Commercial building solar panels in Altrincham
An office or store in Altrincham 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.
816 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 210 kWp array models at about 171,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Book a roof survey in AltrinchamIllustrative layout for a flat commercial roof of this size, with plant, shade and access kept clear. Your own figures come from the roof survey.
- 49,680
- people in the Altrincham built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
- 1,990
- office properties on the rating list in Trafford (VOA, March 2025)
- 2,220
- retail properties, 90 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 Greater Manchester
How much sun a Altrincham roof gets
Modelled irradiation here is 1,046 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 816 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is about 8 percent below the mean across the towns we cover, so the case here rests more on daytime consumption than on raw generation.
The rating list for Trafford
The Valuation Office Agency's rating list puts 1,990 office and 2,220 retail properties in Trafford, covering about 380,000 and 541,000 square metres of floorspace respectively. By office stock the district sits in the top quarter of the 318 districts in England and Wales; by retail stock it sits in the top quarter of the 318 districts in England and Wales.
The big roofs are in the 90 large-format retail units, superstores and retail warehouses in the district, about 275,000 square metres of floorspace under largely single storey roofs.
The same list carries 430 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 49,680 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 WA postcode area, starting from WA14.
Altrincham ranks 2 of 10 towns we cover in Greater Manchester on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 769 to 828, a spread of 59 kWh per kWp. On a 210 kWp commercial roof that is about 12,390 kWh a year between the strongest and weakest town in the county.
Grid connection through Electricity North West
Electricity North West operates the distribution network across Greater Manchester, so the export application goes to them. Anything larger than 3.68 kW per phase falls under G99, which means an application before commissioning rather than a notification afterwards. A constrained network is not the end of a scheme. Capping export costs little when the building already absorbs most of what the roof produces.
Across Greater Manchester the planning database records 118 solar schemes totalling 110 MW, of which 11 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).
All solar on record near WA14
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainsburys - Solar Panels | Sainsburys Supermarkets Limited | 0.36 MW | Roof | 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 Altrincham
- Is there enough sun in Altrincham for a commercial roof array?
- Modelled at 816 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 171,000 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 Trafford?
- 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 Trafford 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 Altrincham 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 Altrincham?
- Capacity varies street by street and only Electricity North West 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.