Specialist solar panels for schools in Ripon

Which schools around HG4 have applied

The Renewable Energy Planning Database records 1 school and college solar scheme in the HG4 postcode district. A secondary school, Ripon Grammar School, Clotherholme Road, applied for 440 kWp roof mounted and the scheme holds consent and is awaiting construction. The applicant on record is Solar Options for Schools Limited.

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 Ripon Grammar School, Clotherholme Road 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 440 kWp. At 440 kWp you are covering roughly 1,307 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 North Yorkshire

A one kilowatt-peak array on a shallow pitched roof in Ripon models at 834 kWh a year, from modelled irradiation of 1,064 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 6 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 440 kWp array, sized to the median array applied for at schools around Ripon itself, models at about 367,000 kWh a year before shading, and needs roughly 1,307 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 96,500 kWh landing in July and August and roughly 15,800 kWh across December and January. Northern Powergrid 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 Ripon generation curve

A Ripon school roof generates most in the weeks its buildings are closed. 26.3 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 14.3 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 4.3 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 7 times as much in May as it does in December, and August alone outproduces December by about 5.9 to one. 75 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 Ripon as anywhere else.

Then there is the afternoon. From roughly three o'clock the building empties while the roof is still working, so a system sized on annual consumption will over-generate in exactly the hours nobody is there. We size on half hourly data for that reason.

The conclusion is not that a Ripon 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 Northern Powergrid 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.

North Yorkshire schools, phase by phase

North Yorkshire has 346 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register teaching 79,545 pupils between them. Source: DfE Get Information About Schools.

The split is 293 primary, 41 secondary, 10 special and 2 further education, at an average of 230 pupils a site. A ratio of 7.1 to one tells you where the roof area is. It is not with the 293 primaries, which mostly offer a hall and a teaching block each, but with the larger sites that were built with a sports hall and a dining block attached.

Where a multi-academy trust holds several of those sites, surveying the estate in one pass beats taking a roof at a time. The design work, the connection applications and the procurement paperwork are the same job repeated, and a trust that runs them together gets a better answer on all three.

Grid connection through Northern Powergrid

Connections around Ripon are handled by Northern Powergrid, 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 North Yorkshire the planning database records 151 solar schemes totalling 1723 MW, of which 18 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

Ripon school solar, answered

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

The model gives 834 kWh a year for every kWp installed at this latitude, so a 440 kWp array comes out at roughly 367,000 kWh a year before shading. It needs about 1,307 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 Ripon school waste its generation in August?

26.3 percent of the modelled annual output for Ripon 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 Northern Powergrid. We model all three against your half hourly data before an array is sized.

Will the network around Ripon accept the export?

Northern Powergrid is the distribution network operator for North Yorkshire. 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 Ripon?

Usually permitted development covers a roof array on a school, with prior approval from Harrogate 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 HG4 already done this?

One school scheme is on record in this postcode district, including a 440 kWp array at Ripon Grammar School, Clotherholme Road 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 Ripon?

North Yorkshire has 346 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register, with 79,545 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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All North Yorkshire locations