Is there enough sun in Camborne for a commercial roof array?

Modelled at 921 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 193,000 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 Cornwall?

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 Cornwall 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 Camborne 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 Camborne?

Capacity varies street by street and only National Grid Electricity Distribution 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.

Commercial building solar panels in Camborne

An office or store in Camborne buys most of its electricity between eight in the morning and six at night, which is when a roof array generates. We check the covering and the lease together, because a roof with eight years of membrane left and a tenant with a break in three changes the answer.

921 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 210 kWp array models at about 193,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Book a roof survey in Camborne

Drawing Camborne commercial roof

Roof 60 x 32 m, 1,920 m²

Array 210 kWp, east-west

Yield 193,000 kWh/yr

Scale 1:400 / Rev A / TR14

Illustrative layout for a flat commercial roof of this size, with plant, shade and access kept clear. Your own figures come from the roof survey.

20,450: people in the Camborne built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
2,980: office properties on the rating list in Cornwall (VOA, March 2025)
5,750: retail properties, 160 of them large-format (VOA, March 2025)
0: named commercial rooftop schemes on the planning record nearby (REPD, Q1 2026)

The commercial edge of a South West market town, with rooftop solar on several buildings — Commercial stock of the kind we survey across South West. Generated illustration, not a named site.

Solar for offices and retail across Cornwall

How much sun a Camborne roof gets

Modelled irradiation here is 1,172 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 921 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is around 4 percent above the mean across the towns we cover.

The rating list for Cornwall

The Valuation Office Agency's rating list puts 2,980 office and 5,750 retail properties in Cornwall, covering about 334,000 and 1,048,000 square metres of floorspace respectively. By office stock the district sits in the top tenth of the 318 districts in England and Wales; by retail stock it sits in the top tenth of the 318 districts in England and Wales.

The big roofs are in the 160 large-format retail units, superstores and retail warehouses in the district, about 418,000 square metres of floorspace under largely single storey roofs.

The same list carries 1,890 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 20,450 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 TR postcode area, starting from TR14.

FIG. 1 What a Camborne roof makes, month by month

Jun produces 6.0 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 210 kWp array here models at about 193,000 kWh across the year, but it arrives unevenly, which is why we size against your summer daytime load and then look at whether storage is worth adding for the shoulder months.

Monthly figures as a table

Month	kWh per kWp	210 kWp array
Jan	25	5,250
Feb	42	8,820
Mar	75	15,750
Apr	111	23,310
May	124	26,040
Jun	127	26,670
Jul	123	25,830
Aug	109	22,890
Sep	83	17,430
Oct	52	10,920
Nov	30	6,300
Dec	21	4,410

Source: EU PVGIS v5.2

FIG. 2 Camborne against the rest of Cornwall

Penzance979
Falmouth943
Newquay940
Truro940
St Austell936
Bodmin929
Bude929
Camborne921

Camborne ranks 8 of 8 towns we cover in Cornwall on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 921 to 979, a spread of 58 kWh per kWp. On a 210 kWp commercial roof that is about 12,180 kWh a year between the strongest and weakest town in the county.

Bars are zero based, so length is proportional to the figure. Where a county is flat, that is the finding: location is not the lever, consumption is. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, modelled per town

Grid connection through National Grid Electricity Distribution

Connections around Camborne are handled by National Grid Electricity Distribution, 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 Cornwall the planning database records 174 solar schemes totalling 1116 MW, of which 88 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

All solar on record near TR14

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
Copper Bottom Solar Farm Ground-Mounted Solar PV Array	Aura Power Storage Solutions	30 MW	Ground	Awaiting Construction
Tolvaddon Business Park, Pool - Solar Array	Undercover Group	0.43 MW	Ground	Awaiting Construction

Book the survey

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.

Your name Company Email Phone Site postcode Building type Your interest in the building Roof area Annual electricity spend What are you looking at?

Anything we should know about the roof?

We pass your details to our MCS-certified installation partner so they can quote. Read the privacy notice.

Questions about solar in Camborne

Is there enough sun in Camborne for a commercial roof array?: Modelled at 921 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 193,000 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 Cornwall?: 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 Cornwall 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 Camborne 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 Camborne?: Capacity varies street by street and only National Grid Electricity Distribution 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.

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