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The Timeline, Stage by Stage
The survey and design phase comes first: roof inspection, structural check, consumption modelling and the fixed quote, typically two to three weeks including your decision time. The network operator application runs next, connection approval for commercial scale systems, usually a few weeks in parallel with hardware ordering.
On site, scaffolding goes up, mounting and panels follow at a pace of hundreds of panels a week, then the electrical work, inverters and metering. A 100kWp system typically holds the roof team for one to two weeks. Commissioning, certification and the monitoring handover finish the job, and generation starts the day the system energises.
What Stretches It
The network operator is the honest variable. Straightforward approvals take weeks; constrained local networks can require studies that take longer, which is why we submit early and design within the existing connection where possible. Structural reinforcement, rare but real on older roofs, adds engineering time. And planning permission, only needed in specific cases for rooftop commercial solar, adds its own clock when it applies, we confirm which applies to you at survey.
Your operation, notably, is not on the list. Roof work happens above the business, deliveries are sequenced around yours, and the brief power interruptions for connection are planned to the hour with your team.
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The Comfortable Path
Survey this month, approvals and hardware in the next two, panels up the month after. Sites aiming for the high generation months work backwards from spring; the roof does not care when it is fitted, but your first year payback enjoys a summer start.
