ProSolar designed, installed and certified a 140-panel, 68.72 kWp solar PV system at Centra Glenbeigh on the Ring of Kerry — spread across the store’s main flat roof and its forecourt canopy, commissioned in February 2026, and already running ahead of its design forecast with almost 94% of everything it generates used on site.

Solar for a Shop That Never Really Closes

Centra Glenbeigh is a convenience store and filling station run by the Sheahan Group. It is the kind of site that makes solar PV work hard: refrigeration running around the clock, deli ovens on from early morning, forecourt lighting, fuel pumps, a car wash, and a steady daytime trade from spring right through the tourist season. That demand profile turned out to be the whole story of this project.

Two Roofs, Two Mounting Systems

Main flat roof — 96 × 505 W panels mounted on the K2 D-Dome system in an east/west configuration and held down by 84 concrete ballast blocks, with no fixings through the roof surface. East/west was chosen deliberately over a due-south layout: it cuts wind loading and total ballast weight substantially — which matters on a commercial flat roof — and it spreads generation across the morning and evening rather than concentrating it at midday, a better match for a shop’s trading day.

Forecourt canopy — 44 × 460 W panels fixed with K2 trapezoidal clamps to the canopy’s profiled sheeting, putting the site’s second useful roof plane to work rather than leaving it idle.

A single 50 kW three-phase hybrid inverter serves all eight strings, mounted at high level beside the main switchboard — chosen for the short cable run and to keep it clear of roll cages moving through the store. DC cabling runs down the external wall in steel trunking, with a firefighter’s safety switch at the point of entry.

Working Over a Live Forecourt

The shop and pumps traded normally throughout the installation, and that drove most of the site logistics:

• Materials lifted to roof level by telehandler positioned clear of the trading areas
• Roof access via mobile tower, with 100% tie-off maintained at all times
• Barricades, spotters and a managed exclusion zone, with vehicle access to the rear car park kept open throughout

The existing main switchboard and an on-site standby generator both had to be accommodated in the connection design.

Certified In-House, Grant Handled End to End

The panels, the mounting and the entire electrical installation were carried out by ProSolar’s own team — no subcontractors. ProSolar is a Safe Electric registered electrical contractor, so the same company that designed and installed the system also tested and certified it. The system was commissioned on 26 February 2026: all eight strings passed insulation resistance testing at over 500 MΩ, along with polarity, earth continuity, switchgear function and loss-of-mains tests, and ESB Networks records were updated under the NC7 process.

ProSolar also prepared and submitted the full grant claim on the client’s behalf — declaration of works, inspection and test report, Safe Electric certificate, ESB documentation and installation photography. The site secured €16,340 under the SEAI Non-Domestic Microgen Scheme. The scheme is open to Irish businesses, public sector bodies and non-profits, and scales with system size; when this project applied, the maximum was €162,600 for installations up to 1 MW. For new applications made by 6 July 2027 SEAI has doubled the grant, to a maximum of €325,200 — see what that means for your business.

The Results: Almost 94% Used On Site

The system was designed to an expected annual yield of 48,378 kWh, and it has run ahead of that from the start. From commissioning in late February to mid-August 2026 — under six months — the array generated 38,478 kWh, with output across the five complete months of March to July coming in 13% above the design forecast.

The more striking number is where that electricity went. Of the 38,478 kWh generated, 36,050 kWh was consumed directly by the building — a self-consumption rate of 93.7%, where a commercial solar proposal would typically assume around 65%. The load profile and the generation curve line up almost perfectly: the refrigeration, the deli kitchen, the lighting and the forecourt equipment are drawing power at exactly the hours the panels are producing it. Virtually every unit generated displaces one that would otherwise be bought from the grid at full retail price, rather than being exported at a lower rate.

And there is still headroom. The array currently meets 28.9% of the site’s total electricity demand — with export sitting near zero, additional capacity at this site would be almost entirely absorbed on site rather than spilled to the grid.

Battery-Ready by Design

The inverter specified is a hybrid unit, which means battery storage can be added at any point without replacing it or re-engineering the DC side. No battery was installed at commissioning — and the export figure of just 6.3% shows why that was the right call: there is very little surplus to store during trading hours. The opportunity for storage here is overnight and early-morning load shifting, and because the hybrid inverter is already in place, that upgrade remains straightforward whenever it makes commercial sense.

The Numbers

• 140 panels / 68.72 kWp across the main flat roof and forecourt canopy
• 93.7% self-consumption — of 38,478 kWh generated to mid-August, 36,050 kWh used on site
• 13% above design forecast across the first five complete months
• Approximately 12.8 tonnes of CO₂ avoided in the first season
• €16,340 secured under the SEAI Non-Domestic Microgen Scheme
• Commissioned 26 February 2026, with the ESB Networks connection completed under the NC7 process

Do You Have a Similar Project?

ProSolar designs, installs and certifies commercial solar PV across Munster and beyond, handling the ESB Networks application and SEAI grant paperwork end to end — see commercial solar in Co. Kerry or our commercial solar overview, and make an enquiry for a free proposal.