Portal frames were designed for a roof, not a power station.
Steel portal frame buildings dominate UK industrial and agricultural stock, and most were designed with minimal spare capacity. Add solar panels and mounting rails, then add the snow load allowance the structural codes require on top, and the calculation often fails.
The result is a familiar story: a survey, a structural report, and a letter saying the building is unsuitable for solar. The owner keeps paying full price for grid electricity while an acre of south-facing roof does nothing.
In most cases the roof is not unsuitable. It is unsuitable for a standard installation designed without structural thought. Those are different problems, and the second one can usually be solved.
Five ways onto a marginal roof.
Proper Structural Assessment
A genuine frame and purlin appraisal by an experienced building engineer, not a desktop tick-box. Many refusals do not survive a proper calculation.
Active Snow Load Management
Technology that manages the governing snow load case, releasing structural capacity for panels on frames that fail conventional checks. This is our specialist proposition.
Lightweight Systems
Lightweight panels and rail-reduced mounting that cut the imposed load substantially compared with standard glass modules and rails.
Selective Array Design
Placing capacity where the structure has margin, working bay by bay rather than blanketing the roof and failing the worst frame.
Targeted Strengthening
Where modest works unlock the roof, purlin or frame strengthening designed and costed honestly against the value of the energy it releases.
Ground Mount & Carports
Where the roof genuinely cannot work, arrays on adjacent land or solar carports over yards and parking deliver the same energy outcome.
If you own a big shed, this applies to you.
Warehouses, distribution units, workshops, grain stores, livestock buildings, machinery sheds, vehicle depots. If your building is steel portal frame and your electricity bill is significant, the roof is an asset that should be earning.
This matters most for buildings with high daytime consumption underneath the roof: refrigeration, compressors, machinery, ventilation, drying. Solar generated and used on site is worth roughly three times what exported power earns, so the value is in buildings that work during daylight.
Beaumanoir Ltd handles the consultancy side: structural strategy, feasibility, funding and any planning requirements. Beau Energy delivers the installation. One point of responsibility across the whole problem.
From refusal to generation.
Desk Review
Send us your bills, building drawings if you have them, and any previous structural refusal. We give you an honest first view.
Structural Survey
Frame, purlin and connection appraisal on site, establishing what capacity genuinely exists and where.
Engineered Design
System design matched to the structure: load-managed, lightweight, selective or strengthened, with battery and export modelling.
Funding & Approvals
Funding route, grant support where available, planning where required and DNO grid application handled for you.
Delivery
Installed through Beau Energy with director-led project management and full documentation for your insurer and lender.
What building owners ask us first.
We already have a refusal. Is it worth another look?
Usually yes. A refusal tells you a standard design failed, not that every design fails. A second, engineering-led opinion is quick and low cost.
What does the insurer say?
We design to satisfy insurers and provide the structural documentation they ask for. Insurance sign-off is part of the process, not an afterthought.
Does snow load management really work?
It addresses the load case that governs most portal frame refusals. Where it applies, it releases capacity that conventional checks cannot. We will tell you plainly whether your building is a candidate.
Will the works disrupt operations?
Installation is planned around your operations, and most roof work happens outside your building envelope entirely.
Is my roof covering suitable?
Age and condition of the cladding matter as much as the frame. We assess both, and will say honestly if the roof needs work first.
What about planning?
Most commercial rooftop solar falls under permitted development. Where planning is required, Beaumanoir Ltd handles the application.
Start with the building, not the brochure.
Send us your building details, electricity bills and any previous refusal. We will give you an engineering-led view on whether your roof can work, and how, before any commitment.
Prefer email? Write to martin@beaumanoirltd.com and attach your bills.