Solar · Battery · EV — Surrey
Solar Panels Egham
Solar panels, battery storage and EV chargers for homes in and around Egham — designed from your actual usage, installed by an MCS-certified team, and explained in plain English before you commit to anything.
Egham's relationship with electricity runs deeper than most towns can claim — the cable-laying licence of the Egham and Staines Electricity Company Limited survives in The National Archives — and the modern era's most visible solar adopter here is Royal Holloway, whose campus runs six rooftop arrays generating over 250,000 kWh a year, the largest a 331-module installation on the Shilling Building. Away from the campus, the questions are more domestic: whether the roof of a TW20 semi will take a worthwhile array, what the conservation areas around Englefield Green and Egham Hythe mean for panel placement, and whether the numbers genuinely stack up. This page deals with those, for homes in and around Egham.
On light, the honest answer is the usual one: solar works across the UK, and Egham needs no special pleading. The nearest Met Office climate station — Heathrow, about five miles north-east — averages around 1,675 hours of sunshine a year on the 1991–2020 normals, peaking at close to 218 hours in July, comfortably above the UK average and a sound footing for a properly sized array. What decides the case for your house is the roof itself, how much of the generation you can actually use, and whether battery storage shifts that balance. Run your own figures through our savings calculator — and if solar turns out to be a poor fit for your home, we will say so plainly.
Solar on Egham's housing
The 2021 Census counted 10,697 households and 29,766 residents in the Egham built-up area, and the accommodation-type table tells a clear story: semi-detached homes are the single biggest slice at 35.8% — 3,829 of the 10,680 households recorded in that table — with detached at 21.5%, terraced at 19.0% and purpose-built flats also at 19.0%. In other words, the town's most common roof is the classic two-slope semi, which typically suits a 6–10 panel array without drama. Tenure adds a wrinkle you would not find in every Surrey town: 57.2% of households own their home (27.7% outright, 29.4% with a mortgage), but private renting stands at a substantial 25.7% — consistent with Royal Holloway's student market — and social renting at 16.1%. A quarter of Egham households therefore need a landlord's agreement before panels can go on the roof, and we would rather flag that early than late.
Heritage is the other local factor worth taking seriously. Three of Runnymede's eight conservation areas sit in and around the town — Egham itself, Egham Hythe and Englefield Green — and the Englefield Green designation is both the oldest and the most recently revisited: first designated in January 1970, extended in September 1978, and given a revised boundary with a new Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan that came into force on 1 December 2023. Royal Holloway's Founder's Building, meanwhile, is Grade I listed (Historic England entry 1028946, listed 17 November 1986). None of this rules solar out — roof-mounted panels usually remain permitted development even inside a conservation area — but boundaries have moved recently enough that the designation for your address is worth checking before anyone quotes, not after.
At the newest end of the stock, the £90m Magna Square regeneration reached full occupancy in early 2024: 101 town-centre apartments — 67 private, 34 affordable — plus 100 student rooms for Royal Holloway, five minutes' walk from Egham station. That block, and the town's purpose-built flats generally, sit largely outside what individual rooftop solar can serve: leaseholders need freeholder or management-company consent, and a shared roof seldom offers each flat a meaningful array. For the semis and detached homes that together make up over 57% of Egham's households, though, the path is far more straightforward.
What Runnymede Borough Council is doing
Runnymede Borough Council formally declared a climate emergency on 7 December 2023, committing to net-zero operational emissions by 2030 and to using its influence to support the borough's residents towards the national 2050 target — commitments its Climate Change Strategy carries too. It has backed the words with retrofit work on its own stock: a January 2025 bid for £1.8 million from the Government's Warm Homes Fund to fit insulation and solar panels at 185 council tenants' homes, on top of 169 council homes already receiving similar energy-efficiency measures under a £1.25 million grant approved the year before, with that earlier work starting in December 2024.
For private householders, the live route is Solar Together Surrey, the county-wide group-buying scheme for solar PV and battery storage in which Runnymede participates. Its fourth phase took free, no-obligation registrations from 2 June to 8 August 2025, with vetted suppliers bidding in a reverse auction to bring installation prices down and installations scheduled to complete by the end of March 2026. The scheme runs in rounds, so check what is currently open — and registering there while also getting an independent quote costs nothing and keeps the comparison honest.
What solar costs on a Egham home
The honest national anchor is the Energy Saving Trust's: a typical domestic system is around 4.5 kWp — roughly around 12 panels over 20 to 30m² of roof — and costs around £7,600 installed. On their payback table, with export payments and fuel prices as of July 2026, London homes sit at about 9 years.
Two things move that number for everyone. Residential installations carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, reverting to 5% from 1 April 2027. And export payments under the Smart Export Guarantee are set by each supplier and must be above zero — they change on short notice, which is why we never print one. A quote should itemise the panels, inverter, mounting, scaffolding, labour, commissioning, warranties and the DNO notification, so you can see what the total is made of — ours does, and it comes from a survey of your actual roof and usage, not from a table.
Sources: Energy Saving Trust — Solar panels: costs, savings and benefits explained (updated 27 August 2026) · HMRC — VAT on energy-saving materials and heating equipment (VAT Notice 708/6) · Ofgem — Smart Export Guarantee.
When we'd tell you not to fit solar in Egham
A persistently shaded roof, a slope that faces mostly north, a listed building where consent will not carry the fixings, or a home whose daytime usage is so low that almost everything would be exported at a supplier-set rate — in those cases we will say so at the survey rather than sell you a system that under-delivers. Fabric-first improvements sometimes beat panels as the first spend, and we would rather tell you that than not.
Whoever you use, check the registers yourself: HCE is NAPIT member 73495 and an HIES Consumer Code member (HCE/A/1392), with MCS certification for solar PV via NAPIT — the certification an MCS-certified install needs for Smart Export Guarantee payments.
Local facts, sourced
Egham in numbers
Every figure below comes from a named public source — the same standard we hold our savings estimates to.
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Semi-detached homes are Egham's single biggest housing type — 35.8% (3,829) of the 10,680 households in the built-up area's 2021 census accommodation-type table, ahead of detached (21.5%, 2,301), terraced (19.0%, 2,033) and purpose-built flats (19.0%, 2,027) — so the town's most common roof is the classic two-slope semi, typically suited to 6–10 panel arrays.
Source: ONS Census 2021 (TS044) via censusdata.uk — Egham built-up area (E63005100)
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The nearest Met Office climate station to Egham, Heathrow (about 5 miles north-east), averages around 1,675 hours of sunshine a year on the 1991–2020 normals, peaking at close to 218 hours in July — comfortably above the UK average and solid generation conditions for Thames-valley rooftops.
Source: Met Office — Heathrow location-specific long-term averages (1991–2020)
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Three of Runnymede's eight conservation areas sit in and around the town — Egham, Egham Hythe and Englefield Green. Englefield Green's was first designated in January 1970, extended in September 1978, and a revised boundary with a new Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan came into effect on 1 December 2023 — so panel placement on some Egham-area roofs needs a planning check first.
Source: Runnymede Borough Council — Conservation areas register
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Royal Holloway's Egham campus runs six rooftop solar PV arrays generating over 250,000 kWh a year — the largest being 331 modules on the Shilling Building (around 155,930 kWh annually) — alongside a 100% zero-carbon electricity supply, making the university one of the most visible solar adopters in town.
Source: Royal Holloway, University of London — Sustainable operations
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Runnymede Borough Council formally declared a climate emergency on 7 December 2023, committing to net zero operational emissions by 2030 and to using its influence to support the borough's residents towards the national 2050 net zero target.
Source: Runnymede Borough Council news — climate emergency declaration
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Egham households have been able to buy discounted solar through Solar Together Surrey, the county-wide group-buying scheme for solar PV and battery storage that Runnymede Borough Council participates in — its fourth phase took registrations from 2 June to 8 August 2025, with vetted suppliers bidding in a reverse auction to cut installation prices and installations scheduled to complete by the end of March 2026.
Source: Surrey County Council — Solar Together Surrey; Runnymede Borough Council news
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Runnymede Borough Council bid for £1.8 million from the Government's Warm Homes Fund in January 2025 to fit insulation and solar panels at 185 council tenants' homes — on top of 169 council homes already receiving similar energy-efficiency measures under a £1.25 million grant approved the year before, with that work starting in December 2024.
Source: Runnymede Borough Council news — Warm Homes Fund grant bid
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Egham sits in electricity distributor area 20 — Southern Electric Power Distribution, part of the SSE group (SSEN) — the network operator that receives G98/G99 grid notifications for new solar connections in the town; the area's grid heritage even traces back to the Egham and Staines Electricity Company Limited, whose cable-laying licence survives in The National Archives.
Source: Energy Brokers UK — PES/DNO Distributor Area 20 (Southern Electric); The National Archives catalogue
Data last reviewed: July 2026
Where we work around Egham
We quote for homes in and around Egham, including Englefield Green, Egham Hythe, Egham Wick, Pooley Green, Thorpe Lea, Thorpe and Stroude, across the TW20, TW18 postcode districts. Every quote starts with a free survey of your actual roof and usage — if solar wouldn't pay its way on your home, we'll say so plainly. Try the numbers first on our savings calculator, or read how we approach installations across Surrey.
Egham solar questions
Do I need planning permission for solar panels in Egham's conservation areas?
For most roofs, no. Roof-mounted solar on a house is normally permitted development in England, and that generally holds inside conservation areas too — the standard conservation-area restriction bites on panels fixed to a wall fronting a highway, not on roof arrays. The local complication is knowing whether you are in one: three of Runnymede's eight conservation areas sit in and around Egham (Egham itself, Egham Hythe and Englefield Green), and Englefield Green's boundary was revised as recently as 1 December 2023 under its new Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan — so an address that used to sit outside the line may not any more. Listed buildings, of which Royal Holloway's Grade I Founder's Building is the town's most famous, always need consent. We confirm the designation for your specific address before quoting.
Is there a council-backed solar scheme in Egham?
Yes — Solar Together Surrey, the county-wide group-buying scheme for solar PV and battery storage that Runnymede Borough Council participates in. Approved suppliers bid in a reverse auction to cut installation prices, registration is free with no obligation, and the fourth phase took sign-ups from 2 June to 8 August 2025, with installations scheduled to complete by the end of March 2026. It runs in rounds, so check what is currently open before building plans around it. Separately, the council bid for £1.8 million from the Government's Warm Homes Fund in January 2025 to fit insulation and solar at 185 council tenants' homes — worth knowing about, but that is a programme for the council's own housing stock, not a grant private homeowners can apply to.
Is Egham sunny enough for solar panels?
Comfortably. The nearest Met Office climate station, at Heathrow about five miles north-east, averages around 1,675 hours of sunshine a year on the 1991–2020 normals — above the UK average — peaking at close to 218 hours in July. Panels generate from daylight rather than direct sun, so they keep producing at reduced output on grey days. We will not dress that up as Egham being a solar hotspot, because no British town is; the honest point is that a well-oriented, unshaded Thames-valley roof has solid generating conditions, and your roof's pitch, direction and shading matter far more than which town it happens to be in.
Which electricity network handles solar connections in Egham?
Egham sits in electricity distributor area 20 — Southern Electric Power Distribution, part of the SSE group (SSEN) — so it is SSEN, not UK Power Networks, that receives the G98 notification (or G99 application for larger systems) when a new solar array is connected here. Your installer files that paperwork; it is nothing you need to arrange yourself. There is a pleasing historical footnote, too: the area's grid heritage traces back to the Egham and Staines Electricity Company Limited, whose cable-laying licence survives in The National Archives — this stretch of the Thames valley has been wired up for well over a century.
Most homes on my street are semis — what size solar array should I expect?
You are in Egham's majority: semi-detached homes are the town's biggest single housing type, at 35.8% of households in the 2021 census, and a typical two-slope semi roof suits an array in the region of 6–10 panels. Whether yours lands at the top or bottom of that range depends on the roof's usable area, orientation, pitch and any shading — and on how much electricity you actually use, which is also what decides whether battery storage earns its place alongside the panels. We size from a survey of your actual roof, not from the town average, and we will not oversize a system just because the space exists.
Nearby
We also cover solar panels in Staines-upon-Thames, solar installation Virginia Water and Windsor solar and battery installers.
Also for Egham homes
Solar is usually the first step, not the last. If you are comparing battery brands, we can talk you through the Sigenergy SigenStor range; if you are set on a particular battery, we can talk you through the Tesla Powerwall 3; if you are wondering whether a battery would pay its way, we can talk you through adding a battery to solar; and if you are charging a car at home, we can talk you through EV charging at home. Every one of them starts the same way — a free survey of your actual roof, usage and property, and a straight answer about whether it is worth doing.