The potential power of rooftop solar in West Sussex

Climate change is the greatest threat to our countryside, with the climate emergency already threatening wildlife, affecting food supplies and increasing the risk of flooding and drought.

To tackle this threat, we need to reduce greenhouse gases, increase sustainable transport and adopt new approaches to land management.

We also need to adopt more sustainable ways of generating energy, without further damaging valuable green spaces.

Last year, research by the national CPRE charity highlighted the potential to generate energy through rooftop solar.

It demonstrated the enormous opportunity to make use of both commercial and domestic rooftops, car parks and other developed spaces to generate renewable energy while protecting valuable landscapes.

Now, modelling from the University of Southampton has revealed the potential for rooftop solar on our doorsteps here in West Sussex.

The project mapped and analysed every rooftop across Sussex and Hampshire to assess its potential for PV solar installation.

Researchers considered the size, orientation, slope and potential overshadowing to determine whether solar installation would be effective.

A publicly available map allows local authorities, building owners, community groups and the solar industry to identify potential solar “hotspots” within a specific area.

The map also allows you to check the potential for generating solar energy where you live.

For example, the 42,037 rooftops in the Arun district could potentially host solar PV capacity of more than 202 MWp.

The Chichester district’s 49,154 rooftops could take more than 203 MWp and Worthing’s 18,470 rooftops could be the home to more than 145 MWp of solar PV capacity.

Overall, almost half of rooftops (45%) in Sussex and Hampshire have sufficient sunlight for solar PV installation to be effective.

This gives a theoretical capacity of 2,000 MWp for Hampshire and 1,950 MWp for Sussex.

Sussex and Hampshire represent roughly 6% of England’s area and population.

This suggests, if results were scaled up proportionally, England has a theoretical rooftop potential of 66GW.

As both areas are relatively rural, the national potential could be even higher.

To put that into context, the government has set a national target of 70GW of solar energy generation by 2035.

This shows just how much potential there is to hit current targets without building unpopular, and potentially environmentally damaging, solar farms.

We are calling on the Government and councils to seize the potential of rooftop solar and help power the UK on sunshine.

This includes making solar a requirement of all new builds, government-backed low-cost loans for domestic, community and commercial rooftop solar, and dedicated support for solar upgrades to social housing.

We also want to see the potential impacts of solar development in the countryside managed by introducing a land use framework and revising planning policy to create a “roof first” approach.

By maximising the amount of solar we put on rooftops and car parks we can keep as much land free as possible for wildlife, leisure, farming, flood protection and so much more.

Find out more about our rooftop solar campaign at www.cpresussex.org.uk/what-we-care-about/climate-emergency