planning- domestic land

[infinity]

Just been asked to look at a ground mount system, in the homeowners "paddock" area of the garden,

I have not had to deal with this type before so wondered if planning is required? as long as its 5M from any boundries and i mount them in one row, so only one module high, does this fall within the allowed planning permissions?

Thanks

 

[TedM]

The panels are not allowed to exceed 9 square metres surface area if within the curtilage of a dwelling for permitted development to apply. If it is larger or not within the curtilage then a ground-mounted system needs planning permission.

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Does the customer need a "car port" ? As long as its open on 3 sides then no planning required in most areas... PV makes for a good roof!

 

[Worcester]

9m2 is aproximately 1.5kWp ... so generally it will.

However some planners are more lenient, and there is nothing to stop you putting it on the 'roof' of a gazebo, as our neighbour has had done ... We have a very nice cycle / garden store locally also, the 'roof' happens to be at 37 degrees due south, 16.5m long. The planners thought that it was an excellent use for the cycle store and as a garden structure it didn't need planning permission.

It pays to be creative sometimes , It also pays to talk with the planners.

This one isn't ours


See this guidance from Cornwall County Council - It's the one they all follow : http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/idoc.ashx?docid=7366bf1d-bd3c-4fb5-b84f-b906e62d7147&version=-1 from this page: Cornwall Council - Renewable Energy Just in case it doesn't link properly - see page 13 "A 4kW ground mounted solar PV installation. The area covered by the array could be utilised for a number of dual purposes such as a log store, machinery store, hen house etc."

 

[whinmoor]

This is one of ours: 3.84kWp Solar PV Installation - York

We did get planning permission which cost about £200 and took around 6 weeks.

 

[infinity]

This is one of ours: 3.84kWp Solar PV Installation - York

We did get planning permission which cost about £200 and took around 6 weeks.

Nice job! Do you always site the inverter at the panel side as opposed to running DC back to the house?

 

[Worcester]

On 'remote' locations i.e. distant from the main incoming we tend to site the inverters nearer the panels than the incoming, there again most of our systems have more than two strings. We always design the cables sizing to take account of loses and bearing in mind the critical nature of the AC voltage drop it tends to be a balance between costs (AC / DC)

The job we finished last week - 30kWp had 6 strings, average DC run length 45m (each way) - we used about 550m of 6mm2 DC cable and 40m of 16mm SWA. And that was choosing the Inverter location based on the building's constraints. On some 50kW jobs we've used more than 2500m of 6mm2 DC and 200m of 70mm2 SWA, it just depends what you've got.

 

[whinmoor]

Nice job! Do you always site the inverter at the panel side as opposed to running DC back to the house?

If you put the inverter near the panels, you can also put the generation meter down there. No cable losses on the long AC run = more FiT!

 

[Worcester]

@Whinmoor You can.. (we often do) it will then need to be in an appropriate cabinet and maybe you'll need a Garage CU there all nicely weather protected.. One of the things we do with all our remote inverters is put in an IP 65 CU and also a pair of IP65 Sockets on an RCBO and the meter in an IP65 box - obvioulsy, depending upon how you wire it up the sockets may be upstream of the meter, these sockets are incredibly useful for maintenance purposes. - How useful is it to have a socket at the bottom of the garden! It costs diddly squat extra to do it and the customers get a nice bonus, and are always delighted

 

[whinmoor]

@Whinmoor You can.. (we often do) it will then need to be in an appropriate cabinet and maybe you'll need a Garage CU there all nicely weather protected.. One of the things we do with all our remote inverters is put in an IP 65 CU and also a pair of IP65 Sockets on an RCBO and the meter in an IP65 box - obvioulsy, depending upon how you wire it up the sockets may be upstream of the meter, these sockets are incredibly useful for maintenance purposes. - How useful is it to have a socket at the bottom of the garden! It costs diddly squat extra to do it and the customers get a nice bonus, and are always delighted

On that job we did put the isolators and generation meter in a cabinet down the garden. It's on the same posts as the SMA inverter but a little higher to block the sunlight (the inverter faces north). You can see it in one of the smaller pictures on the left of the case study. We didn't really want to put the inverter in a cabinet as it may act like an oven - maybe an "enclosure" would be better. Anyway, customer is very pleased as his system is performing well.

 

[finchy]

I ve been playing with a similar quote 100m garden. Going to suggest the schuco field mount makes a good log store. The running the cable and cost of swa very pricey. DNO are happy to install up to 10kw, just comes down to budget.

 

[Worcester]

Remember people pay a fortune for decking, gazebo's, landcsacping etc, a few extra quid for the long / large swa, they are nearly allways happy to pay for to give them the view / hidden aspect that they want.