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Solar panels for warehouses in Oldham

A Oldham warehouse roof sits idle through exactly the hours its occupier buys the most expensive electricity. What decides a scheme here is the state of the covering and the load path, which is why the survey starts on the roof rather than in a spreadsheet.

771 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 500 kWp array models at about 386,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

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96 m phase 1
Drawing Oldham unit
Roof 96 x 62 m
Array 500 kWp
Yield 386,000 kWh/yr
Scale 1:500 / Rev A / OL4

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

Oldham / Greater Manchester
Industrial estate in the North West with solar arrays on several unit roofs
Industrial stock of the kind we survey across North West.

Logistics solar PV across Greater Manchester

What a roof in Oldham actually generates

Modelled irradiation at this latitude is 987 kWh per square metre a year in the plane of a shallow-pitched roof, which works out at 771 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is about 13 percent below the mean across the towns we cover, so the case here leans harder on how much you use on site rather than on raw generation.

Distribution stock around Oldham clusters on M60 J21, M60 J22 and A627(M), which is where the large single-let roofs are.

Surveys run across OL postcodes, OL4 outward.

Oldham is the planning authority for most sites here, and the built-up area holds a population of about 110,720, the size that tends to be served by mid-box last-mile units rather than national hubs (ONS Census 2021 built-up areas).

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

What a Oldham roof makes, month by month

Modelled output per kWp installed, for a shallow-pitched south-facing array. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2.

0255075100Jan: 16 kWh per kWpJanFeb: 32 kWh per kWpFebMar: 64 kWh per kWpMarApr: 93 kWh per kWpAprMay: 110 kWh per kWpMay110 kWh Jun: 109 kWh per kWpJunJul: 107 kWh per kWpJulAug: 91 kWh per kWpAugSep: 69 kWh per kWpSepOct: 42 kWh per kWpOctNov: 23 kWh per kWpNovDec: 15 kWh per kWpDec

May produces 7.3 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 500 kWp array here models at about 386,000 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
MonthkWh per kWp500 kWp array
Jan168,000
Feb3216,000
Mar6432,000
Apr9346,500
May11055,000
Jun10954,500
Jul10753,500
Aug9145,500
Sep6934,500
Oct4221,000
Nov2311,500
Dec157,500
Source: EU PVGIS v5.2
FIG. 2 Oldham against the rest of Greater Manchester
  • Altrincham816
  • Bolton801
  • Salford794
  • Manchester788
  • Bury788
  • Stockport785
  • Rochdale771
  • Oldham771
  • Ashton-under-Lyne769

Oldham ranks 9 of 10 towns we cover in Greater Manchester on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 769 to 828, a spread of 59 kWh per kWp. On a 500 kWp array that is about 29,500 kWh a year between the strongest and weakest town in the county.

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 Electricity North West

Electricity North West operates the distribution network across Greater Manchester, 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.

Across Greater Manchester the planning database records 118 solar schemes totalling 110 MW, of which 11 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

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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.

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Questions about solar in Oldham

What would a 500 kWp array produce in Oldham?
Yes, and the number matters more than the sunshine. At 771 kWh per kWp a year, a 500 kWp array on a Oldham roof models at around 386,000 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 Oldham?
Applications go to Electricity North West, who run the network across Greater Manchester. They decide the export limit, and we handle the G99 paperwork alongside the array design.
What does Oldham require for rooftop solar?
Roof-mounted panels on a commercial building usually fall under permitted development, subject to the limits on projection above the roof plane and to the building not being listed or in a conservation area. We confirm the position with Oldham before the design is finalised.

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