Is there enough sun around Ely to make this work?

Modelled at 904 kWh per kWp a year for a shallow-pitched roof at this latitude, which puts a 500 kWp array at roughly 452,000 kWh a year before shading. That array needs about 1,485 sqm of clear roof once ridge vents and walkways are allowed for. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Who do we apply to for export near Ely?

Only UK Power Networks can answer it for your connection, and on rural feeders the answer varies farm to farm. An export-limited offer usually still works, because a holding with grain drying, cooling or ventilation uses most of what it makes.

Do we need planning permission in East Cambridgeshire?

In most cases no, because panels on the roof of an agricultural building usually sit within permitted development. The exceptions are listed buildings, conservation areas, protected landscapes and arrays that stand proud of the roof. We check with East Cambridgeshire either way.

Has anyone near CB6 already done this?

The planning database records 4 ground mounted and 2 roof mounted solar schemes in this postcode district. That matters less as proof it works and more as evidence of how the local network has treated export applications. Roof arrays under a megawatt often never appear in the database, so the real figure is higher. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.

Solar panels for farms in Ely

A Ely farm buys electricity at the worst rate of the day in exactly the hours its roof could be generating. The survey starts on the covering: fibre cement or steel, its remaining life, the purlin spacing and what the frame will carry.

904 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 500 kWp array models at about 452,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

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Drawing Ely unit

Roof 96 x 62 m

Array 500 kWp

Yield 452,000 kWh/yr

Scale 1:500 / Rev A / CB6

Illustrative layout for a unit of this size. Your own figures come from the roof survey.

Ely / Cambridgeshire

Eastern arable farmland with solar arrays on farm buildings — Industrial stock of the kind we survey across East of England.

Solar for agricultural buildings across Cambridgeshire

What a farm roof near Ely generates

Modelled irradiation at this latitude is 1158 kWh per square metre a year in the plane of a shallow-pitched roof, which works out at 904 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That sits within a few percent of the mean across the areas we cover, so what decides the scheme is your own demand pattern rather than the latitude.

The planning record lists 4 ground mounted solar schemes in this postcode district, which is a fair guide to how the local network has treated field arrays. The typical consented scheme in this district is about 14.7 MW, with the largest at 24 MW. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.

2 roof mounted schemes are on record nearby. Roof arrays under a megawatt frequently never reach that database at all, so the real number of farm roofs generating around Ely is higher than the record shows.

Surveys run across CB postcodes, CB6 outward.

East Cambridgeshire is the planning authority for most holdings here, and it is the authority that decides whether an array on an agricultural building falls inside permitted development.

FIG. 1 What a Ely roof makes, month by month

Jul produces 6.0 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 500 kWp array here models at about 452,000 kWh across the year, but it arrives unevenly, which is why we size against your summer daytime load and then look at whether storage is worth adding for the shoulder months.

Monthly figures as a table

Month	kWh per kWp	500 kWp array
Jan	24	12,000
Feb	39	19,500
Mar	74	37,000
Apr	105	52,500
May	121	60,500
Jun	123	61,500
Jul	125	62,500
Aug	106	53,000
Sep	83	41,500
Oct	52	26,000
Nov	31	15,500
Dec	21	10,500

Source: EU PVGIS v5.2

FIG. 2 Ely against the rest of Cambridgeshire

Huntingdon908
Cambridge906
St Ives906
Wisbech905
Ely904
March900
Peterborough898
St Neots898

Ely ranks 5 of 8 towns we cover in Cambridgeshire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 898 to 908, a spread of 10 kWh per kWp. Within Cambridgeshire that difference is small enough to ignore: where the building sits is not what decides this scheme, your consumption pattern is.

Bars are zero based, so length is proportional to the figure. Where a county is flat, that is the finding: location is not the lever, consumption is. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, modelled per town

Solar already consented near CB6

From the government's Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026. These are the schemes on record in this postcode district, which is a fair guide to how the local network has been treating export applications.

Scheme	Operator	Capacity	Mounting	Status
Mingay Farm - extension	Octopus Imvetments	19.3 MW	Ground	Operational
Stowbridge Farm	Magnetar Solar	24 MW	Ground	Operational
Stowbridge Farm - Extension (Phase 2)	FC Palmer and Sons	10 MW	Ground	Operational
Stowbridge Farm - Extension (Phase 1)	FC Palmer & Sons Ltd	10 MW	Ground	Operational
The Harbour School, Station Road - Solar Panels & ASHP	Cambridge Meridian Academies Trust	0.9 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction
Lees Packhouse, The Gault - Solar PV System	BeBa Energy UK Limited	0.27 MW	Roof	Awaiting Construction

Grid connection through UK Power Networks

UK Power Networks 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 Cambridgeshire the planning database records 172 solar schemes totalling 2422 MW, of which 46 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

Book the survey

Send us the postcode

Tell us where the unit is and roughly how big the roof is. We come back with what it can carry, what it would generate against your consumption, and the three ways to pay for it.

Lenzie Consulting Ltd arranges the survey and passes your details to our MCS-certified installation partner so they can quote.

Questions about solar in Ely

Is there enough sun around Ely to make this work?: Modelled at 904 kWh per kWp a year for a shallow-pitched roof at this latitude, which puts a 500 kWp array at roughly 452,000 kWh a year before shading. That array needs about 1,485 sqm of clear roof once ridge vents and walkways are allowed for. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Who do we apply to for export near Ely?: Only UK Power Networks can answer it for your connection, and on rural feeders the answer varies farm to farm. An export-limited offer usually still works, because a holding with grain drying, cooling or ventilation uses most of what it makes.
Do we need planning permission in East Cambridgeshire?: In most cases no, because panels on the roof of an agricultural building usually sit within permitted development. The exceptions are listed buildings, conservation areas, protected landscapes and arrays that stand proud of the roof. We check with East Cambridgeshire either way.
Has anyone near CB6 already done this?: The planning database records 4 ground mounted and 2 roof mounted solar schemes in this postcode district. That matters less as proof it works and more as evidence of how the local network has treated export applications. Roof arrays under a megawatt often never appear in the database, so the real figure is higher. Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q1 2026.

Nearby

All Cambridgeshire locations