Commercial building solar panels in Hexham
A flat commercial roof in Hexham 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.
803 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 210 kWp array models at about 169,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Book a roof survey in HexhamIllustrative layout for a flat commercial roof of this size, with plant, shade and access kept clear. Your own figures come from the roof survey.
- 10,945
- people in the Hexham built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
- 1,590
- office properties on the rating list in Northumberland (VOA, March 2025)
- 2,650
- retail properties, 120 of them large-format (VOA, March 2025)
- 1
- named commercial rooftop scheme on the planning record nearby (REPD, Q1 2026)
Solar PV for commercial property across Northumberland
What a flat roof in Hexham generates
Modelled irradiation here is 1,019 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 803 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is about 9 percent below the mean across the towns we cover, so the case here rests more on daytime consumption than on raw generation.
Commercial stock in Northumberland
Northumberland has 1,590 office premises and 2,650 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 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 120 large-format retail units, superstores and retail warehouses in the district, about 214,000 square metres of floorspace under largely single storey roofs.
The same list carries 820 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.
Commercial rooftop solar already planned near Hexham
The Renewable Energy Planning Database records one roof-mounted scheme on office and business park buildings in this postcode district. These are other organisations' projects, listed from the public record, not ours.
| Scheme | Applicant | Type | Capacity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halfway House, Lincoln Hill | Humshaugh Net Zero | office | 1 MW | Awaiting Construction |
The built-up area holds about 10,945 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 NE postcode area, starting from NE46.
Hexham ranks 6 of 6 towns we cover in Northumberland on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 803 to 848, 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.
Grid connection through Northern Powergrid
Northern Powergrid operates the distribution network across Northumberland, 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 Northumberland the planning database records 38 solar schemes totalling 276 MW, of which 2 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).
All solar on record near NE46
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halfway House, Lincoln Hill - Solar Array | Humshaugh Net Zero | 1 MW | Roof | Awaiting Construction |
| Acomb Village, Acomb - Solar Panels | Acomb Parish Council | 0.99 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 Hexham
- What would a 210 kWp array produce in Hexham?
- Yes. At 803 kWh per kWp a year, a 210 kWp array on a Hexham roof models at around 169,000 kWh. What changes the answer is how much of that the building uses during opening hours rather than exports. 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 Northumberland?
- 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 Northumberland 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 Hexham 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 Hexham?
- Capacity varies street by street and only Northern Powergrid 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.