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

Modelled at 891 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 187,000 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 Cherwell?

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 Cherwell 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 Banbury 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 Banbury?

Capacity varies street by street and only Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks 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 Banbury

Commercial roofs in Banbury tend to be flat, membrane covered and cluttered with plant, which shapes the layout more than the size does. 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.

891 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 210 kWp array models at about 187,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Book a roof survey in Banbury

Drawing Banbury commercial roof

Roof 60 x 32 m, 1,920 m²

Array 210 kWp, east-west

Yield 187,000 kWh/yr

Scale 1:400 / Rev A / OX16

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.

52,045: people in the Banbury built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
1,220: office properties on the rating list in Cherwell (VOA, March 2025)
1,160: retail properties, 70 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 Home Counties town, offices and a retail park with solar on several roofs — Commercial stock of the kind we survey across South East. Generated illustration, not a named site.

Commercial rooftop solar across Oxfordshire

Yield on a Banbury commercial roof

Modelled irradiation here is 1,140 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 891 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.

How many commercial buildings Cherwell has

On the Valuation Office Agency's count, Cherwell holds 1,160 retail and 1,220 office properties on the rating list. By office stock the district sits above the median of the 318 districts in England and Wales; by retail stock it sits above the median of the 318 districts in England and Wales.

The big roofs are in the 70 large-format retail units, superstores and retail warehouses in the district, about 155,000 square metres of floorspace under largely single storey roofs.

The same list carries 280 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 52,045 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 OX postcode area, starting from OX16.

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

Jun produces 5.9 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 210 kWp array here models at about 187,000 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	119	24,990
Jun	123	25,830
Jul	123	25,830
Aug	105	22,050
Sep	82	17,220
Oct	50	10,500
Nov	30	6,300
Dec	21	4,410

Source: EU PVGIS v5.2

FIG. 2 Banbury against the rest of Oxfordshire

Didcot913
Abingdon904
Witney902
Henley-on-Thames899
Oxford895
Bicester895
Banbury891
Thame891

Banbury ranks 7 of 8 towns we cover in Oxfordshire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 891 to 913, a spread of 22 kWh per kWp. Within Oxfordshire 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 Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks 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 Oxfordshire the planning database records 149 solar schemes totalling 2544 MW, of which 31 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

All solar on record near OX16

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
Horton General Hospital - Solar Panel	Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	0.37 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction
Unit 2, Southam Road - Solar Panels	Logicor Logistics 101 Limited	0.54 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction
Kannegiesser, Beaumont Road - Solar Panels	Kannegiesser UK Limited	n/a	Roof	Application Submitted

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 Banbury

Is there enough sun in Banbury for a commercial roof array?: Modelled at 891 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 187,000 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 Cherwell?: 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 Cherwell 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 Banbury 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 Banbury?: Capacity varies street by street and only Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks 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.

Nearby

All Oxfordshire locations