Is there enough sun around Cathays to make this work?

Modelled at 908 kWh per kWp a year for a shallow-pitched roof at this latitude, which puts a 500 kWp array at roughly 454,000 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 Cathays?

Only National Grid Electricity Distribution 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.

Solar panels for farms in Cathays

The case for solar on a Cathays holding turns on how much of the output the farm uses itself, not on how much the roof makes. What decides a farm scheme here is the state of the roof sheets and the incoming supply, which is why the survey looks at both before anyone sizes an array.

908 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 500 kWp array models at about 454,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Book a roof survey in Cathays

Drawing Cathays unit

Roof 96 x 62 m

Array 500 kWp

Yield 454,000 kWh/yr

Scale 1:500 / Rev A / Cardiff

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

Cathays / Cardiff

A modern steel framed agricultural building with its roof covered in solar panels, tractor and trailer in the yard, fields beyond — Industrial stock of the kind we survey across Cardiff.

Agricultural rooftop solar across Cardiff

What a farm roof near Cathays generates

Modelled irradiation at this latitude is 1159 kWh per square metre a year in the plane of a shallow-pitched roof, which works out at 908 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.

No solar scheme is recorded in this postcode district in the planning database. On a farm that usually means nothing has been built above the reporting threshold rather than that nothing has been built, because a roof array on a shed rarely appears in it.

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

Jun produces 6.5 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 500 kWp array here models at about 454,000 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	23	11,500
Feb	39	19,500
Mar	73	36,500
Apr	106	53,000
May	127	63,500
Jun	129	64,500
Jul	127	63,500
Aug	105	52,500
Sep	82	41,000
Oct	49	24,500
Nov	28	14,000
Dec	20	10,000

Source: EU PVGIS v5.2

FIG. 2 Cathays against the rest of Cardiff

Canton936
Pontcanna936
Cathays908
Splott908

Cathays ranks 3 of 4 towns we cover in Cardiff on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 908 to 936, a spread of 28 kWh per kWp. Within Cardiff 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

Grid connection through National Grid Electricity Distribution

National Grid Electricity Distribution 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.

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 Cathays

Is there enough sun around Cathays to make this work?: Modelled at 908 kWh per kWp a year for a shallow-pitched roof at this latitude, which puts a 500 kWp array at roughly 454,000 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 Cathays?: Only National Grid Electricity Distribution 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.