Is there enough sun around Matlock for this to be worth doing?

The model gives 844 kWh a year for every kWp installed at this latitude, so a 200 kWp array comes out at roughly 168,800 kWh a year before shading. It needs about 594 square metres of clear roof once walkways and rooflight setbacks are allowed for. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Does a Matlock school waste its generation in August?

26.1 percent of the modelled annual output for Matlock falls in July and August, when the buildings are closed for most of six weeks (EU PVGIS v5.2). It does not go to waste, but it only has three places to go: the base load that runs regardless, such as servers, catering refrigeration and ventilation; storage; or export under an agreement with National Grid Electricity Distribution. We model all three against your half hourly data before an array is sized.

Will the network around Matlock accept the export?

National Grid Electricity Distribution is the distribution network operator for Derbyshire. Anything above 3.68 kW per phase connects under G99, and the application fixes the export limit. On a school site the incoming supply is often the binding constraint rather than the roof, so we ask that question before anyone sizes an array.

Is planning permission needed for panels on a school in Matlock?

Usually permitted development covers a roof array on a school, with prior approval from Derbyshire Dales needed above a capacity threshold. A ground mounted array in the grounds is a different question and much more likely to need a full application. We check both before design sign-off.

Has a school near DE4 already done this?

One school scheme is on record in this postcode district, including a 200 kWp array at Anthony Gell School, Wood Street that is with the planning authority. We were not involved in it. It is a public planning record, and it matters less as proof that solar works than as evidence of what this authority and this network operator have already accepted. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.

How many schools are there around Matlock?

Derbyshire Dales has 64 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register, with 9,096 pupils on roll. Source: DfE Get Information About Schools. We survey across the whole of that area, and where a trust holds several sites we look at them in one pass.

Specialist solar panels for schools in Matlock

Anthony Gell School, Wood Street sits on the planning record near Matlock at 200 kWp, which makes the question here less whether a school roof works and more what yours would carry. A survey here starts with the covering and the structure, then the incoming supply, then what the timetable actually draws.

168,800 kWh a year, modelled for a 200 kWp array on roughly 594 sqm of clear roof. That is the median size schools around Matlock have applied for. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Book a roof survey in Matlock

1 teaching block
2 hall and kitchen
3 sports hall
4 1960s block, no array
first phase
later phase

Drawing Illustrative estate, not a Matlock school

Blocks 4, 3 with array

Array about 345 kWp

Yield about 291,000 kWh/yr

Frontage about 90 m / Rev A / DE4

Illustrative layout for an estate of this size. The array is drawn at about 345 kWp, roughly 53 percent of the 650 kWp these three roofs would hold, because a school sizes to the load it can use in term time rather than to the roof it has: generation it cannot use is exported at a much lower rate than it pays to import. The hatched block carries no array because its structure has not been assessed, which on a school of that era is the usual starting point rather than an exception. Your own figures, and which of your blocks can take an array, come from the roof survey.

Matlock / Derbyshire

A school on the edge of a Midlands town, solar arrays on its roofs and flat open farmland beyond — School buildings of the kind we survey across East Midlands. Not a named school and not our work.

School solar consented near Matlock

The Renewable Energy Planning Database records 1 school and college solar scheme in the DE4 postcode district. Anthony Gell School, Wood Street is down for a 200 kWp roof mounted array and the application is with the planning authority. The applicant on record is Private Developer.

Those are other organisations' planning applications, not our projects. We list them because a scheme a few miles away tells you what this local authority and this network operator have already accepted for a building very like yours. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.

The plan above the fold is a generic four block estate, drawn to make the scale and the phasing legible. Nobody should read it as Anthony Gell School, Wood Street or as any other Matlock site. Our knowledge of these applications comes entirely from the public record.

The median array applied for here is 200 kWp. At 200 kWp you are covering roughly 594 square metres of roof once walkways, edge zones and rooflight setbacks come out, which on most sites means a sports hall plus one teaching block rather than the whole estate.

Site on record	Applicant on record	Size	Mounting	Status
Anthony Gell School, Wood Street	Private Developer	200 kWp	Roof	Application Submitted

Solar PV for academy trusts across Derbyshire

A one kilowatt-peak array on a shallow pitched roof in Matlock models at 844 kWh a year, from modelled irradiation of 1,076 kWh per square metre in the plane of the array (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). 5 percent below our mean puts Matlock at the weaker end of the range, which raises the premium on self consumption and lowers the value of anything that leaves the site.

Scaled up, a 200 kWp array, sized to the median array applied for at schools around Matlock itself, models at about 168,800 kWh a year before shading, and needs roughly 594 square metres of clear roof. That size is not one we chose. It is what schools in this district have actually applied for.

Spread across the year that is about 44,100 kWh landing in July and August and roughly 7,600 kWh across December and January. National Grid Electricity Distribution sets what may go back onto the network here, so the July figure is the one worth putting in front of a governing body first.

FIG. 1 Matlock against the rest of Derbyshire

Long Eaton866
Derby862
Swadlincote856
Ilkeston855
Belper850
Matlock844
Chesterfield843
Buxton805

Matlock ranks 6 of 8 towns we cover in Derbyshire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 805 to 866, a spread of 61 kWh per kWp. On a 500 kWp array that is about 30,500 kWh a year between the strongest and weakest town in the county.

Bars are zero based, so length is proportional to the figure. Where a county is flat, that is the finding: latitude is not the lever, the timetable is. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, modelled per town

Why demand in Matlock falls as the roof peaks

The generating year and the school year are out of step in Matlock. July and August carry 26.1 percent of the modelled output (EU PVGIS v5.2), and the site is closed for most of those nine weeks. May is the strongest single month here at 14 percent of the annual total, which is still term time, and that works slightly in your favour against towns whose curve peaks in July.

At the other end of the year the mismatch flips. Only 4.5 percent of output falls in December and January, the two months when a Matlock school is fully occupied and its heating and lighting are at their heaviest. The roof makes 6.9 times as much in May as it does in December, and August alone outproduces December by about 6 to one. 74 percent of the year arrives between April and September, and the point of that figure is not that the summer half goes unused, because April, May and June are full teaching months that draw hard. It is that the concentration peaks in the few weeks at the end of it when the building is shut.

Across the country the arithmetic settles at roughly 49 percent of output on a session day, against about 71 percent for a weekday business. That figure hardly varies by location, which is why the local numbers that matter here are the yield, the roofs and what has already cleared planning nearby.

Inside the day it happens again. The roof is still at three quarters of its peak at four in the afternoon, by which time a Matlock school is largely empty, so the hours that look best on a generation chart are the worst on a consumption one.

That argues for a particular shape of scheme rather than against one. Size to the load that does not stop at the end of term, count in lettings, holiday clubs and summer works honestly rather than optimistically, and then decide whether storage or an export arrangement with National Grid Electricity Distribution pays for the surplus that is left.

We set out the whole argument about term dates and the generation curve on the home page, and what it does to a payback figure under costs.

FIG. 2 A Matlock roof against the English school year

generated while the school is open
generated at a weekend or in the holidays

The same figures as a table

Monthly output for a 1 kWp array in Matlock, split by whether the day is a school session day. Across the year 49 percent of generation lands while the school is open.
Month	Session days	Output, kWh per kWp	School open	School closed
Jan	20	21	14	7
Feb	15	35	19	16
Mar	21	70	47	23
Apr	12	98	39	59
May	17	118	65	53
Jun	21	115	81	35
Jul	11	118	42	76
Aug	0	102	0	102
Sep	20	77	51	26
Oct	17	46	25	21
Nov	21	26	18	8
Dec	15	17	8	9
Year	190	843	409	434

Per kWp installed, month by month, separating generation while the school is open from generation at a weekend or in the holidays. 74 percent of the Matlock year sits between April and September, most of which is term time; it is the tail of that period, the last week of July and all of August, that the school is not there for. The daily split is a flat apportionment of each month, not a metered one. Session days follow a typical English school year of 190 days. Your own trust or authority may differ by a few days either way. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, session days from a typical school calendar

Grid connection through National Grid Electricity Distribution

Connections around Matlock are handled by National Grid Electricity Distribution, which sets the export limit for the site. Above 3.68 kW per phase the connection runs under G99, so the export limit is agreed in advance rather than assumed. Where the local network is constrained, an export-limited connection usually still makes the scheme work, because a school uses most of what the roof makes during the working day.

Across Derbyshire the planning database records 144 solar schemes totalling 904 MW, of which 27 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

The school estate in Derbyshire Dales

Derbyshire Dales has 64 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register teaching 9,096 pupils between them. Source: DfE Get Information About Schools.

The split is 60 primary and 4 secondary, at an average of 142 pupils a site. That is 15 primaries for every secondary, which is the ratio that matters for a roof: a primary of a few hundred pupils usually offers a hall roof and one teaching block, while a secondary site carries a sports hall, a dining block and several flat roofs.

If your trust holds several of them, the sequencing question comes before the sizing question. Roof age, covering type and the state of the incoming supply vary block by block across an estate, and that is normally what sets the order of works.

Aerial view of a school site with teaching blocks of several different ages, a sports hall and a playing field, solar arrays on two of the flat roofs — A school site with blocks of several ages, which is the usual starting point for a trust estate survey.

Book the survey

Send us the school postcode

Lenzie Consulting Ltd arranges roof surveys for schools across Derbyshire. Send the school postcode and a rough idea of the roof area, and the last twelve months of half hourly meter data if the school holds it. We come back with what the roofs can carry, what they would generate against your own consumption, and the funding routes open to a school.

Lenzie Consulting Ltd arranges the survey and passes your details to an MCS-certified installation partner so they can quote. We do not carry out the installation ourselves.

What Matlock trusts ask before a survey

Is there enough sun around Matlock for this to be worth doing?: The model gives 844 kWh a year for every kWp installed at this latitude, so a 200 kWp array comes out at roughly 168,800 kWh a year before shading. It needs about 594 square metres of clear roof once walkways and rooflight setbacks are allowed for. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Does a Matlock school waste its generation in August?: 26.1 percent of the modelled annual output for Matlock falls in July and August, when the buildings are closed for most of six weeks (EU PVGIS v5.2). It does not go to waste, but it only has three places to go: the base load that runs regardless, such as servers, catering refrigeration and ventilation; storage; or export under an agreement with National Grid Electricity Distribution. We model all three against your half hourly data before an array is sized.
Will the network around Matlock accept the export?: National Grid Electricity Distribution is the distribution network operator for Derbyshire. Anything above 3.68 kW per phase connects under G99, and the application fixes the export limit. On a school site the incoming supply is often the binding constraint rather than the roof, so we ask that question before anyone sizes an array.
Is planning permission needed for panels on a school in Matlock?: Usually permitted development covers a roof array on a school, with prior approval from Derbyshire Dales needed above a capacity threshold. A ground mounted array in the grounds is a different question and much more likely to need a full application. We check both before design sign-off.
Has a school near DE4 already done this?: One school scheme is on record in this postcode district, including a 200 kWp array at Anthony Gell School, Wood Street that is with the planning authority. We were not involved in it. It is a public planning record, and it matters less as proof that solar works than as evidence of what this authority and this network operator have already accepted. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.
How many schools are there around Matlock?: Derbyshire Dales has 64 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register, with 9,096 pupils on roll. Source: DfE Get Information About Schools. We survey across the whole of that area, and where a trust holds several sites we look at them in one pass.

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