Commercial building solar panels in Marlborough
Most commercial roofs around Marlborough already carry plant, a parapet and an access hatch, and the space between them is where the array goes. The survey starts with the membrane and the deck: how many years the covering has left, what the roof can carry in ballast, and where plant and its shade rule panels out.
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.
Book a roof survey in MarlboroughIllustrative layout for a flat commercial roof of this size, with plant, shade and access kept clear. Your own figures come from the roof survey.
- 3,140
- office properties on the rating list in Wiltshire (VOA, March 2025)
- 3,190
- retail properties, 150 of them large-format (VOA, March 2025)
- 0
- named commercial rooftop schemes on the planning record nearby (REPD, Q1 2026)
Commercial rooftop solar across Wiltshire
Yield on a Marlborough commercial roof
Modelled irradiation here is 1,152 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.
How many commercial buildings Wiltshire has
On the Valuation Office Agency's count, Wiltshire holds 3,190 retail and 3,140 office properties on the rating list. By office stock the district sits in the top tenth of the 318 districts in England and Wales; by retail stock it sits in the top tenth of the 318 districts in England and Wales.
150 of those retail properties are superstores, large food stores, large shops or retail warehouses, together about 321,000 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 860 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.
Marlborough ranks 6 of 8 towns we cover in Wiltshire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 894 to 923, a spread of 29 kWh per kWp. Within Wiltshire that difference is small enough to ignore: where the building sits is not what decides this scheme, your consumption pattern is.
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 Wiltshire the planning database records 159 solar schemes totalling 1585 MW, of which 56 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 Marlborough
- Is there enough sun in Marlborough for a commercial roof array?
- Modelled at 900 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 189,000 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.
- Is planning permission needed for panels on a Marlborough 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 Wiltshire 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 Marlborough?
- 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 Marlborough have capacity for export?
- Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks is the distribution network operator for Wiltshire. 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.