The sunniest and least sunny places in the UK for solar
We ran PVGIS at the postcode centroid of 1,356 UK places. The best generates about 54% more per kWp than the worst — a real difference, and a smaller one than almost any solar advertisement implies.
About 54% separates the best place we model from the worst.
That is the whole national spread, from the sunniest corner of the south coast to the far north. It is real money over twenty-five years — and it is far less than the difference between a south-facing roof and a north-facing one on the same street.
The thirty sunniest
| Rank | Place | kWh per kWp | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Polegate | 1,074 | South East |
| 2 | Seaford | 1,069 | South East |
| 3 | Lewes | 1,067 | — |
| 4 | Eastbourne | 1,059 | South East |
| 5 | Eastbourne | 1,059 | — |
| 6 | Chichester | 1,058 | South East |
| 7 | Newhaven | 1,058 | South East |
| 8 | Hailsham | 1,055 | South East |
| 9 | Newport, Isle of Wight | 1,054 | South East |
| 10 | Ventnor | 1,054 | South East |
| 11 | Peacehaven | 1,053 | South East |
| 12 | Isle of Wight | 1,053 | — |
| 13 | Barnham, Arun | 1,052 | South East |
| 14 | Rustington | 1,049 | South East |
| 15 | Arun | 1,048 | — |
| 16 | Littlehampton | 1,047 | South East |
| 17 | Lewes | 1,046 | South East |
| 18 | Selsey | 1,044 | South East |
| 19 | Worthing | 1,041 | South East |
| 20 | Worthing | 1,041 | — |
| 21 | Sandown | 1,040 | South East |
| 22 | Brighton and Hove | 1,038 | South East |
| 23 | Brighton and Hove | 1,038 | — |
| 24 | Bexhill-on-Sea | 1,037 | South East |
| 25 | Freshwater and Totland | 1,036 | South East |
| 26 | Bognor Regis | 1,034 | South East |
| 27 | Folkestone | 1,034 | South East |
| 28 | Lancing and Sompting | 1,034 | South East |
| 29 | Southwick, Adur | 1,033 | South East |
| 30 | Weymouth | 1,032 | South West |
The twenty least sunny
| Rank | Place | kWh per kWp | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1337 | Stalybridge | 771 | North West |
| 1338 | Lees | 771 | North West |
| 1339 | Glasgow City | 770 | — |
| 1340 | Glossop | 768 | East Midlands |
| 1341 | Shaw, Oldham | 766 | North West |
| 1342 | Highland | 766 | — |
| 1343 | Orkney Islands | 762 | — |
| 1344 | East Renfrewshire | 761 | — |
| 1345 | Hadfield | 759 | East Midlands |
| 1346 | North Lanarkshire | 754 | — |
| 1347 | Cockermouth | 752 | North West |
| 1348 | Mossley | 750 | North West |
| 1349 | Derry City and Strabane | 748 | — |
| 1350 | Uppermill | 742 | North West |
| 1351 | Cumberland | 740 | — |
| 1352 | Bangor | 736 | Wales |
| 1353 | Keswick | 731 | North West |
| 1354 | Shetland Islands | 703 | — |
| 1355 | Argyll and Bute | 701 | — |
| 1356 | Na h-Eileanan Siar | 696 | — |
What to take from this
The country is more uniform than the marketing suggests. A difference of 54% between the extremes means that for most of Britain, the question is not whether there is enough sun — it is whether your roof faces the right way and whether you can use what you generate.
Orientation beats geography. Our own dataset puts a north-facing roof at a fraction of a south-facing one at the same location. That gap dwarfs anything in this table — see north-facing roofs.
Self-consumption beats both. A household at home during the day in the least sunny place in this table will do better financially than an empty house in the sunniest one, because exported units are worth a fraction of the ones you use — self-consumption.
Sources
- PVGIS 5.3 One run per place at its own postcode centroid, 1 kWp, 35 degrees, due south, 20% system losses. Contains modified Joint Research Centre data.
- ONS Postcode Directory
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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