Touring & Camping Sites: Solar panels for caravan parks

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 roughly doubled 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. On-site solar is auditable evidence behind a Green Tourism award, and increasingly that accreditation influences online visibility and direct bookings. 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 we size it

For a touring and camping site we usually design a system 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, we can size confidently for daytime self-consumption knowing the generation curve and the occupancy curve move together. For off-grid or rural sites with weak supply we model solar-plus-battery as an alternative to a DNO grid extension, sizing the storage to carry the site through cloudy spells and overnight. As always we pull at least twelve months of half-hourly data, or build a realistic profile where metering is limited, and overlay the occupancy calendar before finalising the design.

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, we look at a discreet ground array on unused land, subject to planning, and on genuinely off-grid sites we treat the whole thing as a standalone solar-plus-battery system rather than a grid-tied one. We size honestly to what the site genuinely draws rather than to an optimistic peak, so the array is consumed rather than dumped to export at a low tariff.

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 rather than 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.

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. Green Tourism accreditation supports bookings and is auditable evidence-backed by your on-site generation. We set the right route against your 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 we check 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 within size limits, with greater scrutiny in protected and coastal settings; a G99 application is required above 17 kW per phase; periodic inspection of the site installation is recommended at intervals not exceeding three years under IET Guidance Note 3; and the SPF1981 v3 rooftop fire safety standard is increasingly an insurer requirement.

How we approach this kind of project

We start with the meter data and occupancy calendar and size to the shower-block and lighting load, the loads that genuinely move with the sun on a touring site. A BS 7671 Section 708 condition survey of the site distribution is standard, so any pitch-pillar or amenity-block work is captured in one plan. Where the site is off-grid or capacity-constrained, we model solar-plus-battery directly against the cost and timescale of a DNO grid extension so the decision is made on real numbers, not assumptions, and we can include a small backup generator for worst-case weeks. We submit any required G99 application early, deliver a fixed-price proposal with a 10-year insurance-backed workmanship warranty, specify salt-resistant components on coastal sites, and schedule the work for the closed or quiet season so the camping season is untouched.

Because touring sites often operate under seasonal-licence or limited-period planning conditions, we check those early, since they can affect both the install and the supply design before any panels are specified. The standard of the work is backed by our certifications: MCS commercial certification, which is what makes the system eligible for the Smart Export Guarantee, plus NICEIC or NAPIT for the electrical work, RECC and TrustMark for consumer protection, and OZEV approval where EV hook-ups or guest charging are part of the scheme. On a touring site the physical install is usually quick, often only one to a few weeks given the smaller system size, and the only unavoidable outage is the final grid connection, which we book for a low-occupancy period. Bringing the amenity-block electrics up to current BS 7671 Section 708 standard at the same time as adding solar is usually the most cost-effective route, so you end up with one coordinated job rather than two.

An illustrative example

As an illustrative composite based on typical UK off-grid touring projects, and not a real named client: a remote touring and glamping site several hundred metres from the nearest three-phase supply faced a sizeable DNO quote with a long wait to extend the grid for its shower block, lighting and pitch hook-ups. Rather than pay for the extension, the site installed a roof-mounted PV array on the shower block with a battery sized to carry overnight and cloudy-spell demand, plus a small backup generator, taking the facilities fully off-grid for less than the grid-extension cost. The solar covered the daytime shower and lighting load directly during the busy months, the battery shifted generation into the evening, and the eco-credentials supported the site's marketing. A small backup generator covered the worst-case weeks, and over the year the system avoided both the connection bill and the standing charges that a grid extension would have carried. The figures are illustrative and depend on your site, grid position, occupancy and tariff.

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 request a free feasibility, or read the holiday park solar FAQs first.