Is there enough sun in Porthmadog to make this work?

Modelled at 820 kWh per kWp a year for a shallow-pitched roof at this latitude, which puts a 500 kWp array at roughly 410,000 kWh a year before shading. That array needs about 1,485 sqm of clear roof once walkways and setbacks are allowed for. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Who do we apply to for export in Porthmadog?

Capacity varies street by street, and only SP Energy Networks can answer it for your connection. We ask the question early, because an export-limited offer changes the design rather than killing the scheme.

Solar panels for warehouses in Porthmadog

Sheds around Porthmadog tend to have more roof than the business has any other use for. We start with the covering and the structure, because a roof with five years left in it changes the answer entirely.

820 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 500 kWp array models at about 410,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.

Book a roof survey in Porthmadog

Drawing Porthmadog unit

Roof 96 x 62 m

Array 500 kWp

Yield 410,000 kWh/yr

Scale 1:500 / Rev A / Gwynedd

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

Porthmadog / Gwynedd

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 Gwynedd.

Distribution centre solar across Gwynedd

What a roof in Porthmadog actually generates

Modelled irradiation at this latitude is 1044 kWh per square metre a year in the plane of a shallow-pitched roof, which works out at 820 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is about 7 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.

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

May produces 8.5 times what Dec does on the same roof. A 500 kWp array here models at about 410,000 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	18	9,000
Feb	35	17,500
Mar	68	34,000
Apr	101	50,500
May	119	59,500
Jun	119	59,500
Jul	113	56,500
Aug	94	47,000
Sep	72	36,000
Oct	43	21,500
Nov	23	11,500
Dec	14	7,000

Source: EU PVGIS v5.2

FIG. 2 Porthmadog against the rest of Gwynedd

Pwllheli887
Porthmadog820
Caernarfon798
Dolgellau746
Bangor733
Bethesda704

Porthmadog ranks 2 of 6 towns we cover in Gwynedd on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 704 to 887, a spread of 183 kWh per kWp. On a 500 kWp array that is about 91,500 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 SP Energy Networks

SP Energy Networks is the network operator here, and their answer on export capacity shapes the design. Any commercial array above 3.68 kW per phase connects under G99 rather than G98, and the application fixes what you are allowed to push back onto the network. If the local network is tight, limiting export rarely breaks the case here: most of the generation is consumed on site while the building is working.

Across Gwynedd the planning database records 19 solar schemes totalling 221 MW, of which 6 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).

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 Porthmadog

Is there enough sun in Porthmadog to make this work?: Modelled at 820 kWh per kWp a year for a shallow-pitched roof at this latitude, which puts a 500 kWp array at roughly 410,000 kWh a year before shading. That array needs about 1,485 sqm of clear roof once walkways and setbacks are allowed for. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Who do we apply to for export in Porthmadog?: Capacity varies street by street, and only SP Energy Networks can answer it for your connection. We ask the question early, because an export-limited offer changes the design rather than killing the scheme.