Solar panels for schools across County Durham
We survey school and college roofs throughout County Durham, model what each one carries against the school's own consumption, and arrange the design, the grid application and the installation through an MCS-certified partner.
- Schools and colleges
- 262
- 69,907 pupils, DfE Get Information About Schools
- Modelled yield
- 823 kWh/kWp/yr
- Mean across County Durham towns, EU PVGIS v5.2
- School solar on record
- 5 schemes
- Renewable Energy Planning Database Q1 2026, in 3 of the towns we cover
- Network operator
- Northern Powergrid
- G99 applications and export limits
- Towns covered
- 6
- Surveys arranged county wide
The school estate in County Durham
County Durham has 262 open state-funded schools and colleges teaching 69,907 pupils, spread across 1 local authorities. Source: DfE Get Information About Schools.
Of those, 218 primary, 30 secondary, 9 special and 5 further education. The phase mix is what sets the usable roof area across a county: secondary sites and colleges carry the sports halls, dining blocks and flat roofs, while primaries offer a hall and a teaching block each and suit arrays sized to the base load.
Solar for education buildings and what a County Durham roof models
Modelled yield is not flat across County Durham. Peterlee comes out at 845 kWh per kWp a year against 811 at Consett, a spread of 34 kWh per kWp. On a 270 kWp school array that difference is about 9,180 kWh a year, which is worth checking before anyone accepts a county-wide saving figure. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2.
Every town page below carries the same arithmetic for that town, including the share of the year that lands in July and August, which is the number a governing body should see before a saving figure.
Solar PV for academy trusts on the County Durham planning record
The Renewable Energy Planning Database records 5 school and college solar schemes in County Durham, across 3 of the towns we cover. They include Collingwood College, South Road at Durham, Bishop Auckland College, Woodhouse Lane at Bishop Auckland and East Durham College, Willerby Grove at Peterlee. The median array applied for is 270 kWp.
We were not involved in any of those schemes. They are public planning records, and they are here because what a local authority and a network operator have already accepted for one school is the best available guide to what they will accept for the next. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.
Connections across the county run through Northern Powergrid. Anything above 3.68 kW per phase needs a G99 application, and on a school site the incoming supply and the size of the existing main switchboard are often the real constraint rather than the roof.
- Durham 1 on record
- Consett 811 kWh/kWp
- Newton Aycliffe 819 kWh/kWp
- Chester-le-Street 821 kWh/kWp
- Bishop Auckland 3 on record
- Peterlee 1 on record
Book a roof survey at a County Durham school
Send the school postcode and the rough roof area, with half hourly meter data if the trust holds it. We come back with what the roofs carry, what they generate against the timetable rather than against an annual average, and how schools pay for it.
Lenzie Consulting Ltd arranges the survey and introduces an MCS-certified installation partner. We do not install, and nothing on this page is a guarantee of a saving.