Can I put solar panels in my garden instead of on the roof?
Short answer
Often, yes. Ground-mounted arrays avoid roof work and let panels face the best way, but cost more for frames and trenching an armoured cable to the house. Permitted development limits are small: 9 square metres of panels in England and Wales and 14 in Northern Ireland, with height limits near boundaries.
Last checked 24 September 2026 · 2 sources
In more detail
- England Class B heights: 1 m within 5 m of boundary and forward of principal elevation; 2 m within 5 m of boundary; 4 m otherwise.
- Voltage drop sizing for long runs (MIS 3002 5.6.8).
The facts, dated
- 01England stand-alone PD maximum panel area — 9 m2
regulation · England · checked 24 September 2026 · legislation.gov.uk
- 02NI stand-alone PD maximum area — 14 m2
regulation · Northern Ireland · checked 24 September 2026 · legislation.gov.uk
What we saw in the field
[QA review 2026-09-24] P-3 AGREES: armoured PV cable matches ground-mount practice. I-11 UNVERIFIABLE (corrected from 'ratio plausible for UK seasonal variation'): 737 kWh in December and ~6 MWh in July imply ~43 kWp (July ~140 kWh/kWp), near the 50 kWp MIS 3002 ceiling; the Dec/Jul ratio 0.12 is about half the long-term 0.26 for Portsmouth and fits only a very dull December (PVGIS Dec 2023 Portsmouth 20 kWh/kWp). If 6 MWh were annual, December would be 12% of the year - implausible. Not a domestic example; do not publish without kWp, site and year.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk — www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/896/made
- legislation.gov.uk — www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2015/70/schedule/part/2/made
Last checked: 24 September 2026