How much would solar on a commercial building in Boston generate?

The model gives 906 kWh for every kWp installed here, so 210 kWp is about 190,000 kWh a year before shading losses. Allow roughly 1,390 m² of roof for it. 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 Boston?

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 Boston 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 Boston 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 Boston?

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 Boston

A flat commercial roof in Boston is usually the largest surface a building owns and the one nobody is asked to manage. 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.

906 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.

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Drawing Boston commercial roof

Roof 60 x 32 m, 1,920 m²

Array 210 kWp, east-west

Yield 190,000 kWh/yr

Scale 1:400 / Rev A / PE21

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.

45,340: people in the Boston built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
380: office properties on the rating list in Boston (VOA, March 2025)
600: retail properties, 40 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 Midlands town, a supermarket and low offices with rooftop solar — Commercial stock of the kind we survey across East Midlands. Generated illustration, not a named site.

Solar PV for commercial property across Lincolnshire

What a flat roof in Boston generates

Modelled irradiation here is 1,158 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 906 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.

Commercial stock in Boston

Boston has 380 office premises and 600 shops and other retail premises on the non-domestic rating list, according to the Valuation Office Agency. 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 66,000 square metres of floorspace under largely single storey roofs.

The same list carries 130 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 45,340 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 PE21.

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

Jul produces 6.3 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 210 kWp array here models at about 190,000 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	23	4,830
Feb	38	7,980
Mar	75	15,750
Apr	105	22,050
May	123	25,830
Jun	123	25,830
Jul	125	26,250
Aug	107	22,470
Sep	84	17,640
Oct	53	11,130
Nov	30	6,300
Dec	20	4,200

Source: EU PVGIS v5.2

FIG. 2 Boston against the rest of Lincolnshire

Boston906
Spalding902
Sleaford898
Stamford896
Skegness894
Grantham886
Lincoln882
Gainsborough861

Boston ranks 1 of 8 towns we cover in Lincolnshire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 861 to 906, a spread of 45 kWh per kWp. On a 210 kWp commercial roof that is about 9,450 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

National Grid Electricity Distribution 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 Lincolnshire the planning database records 226 solar schemes totalling 7052 MW, of which 37 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

All solar on record near PE21

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
Fen Road	Lark Energy	1.4 MW	Ground	Operational
Pinguin Foods	Pinguin Foods Ltd	1.5 MW	Roof	Operational
Boston Landfill, Wyberton - Solar PV Array	Infinis Solar Developments Limited	9.7 MW	Ground	Under Construction
Riverside Industrial Estate - Solar PV Panels	Howard Tenens Associates Limited	0.89 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction
Marsh Lane - Solar PV Panels	Howard Tenens Limited	0.89 MW	Roof	Under Construction
Greenyard Frozen, Marsh Lane - Solar Panels	Mistral Renewable Energy Limited	0.45 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction

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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?

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

Questions about solar in Boston

How much would solar on a commercial building in Boston generate?: The model gives 906 kWh for every kWp installed here, so 210 kWp is about 190,000 kWh a year before shading losses. Allow roughly 1,390 m² of roof for it. 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 Boston?: 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 Boston 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 Boston 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 Boston?: 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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