What would a 500 kWp array produce in Pontcanna?

Yes, and the number matters more than the sunshine. At 936 kWh per kWp a year, a 500 kWp array on a Pontcanna roof models at around 468,000 kWh. What changes the answer is how much of that you use on site rather than export. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Which network operator handles the connection in Pontcanna?

Applications go to National Grid Electricity Distribution, who run the network across Cardiff. They decide the export limit, and we handle the G99 paperwork alongside the array design.

Solar panels for warehouses in Pontcanna

The economics of a Pontcanna rooftop array turn on how much of the generation the occupier uses on site. The survey measures the roof, not the postcode: cladding profile, purlin centres, remaining sheet life and the load the frame can take.

936 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 500 kWp array models at about 468,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Book a roof survey in Pontcanna

Drawing Pontcanna unit

Roof 96 x 62 m

Array 500 kWp

Yield 468,000 kWh/yr

Scale 1:500 / Rev A / Cardiff

Illustrative layout for a unit of this size. Your own figures come from the roof survey.

Pontcanna / Cardiff

Aerial view of an industrial estate where some warehouse roofs carry solar arrays and others are bare steel — Industrial stock of the kind we survey across Cardiff.

Warehouse rooftop solar across Cardiff

What a roof in Pontcanna actually generates

Modelled irradiation at this latitude is 1193 kWh per square metre a year in the plane of a shallow-pitched roof, which works out at 936 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is around 6 percent above the mean across the towns we cover, which is as good as UK rooftop gets outside the south coast.

FIG. 1 What a Pontcanna roof makes, month by month

Jun produces 6.3 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 500 kWp array here models at about 468,000 kWh across the year, but it arrives unevenly, which is why we size against your summer daytime load and then look at whether storage is worth adding for the shoulder months.

Monthly figures as a table

Month	kWh per kWp	500 kWp array
Jan	24	12,000
Feb	41	20,500
Mar	76	38,000
Apr	110	55,000
May	130	65,000
Jun	132	66,000
Jul	130	65,000
Aug	108	54,000
Sep	85	42,500
Oct	50	25,000
Nov	30	15,000
Dec	21	10,500

Source: EU PVGIS v5.2

FIG. 2 Pontcanna against the rest of Cardiff

Canton936
Pontcanna936
Cathays908
Splott908

Pontcanna ranks 2 of 4 towns we cover in Cardiff on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 908 to 936, a spread of 28 kWh per kWp. Within Cardiff that difference is small enough to ignore: where the building sits is not what decides this scheme, your consumption pattern is.

Bars are zero based, so length is proportional to the figure. Where a county is flat, that is the finding: location is not the lever, consumption is. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, modelled per town

Grid connection through National Grid Electricity Distribution

National Grid Electricity Distribution operates the distribution network across Cardiff, so the export application goes to them. Anything larger than 3.68 kW per phase falls under G99, which means an application before commissioning rather than a notification afterwards. A constrained network is not the end of a scheme. Capping export costs little when the building already absorbs most of what the roof produces.

Book the survey

Send us the postcode

Tell us where the unit is and roughly how big the roof is. We come back with what it can carry, what it would generate against your consumption, and the three ways to pay for it.

Lenzie Consulting Ltd arranges the survey and passes your details to our MCS-certified installation partner so they can quote.

Questions about solar in Pontcanna

What would a 500 kWp array produce in Pontcanna?: Yes, and the number matters more than the sunshine. At 936 kWh per kWp a year, a 500 kWp array on a Pontcanna roof models at around 468,000 kWh. What changes the answer is how much of that you use on site rather than export. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Which network operator handles the connection in Pontcanna?: Applications go to National Grid Electricity Distribution, who run the network across Cardiff. They decide the export limit, and we handle the G99 paperwork alongside the array design.