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

The model gives 900 kWh for every kWp installed here, so 210 kWp is about 189,000 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 North Northamptonshire?

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 North Northamptonshire 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 Rushden 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 Rushden?

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 Rushden

An office or store in Rushden 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.

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.

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Drawing Rushden commercial roof

Roof 60 x 32 m, 1,920 m²

Array 210 kWp, east-west

Yield 189,000 kWh/yr

Scale 1:400 / Rev A / NN10

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.

31,685: people in the Rushden built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
1,770: office properties on the rating list in North Northamptonshire (VOA, March 2025)
2,340: retail properties, 150 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 for offices and retail across Northamptonshire

How much sun a Rushden roof gets

Modelled irradiation here is 1,151 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 North Northamptonshire

The Valuation Office Agency's rating list puts 1,770 office and 2,340 retail properties in North Northamptonshire, covering about 227,000 and 560,000 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 150 large-format retail units, superstores and retail warehouses in the district, about 294,000 square metres of floorspace under largely single storey roofs.

The same list carries 620 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 31,685 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 NN postcode area, starting from NN10.

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

Jul produces 5.9 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 210 kWp array here models at about 189,000 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	24	5,040
Feb	39	8,190
Mar	73	15,330
Apr	103	21,630
May	122	25,620
Jun	123	25,830
Jul	124	26,040
Aug	106	22,260
Sep	83	17,430
Oct	51	10,710
Nov	30	6,300
Dec	21	4,410

Source: EU PVGIS v5.2

FIG. 2 Rushden against the rest of Northamptonshire

Rushden900
Towcester897
Wellingborough896
Kettering895
Northampton893
Corby892
Daventry890

Rushden ranks 1 of 7 towns we cover in Northamptonshire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 890 to 900, a spread of 10 kWh per kWp. Within Northamptonshire that difference is small enough to ignore: where the building sits is not what decides this scheme, your consumption pattern is.

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 Northamptonshire the planning database records 133 solar schemes totalling 1932 MW, of which 25 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

All solar on record near NN10

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
Goosey Lodge - Solar Farm	Wykes Engineering Limited Goosey Lodge	10.5 MW	Ground	Awaiting Construction
Gooseys Lodge, Wymington Lane - Solar Farm	Wykes Engineering Limited Goosey Lodge	10.38 MW	Ground	Awaiting Construction
Westwood A D Plant, Bedford Road - Solar Panels	Biogen (UK) Ltd	n/a	Roof	Application Submitted

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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?

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 Rushden

How much would solar on a commercial building in Rushden generate?: The model gives 900 kWh for every kWp installed here, so 210 kWp is about 189,000 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 North Northamptonshire?: 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 North Northamptonshire 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 Rushden 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 Rushden?: 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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