UK developer says required expertise will be barrier to entry for commercial storage

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Developers of UK rooftop solar projects are investigating the possibilities of commercial energy storage. Image: Lightsource.

Developers of commercial solar PV in Britain, hoping to add batteries to their offerings could find the expertise required a significant barrier to entry, the head of a solar installation and power engineering company has said.

“At commercial level, every customer is different, every building is different, every load profile is different – where historically you might just try and fit as much PV to the roof as possible, that’s not the way to do it now,” Chris Roberts of Poweri Systems told Energy-Storage.News and PV Tech in a video interview.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

“We’re trying to match more to the consumption profile.”

Roberts said he is receiving “more and more” enquiries about installing systems on a “trial basis” for companies seeking to reduce their electricity costs.

There have been growing expectations around the role of energy storage in the UK, with Sonnen earlier this week highlighting the country as a “key territory” in its expansion plans following investment by US engineering giant GE.

At Solar Media’s recent Energy Storage Summit, a poll was taken of attendees, comprising many solar developers, project financiers, industry experts and other stakeholders, who estimated that around 50MW to 100MW of commercial projects could be installed in the UK this year.

In the short video interview below, Chris Roberts explains what his expectations are of the sector – and the sort of design and engineering challenges a commercial storage developer is likely to face.

Simply ‘transposing’ solar or wind financing structures can’t work for energy storage

Roberts was speaking at the recent Energy Storage Summit, hosted in London by our publisher, Solar Media, where another video interviewee, Dan Taylor of developer and financier Camborne Capital, similarly explained why UK utility-scale storage projects present more complexity than “simply transposing” financing structures from solar and wind.

Solar Media’s UK awards to recognise commercial storage projects

The Solar Power Portal Awards sponsored by Trina Solar, an annual celebration of the PV industry from Energy-Storage.News’ UK-based publisher, Solar Media, will include commercial-scale energy storage as a category for the first time this October.

The awards event returns for its fourth successive year and will be co-located with the inaugural Clean Energy Awards, established to celebrate the successes of the wider clean technology space.

Nominations deadline is 30 June and a nomination form can be found here.

25 November 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe continues to be the place to leverage a network that has been made over more than 10 years, to build critical partnerships to develop solar projects throughout the region.

Read Next

August 8, 2025
This week several solar developers have raised funds for projects around the world, including BRUC in Europe, Greenalia in the US, Qair in Mauritius and CREC in Philippines.
August 8, 2025
German solar inverter manufacturer SMA Solar posted losses in the first half of 2025, as demand in the residential and corporate & industrial (C&I) solar sectors 'remains weak'.
August 8, 2025
US solar tracker manufacturer Array Technologies has posted revenue of US$362.2 million in the second quarter of this year.
Premium
August 6, 2025
PV Talk: LevelTen’s Andrés Acosta discusses how an oversupply of clean projects is shaping Europe’s PPA market.
August 6, 2025
Independent power producer (IPP) Scatec has secured BRL150 million (US$27 million) for its 142MW solar PV plant in Minas Gerais, Brazil. 
August 5, 2025
NextEnergy Capital (NEC), through NextPower V ESG, has acquired a 73MW agriPV portfolio in Campania, Italy.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece
Solar Media Events
September 30, 2025
Seattle, USA
Solar Media Events
October 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
October 2, 2025
London,UK
Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
Manila, Philippines