Commercial building solar panels in Hastings
Commercial roofs in Hastings tend to be flat, membrane covered and cluttered with plant, which shapes the layout more than the size does. 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.
989 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 210 kWp array models at about 208,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Book a roof survey in HastingsIllustrative layout for a flat commercial roof of this size, with plant, shade and access kept clear. Your own figures come from the roof survey.
- 91,490
- people in the Hastings built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
- 450
- office properties on the rating list in Hastings (VOA, March 2025)
- 1,010
- retail properties, 20 of them large-format (VOA, March 2025)
- 1
- named commercial rooftop scheme on the planning record nearby (REPD, Q1 2026)
Commercial rooftop solar across Sussex
Yield on a Hastings commercial roof
Modelled irradiation here is 1,272 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 989 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is around 12 percent above the mean across the towns we cover.
How many commercial buildings Hastings has
On the Valuation Office Agency's count, Hastings holds 1,010 retail and 450 office properties on the rating list. By office stock the district sits in the bottom quarter of the 318 districts in England and Wales; by retail stock it sits below the median of the 318 districts in England and Wales.
The big roofs are in the 20 large-format retail units, superstores and retail warehouses in the district, about 24,000 square metres of floorspace under largely single storey roofs.
The same list carries 200 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 Hastings
The Renewable Energy Planning Database records one roof-mounted scheme on supermarket and retail buildings in this postcode district. These are other organisations' projects, listed from the public record, not ours.
| Scheme | Applicant | Type | Capacity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morrisons, Queens Road | Morrisons | retail | 0.23 MW | Awaiting Construction |
The built-up area holds about 91,490 people, large enough for a retail park or two and a cluster of office buildings (ONS Census 2021 built-up areas).
We arrange surveys across the TN postcode area, starting from TN34.
Hastings ranks 7 of 10 towns we cover in Sussex on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 915 to 1028, a spread of 113 kWh per kWp. On a 210 kWp commercial roof that is about 23,730 kWh a year between the strongest and weakest town in the county.
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 Hastings
- Is there enough sun in Hastings for a commercial roof array?
- Modelled at 989 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 208,000 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 Hastings?
- 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 Hastings 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 Hastings 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.