Who we are
Solar Panels For Fabrication is a UK MCS-certified commercial solar specialist that works with one type of building above all others: the metal-fabrication and engineering workshop. We are a trading brand of SEO Dons Ltd, and the business is run by director Donovan Fawcett. We are not a generalist installer who happens to take on the occasional industrial roof. We design, size and deliver rooftop solar for welding shops, structural-steel fabricators, sheet-metal firms, CNC machining shops, laser and plasma profiling houses and powder-coating lines, because those trades share a load profile that makes them one of the strongest solar candidates of any building type in the country.
That focus exists for a reason competitors miss. Metal fabrication is overwhelmingly a single-shift, Monday-to-Friday, daytime operation, so its electrical demand lands almost exactly on top of the solar generation curve. A shop running welders, plasma and fibre-laser cutters, CNC machining centres, a rotary-screw compressor and legally-required fume extraction consumes 70 to 90 percent of everything its array generates on site, at the full 25 to 30p import rate, rather than exporting it cheaply. High daytime self-consumption is what drives short paybacks, and a fabrication shop has it built in. That is why we only build for this sector.
Our approach
We size from data, not from a rule of thumb. Before we design anything, we pull twelve months of your half-hourly meter data and size the array to cover roughly 70 to 90 percent of your daytime consumption. We anchor that design on the steady loads that run all day, the rotary-screw compressor that is usually your single biggest consumer, the LEV fume extraction that must run whenever anyone welds, the laser chillers and the CNC coolant pumps, then let the spiky welding, plasma and laser peaks soak up the midday generation. A fibre laser draws far more for its chiller, drives and assist-gas compressor than for the beam itself, so we model the real baseload rather than the nameplate. You get the file, and you can stress-test it before you spend anything.
We design around your workshop, not around a template
A fabrication roof is not an empty rectangle. Legally-required LEV weld-fume extraction ductwork and its discharge stacks penetrate the same roof as the array, so we plan the panel layout, cable routing and maintenance walkways around your existing and future extraction penetrations, and the PV never blocks a fume route. On heavy structural-steel shops, EOT overhead-crane rails and gantry dead loads are deducted from the roof's residual capacity before we add a framed array, and a structural engineer signs off the portal frame. Where you run a powder-coat or paint booth, DSEAR zoning means our DC cabling, isolators and inverters must keep well clear of the hazardous area. Any building from before 2000 gets an asbestos management survey first, because asbestos-cement roofs cannot take rooftop PV directly and usually need over-cladding or replacement.
Honest, fixed-price and grid-ready
We quote a fixed price, and we tell you honestly when the tenure or the roof does not stack up rather than selling you a system that will not pay. Most commercial fabrication arrays sit above the G99 threshold, so we submit the DNO grid-connection application on day one alongside the structural survey, while many contractors leave it until contract and lose months. We model cash purchase, asset finance and a zero-capex Power Purchase Agreement side by side, so an owner-occupier and a tenant on a leased unit can both see the honest numbers. Rooftop PV on an industrial building in England is normally Permitted Development under Class A of Part 14 of the GPDO 2015, and the previous 1 MW cap was removed in December 2023, but we confirm the planning status for your site.
Fire-safe and warranted for the long term
Every system we design is RC62 fire-safe, following the RISCAuthority, MCS and Solar Energy UK Joint Code of Practice for rooftop-PV fire safety, because insurers increasingly make RC62-compliant design, annual maintenance and an updated fire risk assessment a condition of cover. We notify your property insurer and obtain sign-off before install. Panels are warranted for 25 years, typically at 84 percent output at year 25, and our installation workmanship is covered by a 10-year insurance-backed (IWA) warranty as standard, so the guarantee stands even if the installer does not. A light annual operations-and-maintenance visit plus remote monitoring keeps the array performing across a real-world 30 to 35 year life.
Accreditations
Our credentials are the ones that matter for commercial solar, and our MCS commercial certification number appears on every quote. We hold and work to:
- MCS commercial certification, which is what makes your installation eligible for the Smart Export Guarantee
- NICEIC contractor registration for the electrical work, to BS 7671 including Section 712 for PV
- RECC and TrustMark, the Government-endorsed consumer-protection and quality schemes
- RC62-compliant rooftop-PV fire-safety design on every project
- A 10-year insurance-backed workmanship warranty as standard
- Membership of Solar Energy UK
We also work to the compliance that is specific to your trade rather than to solar in general: HSE Safety Bulletin STSU1-2019 on welding fume, where all welding fume including mild steel is now a Group 1 carcinogen and LEV is required for all indoor welding under COSHH; DSEAR 2002 for powder-coating and paint booths; the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 on legacy roofs; and CDM 2015, under which a rooftop install is construction work and you are the Client. This is the detail a generalist does not check, and the reason a fabricator is better served by a specialist.
Work with a fabrication solar specialist
If power is now your biggest controllable overhead after steel and labour, and net-zero clauses are starting to appear in the tenders you used to win on price alone, on-site solar is one of the most visible and verifiable ways to answer both. We start with a free feasibility study built on your own half-hourly data, and you can see the modelled cost and payback and the grants and funding that apply before you commit a penny. When you are ready, request a fixed-price quote and we will size a system around your workshop, your load and your roof. Treat all tax and payback figures as illustrative and confirm your own position with your accountant or HMRC.