Specialist solar panels for schools in Chorley

Which schools around PR7 have applied

The Renewable Energy Planning Database records 1 school and college solar scheme in the PR7 postcode district. A secondary school, Parklands High School, Southport Road - Solar Photovoltaic Panels, applied for 290 kWp roof mounted and the scheme holds consent and is awaiting construction. The applicant on record is Parklands High School.

None of these are ours. They are entries in the public planning record, reproduced here because a consented array at a school down the road is a better guide to your own prospects than any national average. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.

One thing to be clear about: the drawing at the head of this page is an illustrative estate, not Parklands High School, Southport Road - Solar Photovoltaic Panels and not a survey of anyone's roof. What we know about the scheme above is only what the public planning record says.

The median array applied for here is 290 kWp. At 290 kWp you are covering roughly 861 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.

Every one of them is a secondary school, which is worth knowing: a secondary site normally has a sports hall, a dining block and several flat roofs, which is where the usable area comes from.

Solar for education buildings across Lancashire

A one kilowatt-peak array on a shallow pitched roof in Chorley models at 787 kWh a year, from modelled irradiation of 1,006 kWh per square metre in the plane of the array (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is about 11 percent below the mean across the towns we cover, so the case at this latitude rests almost entirely on using the output on site rather than exporting it.

Scaled up, a 290 kWp array, sized to the median array applied for at schools around Chorley itself, models at about 228,200 kWh a year before shading, and needs roughly 861 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 58,900 kWh landing in July and August and roughly 8,700 kWh across December and January. Electricity North West 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.

Term dates against the Chorley generation curve

A Chorley school roof generates most in the weeks its buildings are closed. 25.8 percent of the modelled year lands in July and August alone (EU PVGIS v5.2), and the summer holiday takes roughly six of those nine weeks out of the timetable. May is the strongest single month here at 14.5 percent of the annual total, which is still term time, and that works slightly in your favour against towns whose curve peaks in July.

Winter reverses it. December and January between them return 3.8 percent of the modelled year, and that is when the heating, the lighting and a full register are all drawing at the same time. The roof makes 8.1 times as much in May as it does in December, and August alone outproduces December by about 6.6 to one. 76 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 Chorley as anywhere else.

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

The conclusion is not that a Chorley 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 Electricity North West 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.

Chorley schools, phase by phase

Chorley has 61 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register teaching 17,329 pupils between them. Source: DfE Get Information About Schools.

The split is 52 primary, 7 secondary and 2 special, at an average of 284 pupils a site. At 7.4 primaries to every secondary, most of the buildings here are small. That is not a reason to skip them, but it does mean the usable area on a primary is a hall roof and a teaching block rather than an estate.

For a trust with more than one site in Chorley, the first survey is worth running across the whole estate. It tells you which roofs are near the end of their covering life, which have the switchboard headroom, and therefore which one should carry the first array.

Grid connection through Electricity North West

Electricity North West operates the distribution network across Lancashire, 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 Lancashire the planning database records 161 solar schemes totalling 521 MW, of which 25 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

Chorley school solar, answered

How much would a school roof near Chorley generate?

Modelled at 787 kWh per kWp a year, a 290 kWp array on a Chorley school models at about 228,200 kWh. What decides whether that is worth doing is how much of it the school uses itself, not the total. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

How does the school year affect a solar scheme in Chorley?

It goes somewhere, just not into the timetable. 25.8 percent of the Chorley generating year lands in July and August (EU PVGIS v5.2), and a closed school still runs servers, comms, refrigeration and ventilation. What that base load does not absorb is either stored, exported under an agreement with Electricity North West, or a sign the array is too big. We test which before sizing anything.

Which network operator handles the connection at a Chorley school?

Applications go to Electricity North West, who run the network across Lancashire. An export-limited offer usually still works for a school, because the summer surplus is the part you were least likely to be paid much for anyway.

What does Chorley require for solar on a school building?

Roof-mounted solar on a non-domestic building often falls within permitted development under Part 14 of the General Permitted Development Order, subject to limits on how far the panels stand proud of the roof plane and, above a threshold, to prior approval from Chorley on siting and design. Listed buildings and conservation areas are the usual exceptions. We put the position to Chorley before a design is finalised.

Has a school near PR7 already done this?

One school scheme is on record in this postcode district, including a 290 kWp array at Parklands High School, Southport Road - Solar Photovoltaic Panels that holds consent and is awaiting construction. 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 Chorley?

Chorley has 61 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register, with 17,329 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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