Solar in South West: generation and cost

Across the 111 places we model in South West, the median is 939 kWh a year for every kWp installed — against a UK median of 908. Individual towns and councils are listed below.

The median place we model in South West produces 939 kWh a year per kWp, against a UK median of 908 across all the places in our set.

Installed cost on these pages uses the region’s own mean in the official cost statistics — the full table is on cost per kW.

The largest places we model here

PlacekWh per kWpLive postcodes
Weymouth1,0321,459
Swanage1,019438
Dorchester, Dorset1,014774
Christchurch, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole1,0131,344
Brixham1,013602
Plymouth1,0126,345
Bournemouth1,0124,497
Ivybridge1,011289
Bridport1,004472
Helston1,000331
Poole9993,233
Hayle993272
Penzance992612
Corfe Mullen991236
Paignton9841,659
Seaton, East Devon984304
Totnes982387
Ferndown981437
Wimborne Minster979575
Blandford Forum976374

Postcode counts are a size proxy from the ONS Postcode Directory, not population.

What varies within a region

More than between regions, usually. Two houses in the same town can differ by more than the gap between South West and the national median, because orientation, pitch and shading dominate — which is why every place page here ends by pointing at the calculator rather than at a headline number.

Sources

  1. PVGIS 5.3 European Commission, Joint Research Centre · Accessed 20 August 2026 One run per place at its own postcode centroid. Contains modified Joint Research Centre data.
  2. Solar photovoltaic (PV) cost data Department for Energy Security and Net Zero · Accessed 20 August 2026 · OGL v3.0

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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