Commercial building solar panels in March
An office or store in March buys most of its electricity between eight in the morning and six at night, which is when a roof array generates. What decides a scheme is the roof covering, the parapet height and the plant layout, which is why the survey happens on the roof rather than from a satellite image.
900 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 210 kWp array models at about 189,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Book a roof survey in MarchIllustrative layout for a flat commercial roof of this size, with plant, shade and access kept clear. Your own figures come from the roof survey.
- 21,345
- people in the March built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
- 400
- office properties on the rating list in Fenland (VOA, March 2025)
- 780
- retail properties, 40 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 March roof gets
Modelled irradiation here is 1,154 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 900 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 Fenland
The Valuation Office Agency's rating list puts 400 office and 780 retail properties in Fenland, covering about 48,000 and 128,000 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.
The big roofs are in the 40 large-format retail units, superstores and retail warehouses in the district, about 42,000 square metres of floorspace under largely single storey roofs.
The same list carries 160 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 21,345 people, so the stock here runs to high street premises, a supermarket or two and the odd hotel (ONS Census 2021 built-up areas).
We arrange surveys across the PE postcode area, starting from PE15.
March ranks 6 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.
Grid connection through UK Power Networks
Connections around March are handled by UK Power Networks, which sets the export limit for the site. Above 3.68 kW per phase the connection runs under G99, so the export limit is agreed in advance rather than assumed. Where the local network is constrained, an export-limited connection usually still makes the scheme work, because a commercial building uses most of what the roof makes during the working day.
Across Cambridgeshire the planning database records 172 solar schemes totalling 2422 MW, of which 46 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).
All solar on record near PE15
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knights End Road Solar Farm | Caledon Partners (Solar Power Parks) | 5 MW | Ground | Planning Permission Expired |
| Asksham Community Village Solar Farm | Engerera Renewables Limited | 0.15 MW | Ground | Under Construction |
| Willow Farm | BeBa Energy UK Limited | 1.15 MW | Ground | Operational |
| Linwood Farm, Linwood Lane - Solar Panels | BeBa Energy UK Limited | 0.41 MW | Roof | Awaiting Construction |
| West Fen Farm, Whitemoor Road - Solar Farm | Pathfinder Clean Energy UK Dev Limited | 49.8 MW | Ground | Application Submitted |
| Storelogs Holdings, Marwick Road - Solar PV Array | Storelogs Holdings Limited | 0.27 MW | Ground | Awaiting Construction |
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 March
- Is there enough sun in March for a commercial roof array?
- Modelled at 900 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 189,000 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.
- Do we need planning permission for solar on a commercial building in Fenland?
- 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 Fenland 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.
- Does solar help a March landlord meet MEES?
- 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.
- Which network operator handles the connection in March?
- Capacity varies street by street and only UK Power Networks can answer it for your connection. We ask early, because an export-limited offer changes the design rather than ending the scheme, and most commercial buildings use most of what they generate anyway.