Commercial building solar panels in Hay on Wye
For a landlord in Hay on Wye, a roof array is increasingly a question about the EPC rating as much as the electricity bill. Each survey records the usable area once edge strips, plant and walkways are taken out, the load the deck can take, and whether the lease lets the occupier alter the roof.
838 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 210 kWp array models at about 176,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Book a roof survey in Hay on WyeIllustrative layout for a flat commercial roof of this size, with plant, shade and access kept clear. Your own figures come from the roof survey.
- 890
- office properties on the rating list in Powys (VOA, March 2025)
- 1,410
- retail properties, 30 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 Powys
How much sun a Hay on Wye roof gets
Modelled irradiation here is 1,067 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 838 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is about 5 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 Powys
The Valuation Office Agency's rating list puts 890 office and 1,410 retail properties in Powys, covering about 93,000 and 219,000 square metres of floorspace respectively. By office stock the district sits below 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.
30 of those retail properties are superstores, large food stores, large shops or retail warehouses, together about 63,000 square metres. Single storey boxes of that size are where most commercial rooftop solar actually gets built, because the roof is big, flat or shallow, and uninterrupted.
The same list carries 410 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.
Hay on Wye ranks 1 of 6 towns we cover in Powys on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 820 to 838, a spread of 18 kWh per kWp. Within Powys that difference is small enough to ignore: where the building sits is not what decides this scheme, your consumption pattern is.
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 Powys the planning database records 18 solar schemes totalling 39 MW, of which 1 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).
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 Hay on Wye
- What would a 210 kWp array produce in Hay on Wye?
- Yes. At 838 kWh per kWp a year, a 210 kWp array on a Hay on Wye roof models at around 176,000 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.
- Is planning permission needed for panels on a Hay on Wye office or shop?
- 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 Powys 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.
- Will rooftop solar improve the EPC rating of a let building in Hay on Wye?
- 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.
- Does the grid around Hay on Wye have capacity for export?
- National Grid Electricity Distribution is the distribution network operator for Powys. Arrays above 3.68 kW per phase connect under G99, and the application sets the export limit. It is part of the design work we arrange.