Specialist solar panels for schools in Exmouth

School rooftop solar across Devon

A one kilowatt-peak array on a shallow pitched roof in Exmouth models at 937 kWh a year, from modelled irradiation of 1,200 kWh per square metre in the plane of the array (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is around 6 percent above the mean across the towns we cover, which is about as strong as a UK school roof gets.

Scaled up, a 260 kWp array, sized to what the nearest school scheme on record applied for, 16 miles away at Paignton, models at about 243,600 kWh a year before shading, and needs roughly 772 square metres of clear roof. We take the size from the nearest real application rather than a round number, so the example is anchored to something a planning officer has already seen.

Spread across the year that is about 62,100 kWh landing in July and August and roughly 12,200 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.

What the planning record shows around Exmouth

The Renewable Energy Planning Database holds no school scheme for the EX8 postcode district. Read that as a gap in the record, not a gap in the roofs: the database is reliable above one megawatt and thin below it, and a school array is typically a fifth of a megawatt.

The nearest education scheme on the record is 16 miles from Exmouth, at Paignton: 260 kWp at South Devon College, Spots Hall, applicant South Devon College, which was withdrawn before determination. That is someone else's application, not ours, and it is here because it shows what Devon planning has already accepted at an education site. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.

The summer holiday problem for a Exmouth school

25.5 percent of the annual output modelled for Exmouth arrives in the two months a school uses least (EU PVGIS v5.2). Term ends in the third week of July and the buildings stay largely empty until September. June is the strongest single month here at 13.8 percent of the annual total, which is still term time, and that works slightly in your favour against towns whose curve peaks in July.

The inverse holds at the other end. December and January together return only 5 percent of the year, and those are the months with the heating, the lighting and the full timetable all running at once. The roof makes 5.9 times as much in June as it does in December, and August alone outproduces December by about 5 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.

Nationally this comes out at about 49 percent of annual generation falling on a session day. A business open every weekday sees roughly 71 percent. The 22 point gap is what a school appraisal has to absorb, and it is much the same in Exmouth as anywhere else.

And the week has the same hole in it. Two days in seven the site is closed altogether, at no cost to the generation, which is part of why the session day share sits where it does. Weekend lettings are the one lever a Exmouth school has over that, and they are worth counting properly.

The conclusion is not that a Exmouth school should do nothing. It is that the array should be sized to the load that survives the holidays, which is usually the server room, the catering refrigeration, the ventilation and the hot water, plus whatever the site lets out over the summer. Anything above that line needs storage or an export agreement with National Grid Electricity Distribution to earn its keep.

We set out the complete version of the term time arithmetic on the home page, and what it does to a payback figure under costs.

How many schools East Devon has

East Devon has 64 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register teaching 18,557 pupils between them. Source: DfE Get Information About Schools.

The split is 55 primary, 8 secondary and 1 special, at an average of 290 pupils a site. That is 6.9 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.

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 Devon the planning database records 248 solar schemes totalling 1451 MW, of which 90 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

Questions governors ask us about Exmouth schools

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

The model gives 937 kWh a year for every kWp installed at this latitude, so a 260 kWp array comes out at roughly 243,600 kWh a year before shading. It needs about 772 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 Exmouth school waste its generation in August?

25.5 percent of the modelled annual output for Exmouth 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 Exmouth accept the export?

National Grid Electricity Distribution is the distribution network operator for Devon. 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 Exmouth?

Usually permitted development covers a roof array on a school, with prior approval from East Devon 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.

How many schools are there around Exmouth?

East Devon has 64 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register, with 18,557 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.

Nearby

• School roofs in Plymouth
• School roofs in Exeter
• School roofs in Paignton
• School roofs in Torquay
• School roofs in Barnstaple
• School roofs in Newton Abbot

All Devon locations