Stiller Warehousing & Distribution

Stiller Warehousing & Distribution operates from a large distribution facility in the North East — the kind of building with a big, open roof and a steady daytime electrical load, which makes it well suited to on-site solar.

The headline is a 175 kWp array across the warehouse roof, sized around the operation’s daytime demand so the power is used on site rather than sold back to the grid. On those numbers the system returns its cost in about 4.2 years.

What sets this one apart is the relationship behind it. G Smith already had an ongoing arrangement servicing Stiller’s existing electrical infrastructure — so the solar was specified and installed by a firm that already knew the site’s switchgear and distribution inside out, not a stranger arriving cold.

That matters after handover as much as during it: with one contractor maintaining both the electrics and the array, there is a single point of accountability for the whole system, rather than a solar installer and an electrician pointing at each other when a question comes up.

Warehousing and distribution buildings tend to earn their solar back well: the roof is large and unbroken, and the power drawn through working hours lines up with when the panels produce. Paired with a maintenance arrangement that keeps the whole electrical system healthy, the array is looked after for the decades it is meant to last, not just the day it is switched on.