What to know before installing solar panels on listed buildings

Here’s what you need to know before installing solar panels in listed buildings

Operating your business from a listed building can be beneficial – particularly if you’re showing

visitors around and are keen to make a good impression, as these buildings often have a rich history

and lots of features worth showing off. But if you’re keen to improve your carbon footprint and

are interested installing solar panels on the roof, you’re sure to have lots of questions about

whether or not this will be possible.

First of all, you’ll need to make sure you have planning permission from your local authority before

you can mount photovoltaic panels on the roof, a requirement so that they can make sure that

the installation doesn’t detract from the appearance of your building, as well as ensuring that the

building itself will not be damaged during the process.

In addition, all panels will need to be placed in the least obtrusive area possible and preferably

freestanding rather than roof or wall-mounted, with the local authority judging each request on a

case by case basis.

As you can see, it is necessary to do as much research as possible before thinking about going green

in this way where listed buildings are concerned and it may be that planning permission is quite

difficult to get. As well as contacting your local authority, it would definitely be worth getting in

touch with an accredited solar installer such as Lightsource to find out what you can and cannot do,

so please do give us a call today and see how we can help.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/listing/listed-buildings/