Solar Panels in Surrey

A south-facing roof at the Guildford model point generates about 1,023 kWh per kWp a year on the EU's PVGIS model, and every unit you use instead of buying saves 26.88p at the South Eastern England price cap rate, the second dearest of Great Britain's fourteen cap regions. A typical 4.5kWp system would make about 4,604 kWh a year. The west of the county sits in a different, cheaper region, which is where this page starts.

How much electricity solar panels make in Surrey

A south-facing 1kWp system at 35 degrees in Guildford generates about 1,023 kWh a year, according to the EU's PVGIS model. That ranks 14 of the 31 areas we cover, which run from 850 kWh in Glasgow to 1,177 kWh in Sussex. East and west roofs still work, at roughly a fifth less.

PVGIS is a modelled figure for an unshaded roof with 14% system losses, and it runs higher than the MCS method installers must use for your written estimate, which gives roughly 800 to 950 kWh per kWp for a well-oriented UK roof. Use PVGIS to compare places and the installer's MCS estimate to plan your budget. Our guides to which direction panels should face and how much electricity solar panels produce go further.

What that electricity is worth in Surrey

Every unit you use yourself saves 26.88p, the Ofgem price cap rate for direct debit customers in the South Eastern England region from 1 October to 31 December 2026. The Great Britain average is 26.32p. Every unit you export earns whatever your Smart Export Guarantee tariff pays, which the Energy Saving Trust puts at around 12p typically.

Take the Energy Saving Trust's typical 4.5kWp home system. On the PVGIS figure for Surrey it would generate about 4,604 kWh a year. If you used all of it, that would be worth about £1,238. If you exported all of it, about £552. Real homes sit between the two, and a battery or daytime use pushes you towards the higher figure. The Energy Saving Trust prices that typical system at around £7,600. See our solar panel cost guide and current export rates.

England's best housing stock for solar, and an average amount of it

Surrey has markedly more of the housing type solar suits and markedly less of the housing type it does not: 32.2% of its 481,818 households live in a detached house against 22.9% across England, and only 15.2% in a terrace against 23.0%. At the 2021 Census Surrey Heath was 43.7% detached and Waverley 40.4%, roughly twice the England figure. The one thing Surrey does not have is fewer flats than the country: at 22.7% its flat share is almost exactly England's 22.2%, so the county is short of terraces rather than short of flats.

What it does with those roofs is unremarkable. DESNZ counted 32,212 solar installations across Surrey's eleven borough and district councils at the end of 2025, up from 28,875 a year earlier. Divided by Census households that is about 67 per 1,000 by our count, a shade above the England figure of about 65 in the same workbook and a shade below the UK average of about 69. A county with England's most detached housing is sitting on the national average. One caveat applies to all of those council numbers: DESNZ assigns installations using the National Statistics Postcode Lookup, the 2025 figures were produced before the latest lookup appeared, and 31,900 GB installations could not be assigned to any council against 3,144 a year earlier, so treat each Surrey count as a floor.

Guildford has 4,911 installations across 55,762 households, about 88 per 1,000 by our count, and Epsom and Ewell has 1,275 across 31,321 households, about 41. Waverley is second at about 83, then Tandridge about 77, Mole Valley about 77, Reigate and Banstead about 75 and Woking about 70. At the bottom with Epsom and Ewell sit Spelthorne at about 42 and Elmbridge at about 46. The two ends of that list are 20 miles apart.

In some counties that ordering tracks the housing table almost exactly. In Surrey it does not. Surrey Heath is the most detached district in the county at 43.7% and has only about 61 installations per 1,000, below the county figure. Elmbridge is slightly above the county average for detached houses at 32.6% and sits near the bottom at about 46. Guildford, top of the table on solar, is middling on detached houses at 33.5%. So if you are in one of the lower boroughs, the useful conclusion is not that your roof is wrong. Runnymede, on about 64 per 1,000, grew its count 21.6% in 2025, the fastest rise in Surrey. Work out what your own roof would do with how many panels you need rather than from what your neighbours have done.

Two network operators and two price regions in one county

Surrey is split down the middle. UK Power Networks says it serves "parts of Surrey", SSEN says it is investing across "Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire and West Sussex", and both are right because the licence boundary runs through the county rather than around it. SSEN's own postcode checker returns UK Power Networks for central Guildford and SSEN for Farnham, 10 miles west in the same borough. On the evidence of that checker, Guildford, Woking, Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Runnymede and Tandridge sit with UK Power Networks, while Surrey Heath, Spelthorne and the western half of Waverley sit with SSEN. Waverley is divided inside its own boundary: Cranleigh comes back as UK Power Networks, Farnham, Godalming and Haslemere as SSEN. If you do not know which you have, the Energy Networks Association says calling 105 connects you to your own operator.

That split reaches your bill, because Ofgem's price cap regions follow the same network boundaries. Ofgem's own region finder is sourced to the National Energy System Operator's distribution licence area boundaries, and the two regions covering Surrey are not priced the same. Guildford sits in South Eastern England at 26.88p a unit with a 52.32p daily standing charge for October to December 2026, the second dearest unit rate of the fourteen cap regions behind Merseyside and North Wales at 27.86p. Farnham and Camberley sit in Southern England at 26.47p with a 47.81p standing charge. That is 0.41p a unit and 4.51p a day between two Surrey homes on the same tariff, and it means a generated unit is worth slightly more in the east of the county than the west. The Great Britain average is 26.32p. Peak month at this latitude is July at about 127 kWh per kWp; December drops to about 35. A dear unit rate is also the argument for a battery, because every unit you move out of the evening is worth more here.

The paperwork differs slightly depending on which side you are on, and in neither case do you file it. In the UK Power Networks part your installer notifies the operator within 28 days of the installation, only installers can notify on a customer's behalf, and UK Power Networks approves automatically where maximum export after any export limitation comes in under 5kW. It says there is nothing for you to pay unless your electricity supply itself needs upgrading. In the SSEN part, an install of 3.68kW per phase or less runs on the G98 route with Form B submitted within 28 days of commissioning, while anything above 3.68kW per phase is a G99 application before connection, for which SSEN says a quotation can take up to 45 working days. Its fast track route for smaller installations aims to respond in 10. Our G98 and G99 guide covers both. For the same operators either side of Surrey, see solar panels in Sussex and solar panels in Hampshire.

Tandridge is 94% green belt, and that is not what restricts your roof

Tandridge District Council says its district is 94% green belt, the highest in the country, and the House of Commons Library's green belt briefing of September 2026 puts Tandridge first in England at that figure with Guildford seventh at 84%. Guildford's own Local Plan claims about 89% for the borough, so the two sources disagree and either needs naming. Surrey County Council has put 73% of the whole county inside the Metropolitan Green Belt, though that figure comes from a 2016 waste plan consultation rather than current statistics. Whichever number you use, most Surrey homes are inside the designation.

For a roof array that changes nothing. The extra solar restrictions in England's permitted development order attach to "article 2(3) land", and Schedule 1 Part 1 of the order lists that as conservation areas, areas of outstanding natural beauty, land specified under section 41(3) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the Broads, National Parks and World Heritage Sites. Green belt is not on the list. Panels on the roof of a house are permitted development, the conservation area restriction bites on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure fronting a highway rather than on a roof slope, a pitched-roof array must stay within 0.2 metres of the slope and a flat-roof one within 0.6 metres of the highest part of the roof, and listed buildings and scheduled monuments are excluded. Green belt only re-enters the picture if you need planning permission anyway, for instance a garden array outside the permitted limits. See permitted development and, if your home is listed, solar panels on a listed building.

What does reach a Surrey roof is the Article 4 directions sitting over the conservation areas. Guildford's Local Plan records 38 conservation areas and 1,200 listed buildings in the borough, and the council says its Article 4 restrictions apply to work on the part of a property facing a road, path or open space, with changes to the roof among the work that then needs permission. Waverley has 44 conservation areas, and Reigate and Banstead says Article 4 directions have been served on most conservation areas in that borough. Check your own address before you book a survey: our guide to solar panels in a conservation area covers what the direction actually controls.

The Surrey Hills covers a quarter of the county, and is about to get bigger

The Surrey Hills National Landscape covers 163 square miles, about a quarter of the land area of Surrey, and was designated in 1958 as one of the first in England. It runs along the chalk North Downs from Farnham in the west, above Guildford, Dorking and Reigate, to Oxted in the east. Unlike green belt, this designation is article 2(3) land, so it does change two things. A flat-roof array inside it needs an application to the council first for a determination of whether prior approval is required for the panels' appearance, a condition that has been in the order since December 2023 and does not apply to a pitched roof. And since 27 August 2026 a stand-alone garden array needs the same determination if any part of it would sit within 5 metres of your boundary. For a house that array is capped at 9 square metres of panel, with a height limit that drops to 1 metre where it is within 5 metres of the boundary and forward of the front of the house.

The boundary is also moving. Natural England's chief executive and chair signed the designation Orders on 20 August 2026 for an extension of about 129 square kilometres, a 30.5% increase, taking in land in Waverley, Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge as well as East Hampshire, Croydon and Bromley. The Order has no legal effect unless and until the Secretary of State confirms it, and no date for that decision is published. If it is confirmed, homes on the newly included land become subject to the flat-roof and 5-metre garden-array steps above, having not been before. If you are near the current boundary and considering a ground-mounted array, that is an argument for doing it sooner rather than later.

The grant is open in Surrey, and eight of eleven councils do not mention it

The Warm Homes: Local Grant pays for solar panels outright in Surrey, it is run by Surrey County Council for all eleven boroughs and districts rather than by the boroughs, and it is open. The council says the grant began on 1 September 2025 and plans to run three years to 31 March 2028, that applications are open to residents who physically occupy the property, and its page carries no closure notice, no fully allocated wording and no waiting list. Solar PV is on its named measures list alongside solar thermal and battery storage, an owner-occupier is not expected to contribute anything, and the council puts whole-project averages at up to £12,400 per household while warning that no property is automatically entitled to a specific amount. DESNZ recorded Surrey's allocation as £13,914,375. Two limits are worth knowing before you apply: an existing array cannot be repaired or replaced under the grant, and insulation is prioritised ahead of low-carbon heating. The gate is an English home you own or rent privately, an EPC of D to G, and a household income usually of £36,000 a year or less, with postcode and benefit routes above that. One more thing to know before you plan around it: you do not pick the installer. The council says one of the installers on its own network must be used to be eligible, that those firms are TrustMark registered and MCS accredited for renewables and certified to PAS 2035:2023, and that it chooses which one you are referred to. It also says the roof has to be in safe and satisfactory condition and the loft cleared before anyone installs anything, and that the whole process runs from three weeks to several months.

The reason to go to the county rather than your district is that most district pages will not help you. We read all eleven on 30 October 2026. Three mention the grant: Reigate and Banstead says plainly that it "is now open for applications in Surrey", Tandridge reproduces the dates accurately, and Waverley describes it and points to the county. The other eight publish nothing a resident would find, and on Woking's site the scheme appears only inside committee papers. Four are worse than silent. Mole Valley and Surrey Heath still badge home energy grants under the "Government Green Homes Grant Scheme", abolished in 2021, and Epsom and Ewell under the Sustainable Warmth scheme that closed in 2023, all quoting ceilings of £25,000 against an actual average of about £12,400. Contact Surrey County Council at energy@surreycc.gov.uk for inquiries, which the council says is answered faster than its 01483 404 505 line, and apply through the online form on its website.

Three councils are also telling residents that ECO4 ended seven months ago. Surrey Heath prints that the scheme runs until March 2026 on the page itself, Runnymede prints an obligation period ending 31 March 2026 on a page its own metadata says was edited in September 2026, and Spelthorne links a statement of intent saying the same from a page last modified in January 2026. Ofgem, which administers the scheme, says ECO4 runs until 31 December 2026 after a nine-month extension. Those three are also the only Surrey councils publishing an ECO4 Flex statement of intent, and all three cap it at a gross household income under £31,000, which is £5,000 below the grant's own threshold and leaves a band of households inside one scheme and outside the other with no page explaining why. Free in-person advice is the easiest thing to get here and it is running, not paused: the county's Home Energy Advice Team sends trained local Energy Champions to do a thermal imaging survey and fit quick wins, free, and Reigate and Banstead and Surrey Heath run their own survey offers. If you are above the grant's income line, the Warm Homes Loan Scheme opened on gov.uk on 28 October 2026 and covers solar PV and battery storage for owners using an MCS-certified installer, though you cannot use a loan and a grant for the same improvement. Our guide to solar panel grants in the UK has the national picture.

Getting solar quotes in Surrey

Get at least three written quotes from MCS-certified installers, each with a performance estimate for your roof and a full breakdown of what is supplied. The Renewable Energy Consumer Code recommends quotes from at least 3 different companies, limits its members to a deposit of no more than 25% of the contract price, and says a reputable company will never make you feel pressured into signing. Our guide to choosing a solar installer covers what to check.

Sources for this page

Local sources checked on 30 October 2026. Solar yields: PVGIS 5.2, EU Joint Research Centre, modelled October 2026. Electricity prices: Ofgem price cap by region. System cost and export rate: Energy Saving Trust. Local sources:

• Surrey County Council: Warm Homes: Local Grant for all eleven Surrey councils
• gov.uk: apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant
• DESNZ: Warm Homes: Local Grant successful local authorities, including Surrey's allocation
• Reigate and Banstead Borough Council: the grant is open for applications in Surrey
• Surrey County Council: free Home Energy Advice Team visits
• Ofgem: ECO4 runs to 31 December 2026
• Runnymede Borough Council: ECO4 Flex statement of intent
• gov.uk: Warm Homes Loan Scheme eligibility
• Tandridge District Council: 94% green belt, the highest in the country
• House of Commons Library: Green Belt briefing, September 2026
• GPDO 2015 Schedule 1 Part 1: what article 2(3) land is
• GPDO 2015 Schedule 2 Part 14: solar on domestic premises
• Guildford Borough Council: Article 4 directions and conservation areas
• Waverley Borough Council: 44 conservation areas
• Surrey Hills National Landscape: 163 square miles, designated 1958
• Surrey Hills National Landscape: the boundary review awaiting confirmation
• UK Power Networks: solar and storage, how your installer notifies them
• SSEN: micro generation installations up to 3.68kW per phase
• Energy Networks Association: find your network operator
• Nomis: Census 2021 accommodation type (TS044)
• DESNZ: Renewable electricity by local authority, 2014 to 2025