Commercial building solar panels in Ely
For a landlord in Ely, a roof array is increasingly a question about the EPC rating as much as the electricity bill. The survey starts with the membrane and the deck: how many years the covering has left, what the roof can carry in ballast, and where plant and its shade rule panels out.
904 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 210 kWp array models at about 190,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Book a roof survey in ElyIllustrative layout for a flat commercial roof of this size, with plant, shade and access kept clear. Your own figures come from the roof survey.
- 19,185
- people in the Ely built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
- 430
- office properties on the rating list in East Cambridgeshire (VOA, March 2025)
- 380
- retail properties, 0 of them large-format (VOA, March 2025)
- 0
- named commercial rooftop schemes on the planning record nearby (REPD, Q1 2026)
Solar for offices and retail across Cambridgeshire
How much sun a Ely roof gets
Modelled irradiation here is 1,158 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 904 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is within a few percent of the mean across the towns we cover, so the weather is not what decides the case here. Opening hours are.
The rating list for East Cambridgeshire
The Valuation Office Agency's rating list puts 430 office and 380 retail properties in East Cambridgeshire, covering about 57,000 and 47,000 square metres of floorspace respectively. By office stock the district sits in the bottom quarter of the 318 districts in England and Wales; by retail stock it sits in the bottom quarter of the 318 districts in England and Wales.
Here the stock leans towards offices rather than large-format retail, so the typical roof is smaller and busier with plant. The arrays are smaller too, but an office uses its electricity in daylight hours and so consumes almost all of what it generates.
The same list carries 140 hotel, leisure and assembly properties in the district. Leisure centres and hotels run seven days a week, which puts weekend generation to use that an office would export.
Source: Valuation Office Agency, Non-domestic rating: business floorspace, 31 March 2025 (published December 2025), counts and floorspace by special category code and local authority district, England and Wales.
The built-up area holds about 19,185 people, so the stock here runs to high street premises, a supermarket or two and the odd hotel (ONS Census 2021 built-up areas).
Surveys run across CB postcodes, CB6 outward.
Ely ranks 5 of 8 towns we cover in Cambridgeshire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 898 to 908, a spread of 10 kWh per kWp. Within Cambridgeshire that difference is small enough to ignore: where the building sits is not what decides this scheme, your consumption pattern is.
All solar on record near CB6
Every scheme in this postcode district in the government's Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026, ground and roof mounted, commercial or not. None of them is ours. Together they are a fair guide to how the local network has been treating export applications.
| Scheme | Operator | Capacity | Mounting | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mingay Farm - extension | Octopus Imvetments | 19.3 MW | Ground | Operational |
| Stowbridge Farm | Magnetar Solar | 24 MW | Ground | Operational |
| Stowbridge Farm - Extension (Phase 2) | FC Palmer and Sons | 10 MW | Ground | Operational |
| Stowbridge Farm - Extension (Phase 1) | FC Palmer & Sons Ltd | 10 MW | Ground | Operational |
| The Harbour School, Station Road - Solar Panels & ASHP | Cambridge Meridian Academies Trust | 0.9 MW | Roof | Awaiting Construction |
| Lees Packhouse, The Gault - Solar PV System | BeBa Energy UK Limited | 0.27 MW | Roof | Awaiting Construction |
Grid connection through UK Power Networks
UK Power Networks is the network operator here, and their answer on export capacity shapes the design. Any commercial array above 3.68 kW per phase connects under G99 rather than G98, and the application fixes what you are allowed to push back onto the network. If the local network is tight, limiting export rarely breaks the case here: most of the generation is consumed on site while the building is working.
Across Cambridgeshire the planning database records 172 solar schemes totalling 2422 MW, of which 46 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).
Send us the postcode
Tell us where the building is, roughly how big the roof is, and whether you own it or lease it. We come back with what it can carry, what it would generate against your consumption, and the three ways to pay for it.
Lenzie Consulting Ltd arranges the survey and passes your details to our MCS-certified installation partner so they can quote.
Questions about solar in Ely
- Is there enough sun in Ely for a commercial roof array?
- Modelled at 904 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 190,000 kWh a year before shading. It needs about 1,390 m² of flat roof once the edge strip, plant and walkways are kept clear. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
- Is planning permission needed for panels on a Ely office or shop?
- Usually not a full application. In England, panels on the roof of a non-domestic building are permitted development under Class J of Part 14 of the General Permitted Development Order, with no capacity cap since December 2023. Above 50 kW, which covers most commercial arrays, you must first apply to East Cambridgeshire for a determination on prior approval of the design and appearance, in particular glare on neighbouring land. On a flat roof panels may stand no more than 1 metre above the roof and must sit at least 1 metre from its edge, and listed buildings and scheduled monuments are excluded. See our planning permission guide for the detail.
- Will rooftop solar improve the EPC rating of a let building in Ely?
- It can. A non-domestic EPC is an asset rating, and on-site generation counts in the calculation, so an array usually lifts the score. Let property in England and Wales must be EPC E or better today. The government's interim response of 18 June 2026 proposes EPC B, where cost effective, from 2031 for let buildings over 1,000 m², and drops the EPC C step once planned for 2027. How far solar moves a particular building depends on its fabric and services, which is why the EPC assessor models it before anything is fitted.
- Does the grid around Ely have capacity for export?
- UK Power Networks is the distribution network operator for Cambridgeshire. Arrays above 3.68 kW per phase connect under G99, and the application sets the export limit. It is part of the design work we arrange.