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DurhamSolar panels in Durham,
priced honestly.
Independent guidance on solar and battery storage for Durham homes in Durham: a free remote design call first, then an MCS-certified installation team for your area if you decide to go ahead. PVGIS puts a roof in Durham at 942 kWh per kWp a year, 1% above our Durham county estimate.
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What a roof in Durham can generate
Real satellite data for Durham, real installed pricing, and the same honest model we run for every place we cover.
How Durham compares
Among the places we publish figures for, Durham is one of 35 Durham towns we track, and it ranks joint 21st of 35 for solar yield. It is a medium town in the House of Commons Library classification, with 52,050 residents, and its roofs see 2.58 peak sun hours a day across the year. That drives the standard 12 panel model to 5,991 kWh of generation, of which around 5,054 kWh is exported at 12p for £607 a year, with £247 saved on electricity you would otherwise buy at 26.32p.
Treat these as calibration rather than a quote. The calculator below runs the same model, defaulted to Durham's own yield, and at Durham's 942 kWh per kWp it prices a 12 panel system at £6,360 installed before any battery. Your free design call reworks every number for your actual roof, its shading and your usage.
Any planning application in Durham sits with County Durham, and its official House of Commons Library settlement class is medium town.
The charger is in the installed price but left out of payback: charging savings depend on your mileage and tariff, which the design call models properly.
Price this properly, free →Your real roof, your real usage, on a free video call. No obligation.
A 12 panel, 6.36 kWp system in Durham generates around 5,991 kWh a year, worth around £853 in year one on the 12p export scenario.
Generation is modelled from PVGIS satellite data for Durham's own coordinates (54.78311, -1.56856), using the same 26.32p/kWh import value and £1,000 per kWp installed pricing as every Clearline estimate, with the full methodology, sourcing and assumptions set out on our help page.
Local detail for Durham
County Durham's housing is terrace-heavy: 36% of properties, a higher share than the North East region or England as a whole, against 14% bungalows and 15% detached homes, much of the older terraced stock privately rented. That mix generally means compact pitched roofs with two main faces rather than one large expanse, so the better-facing slope, often the rear, tends to set how many panels a terraced home can fit, while the county's detached houses and bungalows usually offer more usable roof area.
Durham sits in Northern Powergrid territory, whose own published figure for a standard low voltage generation quotation is 45 working days, with most single home systems using the quicker 28-day G98 route instead. Durham County Council is the planning authority; with Durham Castle and Cathedral forming a UNESCO World Heritage Site and over 3,000 listed buildings countywide, the council has its own Supplementary Planning Document setting out when listed building consent is needed for solar panels.
The council's Climate Emergency target is for County Durham to reach net zero by 2045, a date it set out after declaring the emergency in the first place. The county has also taken on large-scale generation: Durham County Council granted planning permission for the 49.9MW Bluestone Solar Farm on a former coal mining site near Cockfield, developed by Bluefield Renewable Development, with a £400,000 community fund attached for local residents.
Network operator (DNO): Northern Powergrid · G99 application
Planning authority: Durham County Council
Solar panel servicing and repair in Durham
If a system in Durham is underperforming, start with the guides below: repair benchmarks, service scope, and the inverter question.
Common questions about solar in Durham
What could a roof in Durham generate?
PVGIS puts a roof in Durham at 942 kWh per kWp a year, 2.58 peak sun hours a day averaged across the seasons.
What does a typical solar system cost in Durham?
A typical 12 panel, 6.36 kWp system in Durham costs around £6,360 installed, at £1,000 per kWp before any battery.
Would a system in Durham need a G99 application?
Most home solar and battery systems qualify for the simpler G98 notification, made to the network operator (DNO) after installation rather than before. A minority, usually larger systems, need the fuller G99 process instead. Your design call checks which applies in Durham before anything is booked; our G98 vs G99 guide explains the difference in full.
What could I earn from exporting in Durham?
On the 12p export scenario, that 12 panel system sends about 5,054 kWh a year to the grid, worth around £607. The tariff guide compares the export rates that could apply to your setup.
Get your free quote
Takes about two minutes. We work out your options, then confirm your free remote design call, on video, at a time that suits you. It starts with your roof and your numbers, and the design is built around them rather than around a product someone needs to shift.
Reading for Durham homeowners
Independent, sourced and dated. The same ground we cover on your free call.
How many solar panels do I need? The honest way to count
One panel is 2.26 square metres. The rest is measuring your roof honestly.
Read the guide →Inside a home battery: capacity, power and losses
Usable capacity, kW output, round trip losses and chemistry, in plain terms.
Read the guide →How time of use charging windows actually work
How a cheap overnight window is metered and billed, and what a battery does inside it.
Read the guide →Do you need to replace your radiators for a heat pump?
Some change, most do not. The room by room arithmetic that decides which.
Read the guide →The price cap explained, and what it does to solar payback
The cap limits unit rates, not bills. That changes what solar payback means.
Read the guide →MCS, HIES, RECC, NAPIT, TrustMark and Flexi-Orb: which badge does what
Six logos, six different jobs. What each scheme covers, and which are actually required.
Read the guide →How Durham compares with its neighbours
Same satellite dataset, same assumptions, so the differences are real geography rather than modelling noise.
| Town | kWh per kWp | Peak sun hours | vs Durham |
|---|---|---|---|
| Durham | 942 | 2.58 | — |
| Brandon (County Durham) | 941 | 2.58 | -1 kWh |
| Fence Houses | 948 | 2.60 | +6 kWh |
| Hetton-le-Hole | 952 | 2.61 | +10 kWh |
| Chester-le-Street | 936 | 2.57 | -6 kWh |
| Houghton-le-Spring | 953 | 2.61 | +11 kWh |
| Spennymoor | 945 | 2.59 | +3 kWh |
PVGIS v5.2 for each town centroid, identical assumptions throughout. A few kWh either way is weather-year noise; a spread beyond about 30 kWh per kWp is real geography.
Also for Durham: Solar panels in Durham from OVO Solar & Battery