Most towns have no solar history to speak of. Woking has an odd one: for a period in the 2000s it held a remarkable share of the country’s installed solar. That legacy does not lower your quote, but it does tell you something about the roofs, the grid and the council you are dealing with.
The Allan Jones years
Under its energy engineer Allan Jones, Woking Borough Council built out 81 private-wire decentralised energy systems — local generation feeding local buildings directly rather than through the wider grid. At the time that amounted to nearly 10% of the UK’s total installed solar photovoltaics, from a single Surrey borough. The model was widely studied and shaped later decentralised-energy thinking elsewhere.
The practical inheritance is a borough that is used to solar on public buildings and a planning department that has processed a great deal of it. It is not a reason to expect a discount.
What the EPC data says about Woking homes now
Look at the borough’s Energy Performance Certificates and one improvement appears more often than any other: a 2.5 kWp solar PV system, recommended on 25,929 certificates. The borough’s average EPC rating is band D.
That is a useful corrective to sales instinct. A 2.5 kWp array is smaller than the national-average system — the Energy Saving Trust puts a typical domestic installation at about 4.5 kWp, around twelve panels, costing about £7,600 installed (their figure, updated 27 August 2026). Many Woking homes were assessed as needing something smaller. A survey should size the system to your consumption and roof, not to the largest array that fits, and it is fair to ask any installer, including us, why they have sized what they have.
The housing stock, the grid and the green belt
At Census 2021 Woking’s 41,439 households were 30.5% detached, 24.7% semi-detached, 18.5% terraced and 26.0% flats or maisonettes. Private renting rose from 15.7% to 21.1% between 2011 and 2021 — the third-largest percentage-point rise in the South East — which matters because a tenant needs the landlord’s agreement before panels go on.
About 60% of the borough is Metropolitan Green Belt and there are 27 conservation areas. Neither removes a householder’s permitted development rights for roof-mounted solar; the standard conditions apply, and listed buildings always need consent.
Solar Together Surrey
Around 2,250 Surrey residents have had solar panels and battery storage installed through Solar Together Surrey since 2021. A group-buy offer and an installer quote are worth comparing — on the same specification, line by line — rather than assuming either is cheaper.
What a Woking roof is estimated to generate
Our solar panels Woking page publishes a generation estimate for the town itself, run in the European Commission’s PVGIS 5.3 tool with the parameters shown: a 4 kWp array at 35°, facing due south, with 14% system losses, at roughly 3,984 kWh a year. Wisley — the nearest Met Office station — averaged 1,564.3 sunshine hours a year over 1981–2010, which is consistent with that. Residential installations carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027; the savings calculator lets you test your own usage against the estimate.
Sources: Wikipedia / Association for Decentralised Energy, Allan Jones (engineer); EPC Advisor analysis of the GOV.UK EPC register; ONS Census 2021 (TS044; How life has changed in Woking); Woking Core Strategy CS6; Woking Borough Council and Surrey County Council, Solar Together Surrey; Met Office 1981–2010 station averages (Wisley); Energy Saving Trust (updated 27 August 2026); HMRC VAT Notice 708/6.