Solar built around a school, not a warehouse
We are a specialist school solar team. We don't do domestic rooftops or one-off commercial jobs on the side — we design, fund and install solar PV for UK primary schools, secondary schools, sixth-form colleges, special schools, independent schools and Multi-Academy Trusts, and that focus is deliberate. A school is not a warehouse with a different sign over the door. Its energy demand is term-time and weekday; it empties for six weeks in summer at the very peak of the solar year; and it has children on site, which changes everything about how a contractor is allowed to work. A generalist installer optimises for roof area. We optimise for a school's actual half-hourly load, its funding status, and its calendar.
Safeguarding comes before the solar
Every installer who enters a school through us is DBS-cleared to Enhanced level including the Children's Barred List, refreshed annually, and we work to Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2025 standards: School Business Manager induction, escorted access in pupil areas, and signed-in/signed-out tracking for every operative, every day. The disruptive phases are scheduled for school holidays, and we keep the May–June exam window clear. Several of the Multi-Academy Trusts we work with have adopted our induction protocol as their own estates standard. It is the single most common reason headteachers who have never bought solar before are comfortable letting us on site.
We speak Salix, PSDS and CIF
Most schools stall on one question: how do we pay for it? We answer it before you ask. We prepare the funding case — the interest-free Salix Decarbonisation Loan, the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, or the Condition Improvement Fund for academies — and we write the auditable energy-savings calculation each scheme demands, so your business manager signs a form rather than builds a model. For most state schools this makes a project cash-flow positive from year one, with no call on teaching budgets.
Accreditations and how we work
We install to MCS commercial certification, and work with NICEIC-approved, RECC and TrustMark-registered contractors, backed by ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 management systems. Every project carries a 10-year insurance-backed workmanship warranty (IWA/GDI), and tier-1 panels carry a 25-year performance warranty. We are manufacturer-independent — we specify the panels and inverters that suit your roof and load, not the ones we're incentivised to shift. Every proposal is modelled from your own half-hourly meter data, and if the numbers don't work for your school, we will tell you plainly and walk away.
The classroom benefit
A school solar array is also a teaching resource, and we treat it as one. Most of our installs include a live-generation display for the entrance or main hall and a curriculum pack tied to KS2 and KS3 Geography, Science and Design & Technology, so pupils can see real-time generation, lifetime kWh and CO₂ saved. Several schools run a "green ambassador" programme from the data. It is often the detail that tips a governing body's decision.
solarpanelsforschools.co.uk is operated by SEO Dons Ltd (Company No. 16766013), 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ. Talk to us and we'll give you an honest read on whether your roof suits solar — and what it would take to fund it.