Solar PPA for factories & manufacturing in Manchester

Trafford Park: the obvious starting point

Few places make the factory-solar argument as plainly as Trafford Park — the historic engine of Manchester's manufacturing, still packed with industrial units drawing heavy daytime power. Fold in the estates at Sharston, Roundthorn and Openshaw, and Greater Manchester offers a deep pool of sites where a roof array could quietly cut the cost of every shift. The solar power purchase agreement puts that array up with no capital cost to the occupier.

What a PPA changes

The developer owns and looks after the panels; you buy their output at a locked 10–14p/kWh. For a manufacturer whose lines, presses and extraction run right through the day, generation and demand move together, so most of the solar is used on site rather than exported. Arrays commonly run from a quarter-megawatt up to 2MW, and the annual saving — set against a regional commercial bill around £48,000 and factory usage well beyond it — falls between £35,000 and £280,000. You can weigh a PPA against outright purchase and lease on our funding comparison.

Grid and net-zero context

Manchester's estates connect through Electricity North West, and the city works to a 2038 net-zero target under its Climate Change Framework, with GMCA business-decarbonisation funding in the mix. The same regional infrastructure serves the wider footprint — Salford, Stockport, Oldham and Rochdale all draw on it.

• No installation bill and no maintenance liability
• A stable unit rate through the contract term
• Scope 2 progress toward the 2038 goal

See how the manufacturing PPA model works in detail, or open the Manchester commercial solar page.