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

Modelled at 877 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 184,000 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 Redditch?

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 Redditch 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 Redditch 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 Redditch?

Capacity varies street by street and only National Grid Electricity Distribution 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 Redditch

Commercial roofs in Redditch 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.

877 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 210 kWp array models at about 184,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Book a roof survey in Redditch

Drawing Redditch commercial roof

Roof 60 x 32 m, 1,920 m²

Array 210 kWp, east-west

Yield 184,000 kWh/yr

Scale 1:400 / Rev A / B98

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.

81,635: people in the Redditch built-up area (ONS Census 2021)
540: office properties on the rating list in Redditch (VOA, March 2025)
470: retail properties, 30 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 Midlands town, a supermarket and low offices with rooftop solar — Commercial stock of the kind we survey across West Midlands. Generated illustration, not a named site.

Commercial rooftop solar across Worcestershire

Yield on a Redditch commercial roof

Modelled irradiation here is 1,125 kWh per square metre a year on a low-tilt array, which works out at 877 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 Redditch has

On the Valuation Office Agency's count, Redditch holds 470 retail and 540 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 in the bottom quarter of the 318 districts in England and Wales.

The big roofs are in the 30 large-format retail units, superstores and retail warehouses in the district, about 54,000 square metres of floorspace under largely single storey roofs.

The same list carries 80 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 81,635 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 B postcode area, starting from B98.

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

Jul produces 6.1 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 210 kWp array here models at about 184,000 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	23	4,830
Feb	38	7,980
Mar	72	15,120
Apr	102	21,420
May	120	25,200
Jun	121	25,410
Jul	122	25,620
Aug	103	21,630
Sep	80	16,800
Oct	49	10,290
Nov	29	6,090
Dec	20	4,200

Source: EU PVGIS v5.2

FIG. 2 Redditch against the rest of Worcestershire

Worcester882
Redditch877
Droitwich877
Evesham876
Malvern875
Bromsgrove872
Kidderminster866

Redditch ranks 2 of 7 towns we cover in Worcestershire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 866 to 882, a spread of 16 kWh per kWp. Within Worcestershire 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 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 Worcestershire the planning database records 62 solar schemes totalling 506 MW, of which 6 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

All solar on record near B98

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
Heming Point Roof Mounted Solar Panels	TRT Lighting Limited	0.2 MW	Roof	Operational
Thorlux Lighting Moons, Merse Road - Solar PV system	FW Thorpe PLC	1.43 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction
Arthur Street - Solar Panels	Springmasters Limited	0.19 MW	Roof	Operational
Sparlonz Limited - Solar Panels	Sparlonz Limited	0.25 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction
Oakland International, Seafield Lane - Solar Panels	Oakland International Limited	0.39 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction
Hsh Coldstores Limited, Moons Moat Drive - Solar panels	HSH Coldstores	0.39 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction

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 Redditch

Is there enough sun in Redditch for a commercial roof array?: Modelled at 877 kWh per kWp a year for a low-tilt array at this latitude, a 210 kWp system comes out at roughly 184,000 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 Redditch?: 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 Redditch 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 Redditch 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 Redditch?: Capacity varies street by street and only National Grid Electricity Distribution 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.

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