Local commercial solar guides
Solar economics change with your latitude, your Distribution Network Operator and your local grant landscape. Pick your region for the irradiance, grid process, funding and worked payback that actually apply to your site.
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DNO: NGED East Midlands
Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire & Rutland. Magna Park logistics, Rolls-Royce, Toyota and Boots — a deep advanced-manufacturing base with large factory and warehouse roofs.
City guides: Nottingham, Leicester
East Midlands solar guideDNO: NGED South Wales
Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Caerphilly, Bridgend, the Vale of Glamorgan & Gwent. M4-corridor commercial belt with more accessible Welsh Government decarbonisation grants than English equivalents.
City guides: Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Caerphilly
South Wales solar guideDNO: NGED South West
Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud & Tewkesbury. Aerospace (Safran, GE Aviation), GCHQ and the Golden Valley cyber cluster, with one of the highest commercial solar yields in England.
City guides: Gloucester
Gloucestershire solar guideDNO: NGED South West
Exeter, Plymouth, Torbay & Barnstaple. The UK’s second-highest regional irradiance, Babcock Devonport, the Met Office and a strong food, marine and hospitality base.
Devon solar guideDNO: NGED East Midlands
Leicester, Loughborough, Hinckley & Coalville. Magna Park — the UK’s largest dedicated distribution park — plus Samworth Brothers, Walkers and a major food-manufacturing cluster.
City guides: Leicester
Leicestershire solar guideDNO: SSEN Southern
Southampton, Portsmouth, Basingstoke, Winchester & Farnborough. Solent Freeport tax advantages, port logistics, and a marine, aerospace and defence base on the high-yield south coast.
City guides: Southampton, Portsmouth
Hampshire solar guideDNO: SSEN Southern
Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth & Dorchester. The highest south-coast yields in the country, Sunseeker marine engineering, Bournemouth financial services and a large hospitality sector.
Dorset solar guideDNO: NGED East Midlands
Derby, Chesterfield, Ilkeston & Swadlincote. Rolls-Royce aero engines, Toyota Burnaston and Alstom rail — an automotive and advanced-manufacturing supply chain with a strong IETF base.
Derbyshire solar guideDNO: Northern Powergrid
Newcastle, Sunderland, Gateshead, Middlesbrough & Teesside. Nissan’s gigafactory, the Teesside net-zero industrial cluster and the fastest G99 offers of any UK DNO.
City guides: Newcastle
North East England solar guideDNO: UK Power Networks (Eastern)
Watford, St Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage & Hatfield. GSK and Airbus at Stevenage, Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden and Maylands Business Park — life-science campuses and film studios with big roofs and heavy daytime baseload.
Hertfordshire solar guideDNO: UK Power Networks (Eastern)
Chelmsford, Colchester, Basildon, Southend & Harlow. DP World London Gateway, the Port of Tilbury and Ford’s Dunton technical centre — port logistics and R&D on one of the sunniest county yields in England.
Essex solar guideDNO: SSEN Southern
Reading, Slough, Bracknell, Maidenhead & Newbury. The Thames Valley tech corridor — Microsoft, Oracle and Vodafone HQs, plus SEGRO’s Slough Trading Estate, one of Europe’s largest privately-owned industrial estates.
City guides: Reading
Berkshire solar guideDNO: UK Power Networks (Eastern)
Bedford, Luton, Dunstable & Leighton Buzzard. London Luton Airport, Amazon’s Marston Gate, Millbrook Proving Ground and Cranfield University — an A1/M1 logistics spine with vast distribution roofs.
City guides: Luton
Bedfordshire solar guideDNO: SSEN Southern
High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Amersham & Marlow. Pinewood Studios, GE HealthCare at Amersham and Cressex Business Park — with Chilterns National Landscape and Green Belt shaping what is consentable.
City guides: Milton Keynes
Buckinghamshire solar guideMost commercial solar content is written as if the UK were a single market. It isn't. A 250 kW rooftop array in Devon generates meaningfully more each year than the same array in the North East, simply because of latitude and cloud cover. That changes the payback, the internal rate of return and the case you put to your board.
The grid is just as regional. Your Distribution Network Operator — National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) across the Midlands, South West and South Wales; SSEN across the central south; Northern Powergrid in the North East; SP Energy Networks across much of Wales and Scotland — sets the timescale and cost of your G99 export connection. Northern Powergrid routinely returns the fastest offers in the country; constrained substations elsewhere can add months. We track this per region so you aren't surprised at connection stage.
Finally, funding is devolved. Businesses in South Wales can often access Welsh Government and Development Bank of Wales support that simply isn't available in England, where the route is usually the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, Salix for the public sector, and 100% Annual Investment Allowance tax relief. Each regional guide below maps the funding that actually applies where you operate.
Not sure which applies? Most of our work clusters around named cities too — browse all UK city location guides, or go straight to a free desk feasibility and we'll model your specific postcode, roof and half-hourly consumption.
Specialist Sister Sites
A network of specialist UK commercial solar sites — each focused on a sector or region we know inside out.
Own the building rather than occupy it? See commercial property solar for owners and investors.
For multi-site portfolios and large industrial estates, talk to UK commercial solar specialists.
Production unit or factory? See our sister specialist site for solar PV for manufacturing facilities.
Distribution or 3PL? Talk to our specialist team for warehouse rooftop solar.
Hotel, conference venue, or restaurant chain? See commercial solar for hospitality.
Multi-academy trust or independent school? Visit solar for schools and academies.
Need capital-light finance? Our finance specialists at commercial solar finance and PPA.
For transparent pricing benchmarks by system size, compare our commercial solar cost-per-kWp guide.