Specialist solar panels for schools in Farnham

Solar PV for academy trusts across Surrey

A one kilowatt-peak array on a shallow pitched roof in Farnham models at 903 kWh a year, from modelled irradiation of 1,158 kWh per square metre in the plane of the array (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). Farnham models 2 percent above our mean. That is a real advantage, though a smaller one than the difference between an array matched to the timetable and one matched to the roof.

Scaled up, a 280 kWp array, sized to the median array applied for at schools on the national planning record, models at about 252,800 kWh a year before shading, and needs roughly 832 square metres of clear roof. We use the national median from the planning record rather than a round number, so the example stays anchored to what schools have applied for.

Spread across the year that is about 65,000 kWh landing in July and August and roughly 13,100 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.

The planning position for Farnham schools

No school or college solar scheme appears in the GU9 postcode district in the Renewable Energy Planning Database. That is a reporting threshold rather than a verdict. The database records generating stations from one megawatt upward reliably and smaller ones patchily, and almost every school array is a fraction of that, so a roof full of panels on a Farnham secondary could be generating today without ever reaching it.

The closest recorded one is about 14 miles away at Basingstoke: The Costello School, a 0 kWp roof mounted array applied for by Nero Energy, which holds consent and is awaiting construction. We were not involved in it. We cite it because it is a public record of what has cleared planning in this part of Hampshire. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.

Why demand in Farnham falls as the roof peaks

The generating year and the school year are out of step in Farnham. July and August carry 25.7 percent of the modelled output (EU PVGIS v5.2), and the site is closed for most of those nine weeks. July is the single strongest month here at 14 percent of the annual total, and it falls almost entirely inside the holiday.

At the other end of the year the mismatch flips. Only 5.2 percent of output falls in December and January, the two months when a Farnham school is fully occupied and its heating and lighting are at their heaviest. The roof makes 5.7 times as much in July as it does in December, and August alone outproduces December by about 4.8 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.

The weekly pattern repeats the annual one. Saturdays and Sundays generate as well as any other day and consume almost nothing, so before storage or export is even discussed it is worth knowing what the site does at a weekend, which only half hourly data will tell you.

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 UK Power Networks 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.

Grid connection through UK Power Networks

UK Power Networks operates the distribution network across Surrey, 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 Surrey the planning database records 74 solar schemes totalling 182 MW, of which 6 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

The school estate in Waverley

Waverley has 51 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register teaching 17,100 pupils between them. Source: DfE Get Information About Schools.

The split is 39 primary, 7 secondary, 4 special and 1 further education, at an average of 335 pupils a site. Read 5.6 primaries per secondary as a sequencing hint rather than a statistic. A primary is a single survey visit and a modest array; a secondary is several roofs of different ages on one site, and that is where both the area and the complications are.

A trust holding more than one of these sites should look at them together. Grouping the surveys turns the grid question, the funding question and the procurement route into one exercise rather than four, and it usually changes which roof goes first.

What Farnham trusts ask before a survey

How much would a school roof near Farnham generate?

Modelled at 903 kWh per kWp a year, a 280 kWp array on a Farnham school models at about 252,800 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 Farnham?

It goes somewhere, just not into the timetable. 25.7 percent of the Farnham 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 UK Power Networks, or a sign the array is too big. We test which before sizing anything.

Which network operator handles the connection at a Farnham school?

Applications go to UK Power Networks, who run the network across Surrey. 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 Waverley 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 Waverley on siting and design. Listed buildings and conservation areas are the usual exceptions. We put the position to Waverley before a design is finalised.

How many schools are there around Farnham?

Waverley has 51 open state-funded schools and colleges on the DfE register, with 17,100 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 Surrey locations