Where Britain's solar panels actually are — and why Scotland leads

For the first time, Ordnance Survey has identified solar panels on individual buildings across Britain — mapping roof data for more than 40 million buildings. The headline finding: around 5% of British buildings (nearly 1.3 million) now have solar panels, and the overwhelming majority are domestic homes rather than commercial or industrial sites.

The most interesting part isn't the national total, though. It's where the panels are. The places with the highest uptake aren't the sunniest corners of southern England — they're further north than most people would guess.

If you're weighing up solar for your own roof, you can check whether it's a good candidate in under a minute — no quote resale, and you choose who to contact. But the OS data is worth understanding first, because it quietly corrects one of the most common reasons UK homeowners talk themselves out of solar.

What the OS data actually shows

Ordnance Survey added solar-panel detection to its National Geographic Database (NGD) Buildings theme, alongside other roof-level data. For the first time this gives a building-by-building picture of solar across the country, rather than rough regional estimates.

The top three local authority districts for domestic solar are:

• Stirling — 15% of buildings with panels
• South Cambridgeshire — 14%
• Peterborough — 13%

And at a national level, Scotland has the highest proportion of domestic solar panels of any part of Britain.

Source: Ordnance Survey — new roof data for over 40 million buildings.

Why Scotland leading is the surprising bit

The instinctive assumption is that solar adoption should track sunshine — that the south coast of England would be carpeted in panels and Scotland would barely register. The data says otherwise. Stirling, sitting well north of the border, tops the table.

This matters because "we're too far north / it's not sunny enough" is one of the most common reasons UK homeowners dismiss solar before they've checked anything. The OS map is a useful corrective: the places generating the least sunshine in Britain include some of the places adopting solar fastest.

The honest version of the science backs this up. A Scottish roof does generate less than an equivalent roof in the sunniest parts of southern England — but the gap is smaller than people assume, typically in the region of 10–20% for a comparable south-facing roof, not the half-or-worse difference many imagine. UK solar runs on diffuse daylight, not direct sun, so a bright-but-overcast Scottish day still produces meaningful generation. Latitude shifts the numbers; it rarely decides the question.

So what actually drives the differences?

Here the data demands some honesty. OS detected the presence of panels — it doesn't explain why one district has three times more than another. So the following are plausible contributing factors, not proven causes:

• Policy and support schemes. Scotland has run its own, generally longer-standing home-energy support through Home Energy Scotland, including interest-free loans towards solar and storage. Sustained, well-publicised support tends to lift adoption over time.
• Housing stock and ownership. Solar is easiest on detached and semi-detached homes that owner-occupiers control outright. Districts with more of that housing — and fewer flats or rentals — tend to show higher uptake.
• Off-gas-grid homes. Rural properties without mains gas rely more heavily on electricity for heating and hot water, which strengthens the case for self-generating it. Scotland has proportionally more of these.
• New-build patterns. A district building a lot of new homes with solar fitted as standard will climb the table quickly, regardless of how sunny it is.
• Installer density. Areas with established local installers make it easier and cheaper to get a job done, which compounds over time.

The takeaway isn't any single one of these. It's that solar adoption in Britain is driven by decisions, economics and housing — things a homeowner and their roof control — far more than by raw sunshine.

What the national map can't tell you

A district-level figure is a great myth-buster and a poor decision tool. Living in Stirling doesn't make your roof suitable, and living in the least-solar district in Britain doesn't make it unsuitable. Suitability is an address-level question, and it turns on things no national dataset captures for your specific home:

• Which way your main roof faces — south, east and west all work; north-only is the hard case. (See best roof direction for solar.)
• Shading from trees, chimneys or neighbouring buildings across the day.
• Roof size, pitch and condition — how many panels actually fit, and whether the roof needs work first.
• Your electricity use and tariff — which decide how much of the generation you'll actually benefit from.

This is exactly the gap Solarable is built to close. The roof check estimates which way your roof faces and gives you an honest, range-based read on its solar potential — turning a national statistic into something about your house. It's an estimate, not a survey: a reputable MCS-certified installer should always confirm suitability in person before you commit.

The honest caveats on the data itself

A first-of-its-kind national dataset deserves a few caveats:

• It's a snapshot. Solar is being installed continuously, so the real figures are already higher than any fixed point-in-time count.
• It detects presence, not performance. A building with panels isn't necessarily a well-sited or well-performing system.
• District percentages flatten a lot of variation. A 5% district can contain streets of south-facing semis that are ideal and terraces that aren't — averages hide both.

None of that undermines the headline. If anything, it reinforces it: roughly 1.3 million British buildings already have solar, the leaders are further north than the sunshine map would predict, and the deciding factor for the next million will be individual roofs and individual decisions — not the weather.

What to do with this

If the "too far north" excuse was quietly part of why you'd parked the idea, the OS map is permission to look again. The sensible next steps are the same wherever you live:

1. Check your roof for direction and rough solar potential.
2. Estimate the savings for your home and tariff.
3. When you're ready, find MCS-certified installers covering your area and get a proper survey.

Stirling didn't get to 15% because it's sunny. It got there because enough homeowners checked, ran the numbers, and decided. The first step is the cheapest one.

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• Use the savings calculator