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Solar panels for farms in Hertford

Around Hertford the constraint is rarely the roof. It is the incoming supply and what the network will accept back. 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.

901 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 500 kWp array models at about 451,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

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96 m phase 1
Drawing Hertford unit
Roof 96 x 62 m
Array 500 kWp
Yield 451,000 kWh/yr
Scale 1:500 / Rev A / SG14

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

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

Agricultural rooftop solar across Hertfordshire

What a farm roof near Hertford 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 901 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.

Most of the buildings we look at here sit in the SG postcode area.

East Hertfordshire 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 Hertford roof makes, month by month

What a Hertford roof makes, month by month

Modelled output per kWp installed, for a shallow-pitched south-facing array. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2.

050100Jan: 25 kWh per kWpJanFeb: 39 kWh per kWpFebMar: 73 kWh per kWpMarApr: 104 kWh per kWpAprMay: 120 kWh per kWpMayJun: 123 kWh per kWpJunJul: 125 kWh per kWpJul125 kWh Aug: 106 kWh per kWpAugSep: 83 kWh per kWpSepOct: 51 kWh per kWpOctNov: 31 kWh per kWpNovDec: 22 kWh per kWpDec

Jul produces 5.7 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 500 kWp array here models at about 451,000 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
MonthkWh per kWp500 kWp array
Jan2512,500
Feb3919,500
Mar7336,500
Apr10452,000
May12060,000
Jun12361,500
Jul12562,500
Aug10653,000
Sep8341,500
Oct5125,500
Nov3115,500
Dec2211,000
Source: EU PVGIS v5.2
FIG. 2 Hertford against the rest of Hertfordshire
  • Bishop's Stortford911
  • Stevenage901
  • St Albans901
  • Hatfield901
  • Hertford901
  • Welwyn Garden City899
  • Watford898
  • Harpenden896
  • Hemel Hempstead895

Hertford ranks 5 of 10 towns we cover in Hertfordshire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 895 to 911, a spread of 16 kWh per kWp. Within Hertfordshire 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 UK Power Networks

Connections around Hertford are handled by UK Power Networks, 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 farm uses most of what the roof makes during the working day.

Across Hertfordshire the planning database records 119 solar schemes totalling 844 MW, of which 12 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

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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.

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Questions about solar in Hertford

How much does a farm roof near Hertford generate?
The model gives 901 kWh for every kWp installed here, so 500 kWp comes out at about 451,000 kWh a year before shading losses. A building of roughly 1,485 sqm of clear roof carries it. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Will the rural network around Hertford take the export?
UK Power Networks is the distribution network operator for Hertfordshire. Anything above 3.68 kW per phase connects under G99, and the application sets the export limit. Rural supplies are often the binding constraint, so we ask the question before an array is sized.
Is planning permission needed for panels on a farm building near Hertford?
Usually permitted development covers a roof array. Ground mounted arrays are a different question and are far more likely to need a full application. We put both to East Hertfordshire before design sign-off.

Nearby

All Hertfordshire locations