Alectrona
Commercial solar financeHow rooftop solar that powers your own site is treated for business rates, set out cautiously, because the effect on rateable value is nuanced and the reliefs have changed.
These are representative example reviews, not yet-collected customer feedback. They are written to illustrate the kind of feedback Alectrona aims to earn and are shown as design placeholders while we gather and verify reviews from our first commercial clients. Alectrona is the commercial solar trading brand of RVTC LTD.
What set Alectrona apart was the documented design pack. We had quotes from three installers, but only Alectrona handed us a full set of drawings, a single-line diagram and a design referencing BS 7671 and the G99 connection process. The whole thing read like an engineering submission rather than a sales brochure. Our M&E consultant reviewed it and signed it off without a single query. That gave the board the confidence to release the capital.
Other firms priced our roof off a satellite image and a desktop guess. Alectrona flew an in-house drone survey, fully insured and flown by a qualified commercial drone pilot, and built a 3D model of the actual roof. It picked up plant, vents and a parapet line that a flat aerial photo had completely missed, which changed the panel layout. I would rather find that out at design stage than on the day the scaffold goes up. The accuracy of that survey is the reason I trusted everything that followed.
As a finance director I was wary of being oversold a system bigger than we could use. Alectrona modelled the array against our actual half-hourly consumption data rather than an annual total, so it is sized to what we genuinely draw on site during the day. They were honest that exporting surplus is worth far less than self-consumption, and built the design around that. The capital case stacked up because the engineering was honest, not because the numbers were inflated.
We were undecided between buying outright, leasing and a PPA. Alectrona laid out all three side by side with the pros and cons of each against our balance sheet, instead of pushing the one that pays them best. They were clear about where a PPA makes sense and where capex wins, and pointed us at our own accountant for the tax treatment. The survey and design took a little longer than I expected, but the thoroughness was worth the wait. Genuinely consultative.
The install crew were tidy and well run, and worked to a clear CDM 2015 plan with a proper site induction and RAMS. What impressed me most was the handover. We received a full commissioning pack with the IEC 62446-1 test results, certification, O&M documentation and an as-built record for our maintenance team. As the people who have to live with this asset for the next twenty years, having that paperwork in order matters enormously. Nothing was left loose.
I expected the usual hard sell and got the opposite. After surveying our site Alectrona told us one roof section was not worth covering because of shading, and that a smaller, well-sited array was the better investment than filling every square metre. There was no commission-driven upselling and no pressure. For a six-figure capital project, that straight talk is exactly what you want from the people advising you. We will be using them again on our second site.
Business rates is not a way to fund a solar system. It is one of the tax topics that decides how much of the return you keep once the system is on the roof. When you buy the array outright as capex, you own a quarter-century asset and keep the full saving and the full capital-allowances relief. Business rates simply tells you how, if at all, that asset changes the rateable value of your property.
The honest position is that the rating treatment of rooftop solar used to power your own site is nuanced. Solar generates plant and machinery questions for the Valuation Office Agency, the rules on relief for self-supply microgeneration have moved over time, and the answer turns on your specific property and how the system is used. We set out the current position for your site rather than quoting a headline figure that may not apply to you.
Rooftop solar sized to power your own building is generally installed to offset the electricity you would otherwise import, not to run a generating business. That distinction matters, because the business-rates treatment of microgeneration used on the site where it is produced has historically been treated more favourably than plant installed to sell power. The detail lives with the Valuation Office Agency and the rating of the hereditament, and the specific reliefs and thresholds have changed across rating lists, so we do not publish a single rate or percentage here.
What this route does, in practice, is flag the rateable-value question early so it is priced into the decision rather than discovered afterwards. Capital allowances and the saving on your import bill are the parts of the case that move the numbers; business rates is a smaller, property-specific factor that your rating adviser or accountant confirms against your current rating list entry. We make sure it is on the table when you compare capex against a lease or a power purchase agreement.
This is a property-specific area and the figures are not ours to state. The effect of a rooftop array on rateable value, and whether any relief for self-supply microgeneration applies, depends on your premises, your rating list entry and how the system is used, and the rules have changed over successive rating lists. Treat anything here as indicative, not tax or rating advice, and confirm the position for your property with your accountant, surveyor or rating adviser. Where the capital is available, capex remains the route we recommend, because it gives the best return, full capital-allowances relief and an asset you own from day one; a lease or PPA trades some of that return for cash flow, and a PPA largely benefits the funder.
Indicative, not financial or tax advice. Confirm the position with a qualified accountant or tax adviser. Your figure comes from a survey-led PV*SOL model.
We model your half-hourly load against a system sized from an on-site drone survey, then set it against the funding route that suits you. Capex first, because it keeps the most of the return, with leasing and PPA there if the cash flow needs them.