 (above 50 kW, subject to the council's prior approval; Wales and Scotland have their own rules), with greater scrutiny in protected and coastal settings; a G99 application is required above 16 A (3.68 kW) per phase; and periodic inspection of the site installation follows the intervals set out in IET Guidance Note 3.

If your site also runs static caravans or premium lodges, see solar for caravan parks and solar for lodge and glamping parks. When you are ready, read the cost guide and funding routes, then send an enquiry, or read the holiday park solar FAQs first.