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Solar panels for farms in Wigston

Around Wigston the constraint is rarely the roof. It is the incoming supply and what the network will accept back. Each survey records the sheet type and condition, the usable area once rooflights and vents come out, and whether the supply is single or three phase.

877 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 500 kWp array models at about 439,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

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96 m phase 1
Drawing Wigston unit
Roof 96 x 62 m
Array 500 kWp
Yield 439,000 kWh/yr
Scale 1:500 / Rev A / LE18

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

Wigston / Leicestershire
Midlands arable farmland with solar on farm building roofs
Industrial stock of the kind we survey across East Midlands.

Farm building solar PV across Leicestershire

What a farm roof near Wigston generates

Modelled irradiation at this latitude is 1120 kWh per square metre a year in the plane of a shallow-pitched roof, which works out at 877 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.

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

We survey holdings across the LE postcode area, starting from LE18.

Oadby and Wigston 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 Wigston roof makes, month by month

What a Wigston roof makes, month by month

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

050100Jan: 23 kWh per kWpJanFeb: 37 kWh per kWpFebMar: 72 kWh per kWpMarApr: 103 kWh per kWpAprMay: 120 kWh per kWpMayJun: 120 kWh per kWpJunJul: 122 kWh per kWpJul122 kWh Aug: 104 kWh per kWpAugSep: 81 kWh per kWpSepOct: 49 kWh per kWpOctNov: 29 kWh per kWpNovDec: 20 kWh per kWpDec

Jul produces 6.1 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 500 kWp array here models at about 439,000 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
Jan2311,500
Feb3718,500
Mar7236,000
Apr10351,500
May12060,000
Jun12060,000
Jul12261,000
Aug10452,000
Sep8140,500
Oct4924,500
Nov2914,500
Dec2010,000
Source: EU PVGIS v5.2
FIG. 2 Wigston against the rest of Leicestershire
  • Market Harborough891
  • Melton Mowbray879
  • Wigston877
  • Leicester874
  • Hinckley870
  • Loughborough868
  • Coalville863

Wigston ranks 3 of 7 towns we cover in Leicestershire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 863 to 891, a spread of 28 kWh per kWp. Within Leicestershire 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.

Across Leicestershire the planning database records 165 solar schemes totalling 1259 MW, of which 37 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

Solar already consented near LE18

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
Wigston Swimming Pool, Station Road - Solar Panels Oadby & Wigston Borough Council 0.21 MW Roof Awaiting Construction
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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 Wigston

What would a 500 kWp array produce on a farm near Wigston?
Yes, and the figure matters more than the sunshine. At 877 kWh per kWp a year, a 500 kWp array on a Wigston holding models at around 439,000 kWh. What changes the answer is how much of that the farm uses itself. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Which network operator handles the connection around Wigston?
Applications go to National Grid Electricity Distribution, who run the network across Leicestershire. On a farm the incoming supply matters as much as their answer: a single phase supply caps what can be installed whatever the roof would take.
What does Oadby and Wigston require for solar on an agricultural building?
Roof-mounted panels on an agricultural building often fall under permitted development, subject to limits on projection above the roof plane and to the building not being listed or in a conservation area or National Park. We confirm the position with Oadby and Wigston before the design is finalised.

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