Specialist solar panels for schools in Gravesend

School rooftop solar across Kent

A one kilowatt-peak array on a shallow pitched roof in Gravesend models at 926 kWh a year, from modelled irradiation of 1,189 kWh per square metre in the plane of the array (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). At 5 percent above our mean, Gravesend is at the strong end of the range, and a roof here earns more for every square metre than the same roof would further north.

Scaled up, a 280 kWp array, sized to what the nearest school scheme on record applied for, 11 miles away at Canvey Island, models at about 259,300 kWh a year before shading, and needs roughly 832 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 66,900 kWh landing in July and August and roughly 13,200 kWh across December and January. UK Power Networks 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 Gravesend

Search the Renewable Energy Planning Database for the DA12 postcode district and nothing comes back under education. That is worth stating plainly and then setting aside: the register is built around generating stations, a school array is a fraction of the size it captures reliably, and plenty of school roofs never appear in any national record at all.

The nearest education scheme on the record is 11 miles from Gravesend, at Canvey Island: 280 kWp at Castle View School, Foksville Road, applicant Castle View School, which holds consent and is awaiting construction. That is someone else's application, not ours, and it is here because it shows what Essex planning has already accepted at an education site. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.

The summer holiday problem for a Gravesend school

25.8 percent of the annual output modelled for Gravesend 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. July is the single strongest month here at 14 percent of the annual total, and it falls almost entirely inside the holiday.

The inverse holds at the other end. December and January together return only 5.1 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 July 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.

Put the two calendars together and roughly 49 percent of a school's generation nationally lands on a session day, against about 71 percent for a business open every weekday. That gap is the whole difference between appraising a school roof and appraising any other commercial one, and it barely moves from town to town.

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 Gravesend school is largely empty, so the hours that look best on a generation chart are the worst on a consumption one.

None of that makes a Gravesend scheme a bad one. It changes what the scheme should be: sized against the base load that runs whether or not the school is open, which on most sites is servers, comms, catering refrigeration, ventilation and hot water, with lettings, holiday clubs and summer works added on top. Where that base load is thin, the choices are storage, an export arrangement through UK Power Networks, or a smaller array that consumes nearly everything it makes.

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.

Grid connection through UK Power Networks

UK Power Networks operates the distribution network across Kent, so the export application goes to them. Anything larger than 3.68 kW per phase falls under G99, which means an application before commissioning rather than a notification afterwards. A constrained network is not the end of a scheme. Capping export costs little when the building already absorbs most of what the roof produces.

Across Kent the planning database records 237 solar schemes totalling 2072 MW, of which 45 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

How many schools Gravesham has

Gravesham has 37 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register teaching 20,635 pupils between them. Source: DfE Get Information About Schools.

The split is 28 primary, 8 secondary and 1 special, at an average of 558 pupils a site. 3.5 primaries per secondary is a mix weighted towards small sites. The roof area, and therefore most of the generation, sits with the 8 secondaries.

Across an estate of that size the roofs will not be in the same condition, and that is the point of surveying them together: the block with the best orientation is often not the block whose covering has twenty years left in it.

Questions governors ask us about Gravesend schools

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

The model gives 926 kWh a year for every kWp installed at this latitude, so a 280 kWp array comes out at roughly 259,300 kWh a year before shading. It needs about 832 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 Gravesend school waste its generation in August?

25.8 percent of the modelled annual output for Gravesend 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 UK Power Networks. We model all three against your half hourly data before an array is sized.

Will the network around Gravesend accept the export?

UK Power Networks is the distribution network operator for Kent. 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 Gravesend?

Usually permitted development covers a roof array on a school, with prior approval from Gravesham 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 Gravesend?

Gravesham has 37 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register, with 20,635 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 Maidstone
• School roofs in Chatham
• School roofs in Dartford
• School roofs in Margate
• School roofs in Canterbury
• School roofs in Folkestone

All Kent locations