Once a school decides solar is worth looking into properly, the next question is usually how long it actually takes and what’s expected at each stage. It’s a fair thing to want mapped out before committing any time to it, particularly for a business manager juggling this alongside everything else on their desk. Here’s the whole journey, stage by stage.
For the full picture of how UrbanVolt’s funded model works for schools, see Fully Funded Solar for Schools – How UrbanVolt’s Model Works.
Desktop assessment
Everything starts with a desktop assessment, and there’s no site visit needed to get one. Share your energy consumption data and UrbanVolt comes back with an indicative benefits case – projected savings, system size, and what it would mean for your electricity costs – something concrete enough to put in front of governors or trustees for an early steer.
If a site doesn’t stack up at this stage, that gets flagged straight away, along with the reason why. Nobody benefits from a project moving forward that isn’t going to deliver.
Letter of Intent and grid connection
If the desktop assessment looks promising and the school wants to move forward, the next step is a Letter of Intent. Signing an LOI doesn’t commit the school to installing solar – it’s an agreement to move into detailed development, where the physical survey happens and the design gets confirmed properly.
This is also the point where UrbanVolt submits the grid connection application to the Distribution Network Operator. It’s worth starting this early, because it’s usually the part of the journey that takes the longest – approval can take up to ten weeks depending on the network area, and running it in parallel with the rest of the development process, rather than waiting until later, is what keeps the overall timeline as short as possible. UrbanVolt manages the application in full.
Most schools reach a signed agreement within eight to ten weeks of first contact, so this stage tends to move at a reasonable pace once the school has decided to proceed.
Physical survey
Alongside the DNO process, UrbanVolt carries out a physical survey of the roof and electrical infrastructure. This is where the desktop figures get tested against reality – roof condition, structural capacity, and exactly how the system will connect into the school’s electrical setup.
Once a project has gone to survey, there’s a cost of up to £1,000 per site if the school decides not to proceed afterwards. It only applies from this point onwards, and only if the project is pulled after the survey has taken place – the desktop assessment and LOI themselves carry no cost either way. In practice this rarely comes up, since the vast majority of projects that reach survey go on to be installed, but it’s worth knowing about before reaching this stage rather than after.
Agreement
Once the survey confirms the design, the full agreement is signed. By this stage, the DNO application is already progressing in the background, so signature doesn’t mark the start of a fresh waiting period – it’s simply confirmation to proceed to installation once grid approval comes through.
Installation
Installation is carried out by accredited installers, vetted and managed by UrbanVolt throughout. It’s scheduled to minimise disruption to the school day, with holiday periods used wherever the programme allows – half term, Easter, and summer are all natural windows for the work to happen without affecting term-time activity.
Once installed, the system undergoes commissioning and testing before it’s confirmed live.
Live and monitored
From the moment the system goes live, UrbanVolt are responsible for maintenance, along with ongoing remote performance monitoring for the full term of the agreement. The school starts seeing savings on its electricity bill straight away, without any further involvement needed from the site.
What this means for planning your installation
Start to finish, the timeline is largely shaped by how quickly the school moves through the early stages and how long DNO approval takes for that particular site. Because the grid application goes in at LOI stage rather than waiting until the agreement is signed, the DNO process runs alongside the survey and governance work rather than adding extra time on top of it – which is the main reason the overall journey moves as quickly as it does. If there’s a specific date in mind, whether that’s a budget cycle, a sustainability reporting deadline, or wanting the system live before the next academic year begins, UrbanVolt can accommodate this.
Interested in getting started? Take a look at our school page and register your interest.