Watford · St Albans · Hemel Hempstead · Stevenage · Hertford · Letchworth
Solar panels, batteries and EV chargers for Hertfordshire homes, from Borehamwood and Watford to Hitchin and Bishop’s Stortford, with each council’s rules and each estate’s consents set out plainly.
HIES Consumer Code member · NAPIT registered · MCS certified · Trustpilot reviewed
Hertfordshire’s garden cities and new towns still shape what you can put on a roof. In Letchworth and most of Welwyn Garden City, external changes need an estate consent that is separate from planning permission; Stevenage was the first new town designated, in November 1946, and Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield are new towns too. Our town pages here span nine councils, from Hertsmere and Watford in the south to North Herts and East Herts in the north.
Home Comfort Enterprises (HCE) installs solar panels, battery storage and EV chargers. We are MCS-certified for solar PV and battery storage, with certification held via NAPIT (member 73495), and a HIES Consumer Code member (HCE/A/1392). In a garden city, that means designing to the estate’s rules from the first survey, not asking for consent after the scaffold is up.
Quick answer
Solar panels in Hertfordshire:
Figures: PVGIS, Met Office, UK Power Networks, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, Energy Saving Trust, HMRC; cited in full below.
The new towns are terraced towns. In Stevenage’s built-up area 44.9% of households live in terraced houses, in Welwyn Garden City 37.4% and in Letchworth 33.3%, and across Hemel Hempstead’s 13 wards 34.8% (our sum of the ward figures). Long, plain terrace roofs suit an orderly array, but ownership is mixed: 30.8% of Welwyn Garden City households and 30.1% of Letchworth’s rent from a social landlord.
The older towns lean the other way. Across Harpenden’s four wards 39.7% of households live in detached houses and 78.2% own their home (our sums), and Potters Bar is 46.5% semi-detached. Older houses tend to score lowest on efficiency: Watford’s median detached and semi-detached houses both score 63 on their EPC, band D, and the median home built before 1929 scores 61 in St Albans district and 58 in East Hertfordshire.
Sources: ONS, Towns and cities, characteristics of built-up areas, Census 2021 (tables 5c and 6c) · ONS Census 2021 TS044 and TS054 by ward and district via Nomis · ONS, Median energy efficiency score, March 2025 edition (tables 2a to 2c). Read 15 October 2026. Ward totals are our arithmetic.
Watford, St Albans and Stevenage all aim for net zero across the whole town or district by 2030; North Herts aims for a net zero district by 2040. Welwyn Hatfield and Dacorum target their own operations by 2030 and the wider borough by 2050, East Herts targets its own emissions by 2030, Hertsmere commits to net zero in its operations no later than 2050, and Broxbourne has set its own emissions on a trajectory to net zero by 2050.
Some have gone up on the roof themselves. Watford put 144 panels on its 1939 Town Hall and 36 on the Colosseum, both Grade II listed. Hertsmere put panels on its Civic Office in 2020, and its strategy records two 5 MW solar installations at Potters Bar operating since 2017 and a 3 MW installation at Sky Studios in Borehamwood since 2023.
Green belt is the other Hertfordshire constant: 81.5% of St Albans district, 78.9% of Hertsmere and 76.7% of Welwyn Hatfield, against 17.8% of Watford. It governs where new homes are built, not whether you can put panels on the roof of the one you have.
Sources: council climate pages and strategies (Watford Environmental Strategy, 13 March 2023 · St Albans, Climate change · Stevenage, Climate Change · North Herts, Sustainability strategy · Welwyn Hatfield, Transition to Net Zero Strategy · Dacorum, Tackling climate change · East Herts, Environmental Sustainability Action Plan · Hertsmere, Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy 2025–2030 · Broxbourne, Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2026–28) · Watford news, 13 June 2023 · MHCLG green belt statistics 2024-25. Read 15 October 2026.
PVGIS 5.3, run 15 October 2026
One system, 14 towns: 4 kWp, 35° tilt, due south, 14% system losses, building-mounted.
| About kWh a year (4 kWp) | About kWh per kWp | Year-to-year variation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Borehamwood (Hertsmere) | 3,944 | 986 | ±167 kWh |
| Potters Bar (Hertsmere) | 3,977 | 994 | ±154 kWh |
| Watford (Watford) | 3,938 | 985 | ±156 kWh |
| Cheshunt (Broxbourne) | 3,957 | 989 | ±163 kWh |
| Hatfield (Welwyn Hatfield) | 3,965 | 991 | ±163 kWh |
| St Albans (St Albans) | 3,975 | 994 | ±171 kWh |
| Welwyn Garden City (Welwyn Hatfield) | 3,977 | 994 | ±159 kWh |
| Hertford (East Hertfordshire) | 3,984 | 996 | ±159 kWh |
| Hemel Hempstead (Dacorum) | 3,965 | 991 | ±165 kWh |
| Harpenden (St Albans) | 3,980 | 995 | ±164 kWh |
| Stevenage (Stevenage) | 3,972 | 993 | ±154 kWh |
| Bishop's Stortford (East Hertfordshire) | 4,034 | 1,008 | ±171 kWh |
| Hitchin (North Hertfordshire) | 3,968 | 992 | ±161 kWh |
| Letchworth Garden City (North Hertfordshire) | 3,970 | 993 | ±153 kWh |
The 14 estimates span about 96 kWh a year, from Watford to Bishop's Stortford (our arithmetic), less than PVGIS’s own year-to-year swing at any one of them, about ±153 to ±171 kWh. On a Stevenage terrace or a Harpenden detached house, what decides the answer is the slope you are allowed to use, its direction and its shade. That matters most in Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth’s Heritage Character Area, where the rear slope may be the only option, so we survey before we quote.
Eight of our 14 Hertfordshire town pages use the Met Office’s Rothamsted station, in Harpenden, which averaged about 1,621 hours of sunshine a year over 1991–2020, against about 1,403 for the UK; Northwood, used for Watford and Borehamwood, averaged about 1,556.
Sources: PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission Joint Research Centre), one run per town on 15 October 2026 (each town page gives its own figure) · Met Office location-specific long-term averages for Rothamsted and Northwood, 1991–2020.
Local facts, sourced
Council-level figures from named public sources. Where we have added council figures together, we say so.
DESNZ records about 24,567 solar PV installations of every size, rooftop to solar farm, across the 9 council areas our Hertfordshire towns sit in at the end of 2025, as first published (our sum). It is not a count of homes.
Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Renewable electricity by local authority 2014 to 2025 (published 29 September 2026)
DVLA records about 35,306 privately kept plug-in vehicles across the same 9 council areas at the end of June 2026, up from about 25,976 a year earlier (our sum). Vehicles, not chargers or households.
Source: Department for Transport and DVLA, VEH0142 licensed plug-in vehicles by local authority (published 23 September 2026)
East Herts residents installed 1,438 solar panels through the Solar Together group-buying scheme in the twelve months to August 2023, a collective investment of over £1.7 million, according to the council.
Source: East Herts District Council, Solar panel group-buying scheme re-launches for 2023-4 (29 August 2023)
Watford Borough Council has fitted 144 solar panels to its Town Hall and 36 to the Colosseum, both Grade II listed and built in 1939, and 655 panels at Woodside Leisure Centre.
Source: Watford Borough Council, news, 13 June 2023 and 8 March 2025
Green belt covers 81.5% of St Albans district, 78.9% of Hertsmere and 76.7% of Welwyn Hatfield, but only 17.8% of Watford borough (31 March 2025).
Source: MHCLG, Local authority green belt statistics for England 2024-25, live table Area by LA (published 9 October 2025)
Since 2007 Rothamsted, in Harpenden, has been one of the three stations at the core of the Met Office’s Central England Temperature series; it averaged about 1,621 hours of sunshine a year over 1991–2020.
Source: Met Office, UK climate series; Rothamsted location-specific long-term averages, 1991–2020
Every postcode on Dacorum’s eligible-postcode list for the Warm Homes: Local Grant, 119 in all, is in HP2 or HP3, which is to say Hemel Hempstead.
Source: Dacorum Borough Council, Home energy efficiency grants and funding (page updated 6 July 2026)
On the Welwyn Garden City Estate Management Scheme’s fee schedule, updated 1 April 2026, photovoltaic panels are an “Environmental Project” with no application fee; a retrospective application costs £281.
Source: WGC Estate Management Scheme, Fee Structure (wgc-ems.org)
Data last reviewed: 15 October 2026
The Energy Saving Trust’s national anchor is a typical 4.5 kWp system, around 12 panels, at around £7,600 installed: a UK figure, not a Hertfordshire price. Installations carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, then 5% from 1 April 2027, batteries included. On the runs above, 4 kWp returns about 3,938 kWh a year in Watford and 4,034 in Bishop's Stortford; exported surplus earns Smart Export Guarantee payments at rates each supplier sets and can change, which is why we never print one.
Two Hertfordshire costs are avoidable if you ask first. The Welwyn Garden City Estate Management Scheme charges no fee for a solar application but £281 for a retrospective one, and Letchworth’s Heritage Foundation gives pre-application advice at no charge. More on solar panel installation costs, how long panels take to pay for themselves and what size home battery you need.
Sources: Energy Saving Trust, Solar panels: costs, savings and benefits explained (updated 27 August 2026) · HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 · Ofgem, Smart Export Guarantee · WGC Estate Management Scheme, Fee Structure · Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation.
The Warm Homes: Local Grant is run council by council here, which is why the answer depends on your address. Watford (jointly with Three Rivers, £3,750,031), Broxbourne (£1,070,786), St Albans, Welwyn Hatfield and Stevenage work with the National Energy Foundation; East Herts routes residents through Better Housing Better Health; Dacorum delivers with E.ON; North Herts holds £1.5 million in its own right. Where councils state a ceiling it is up to £30,000 of fully funded measures for eligible homes rated EPC D to G, and most list solar panels. Hertsmere, covering Borehamwood and Potters Bar, was not on the government’s list updated 2 July 2026.
Group buying has a real Hertfordshire record. East Herts residents put up 1,438 panels through Solar Together in the year to August 2023; Broxbourne’s last cohort brought 23 solar and 22 battery installations; Hertsmere’s first two years brought 431 panels to 42 homes and businesses. On 15 October 2026, though, Switch Together, as the scheme now trades, said it was not active in any of the nine council areas. We don’t run or arrange these schemes.
Sources: GOV.UK, Warm Homes: Local Grant successful local authorities · council grant pages (Watford, Broxbourne, St Albans, Welwyn Hatfield Climate Hub, Stevenage, East Herts, Dacorum) · East Herts news, 29 August 2023 · Borough of Broxbourne, Solar Together Hertfordshire · Hertsmere Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy 2025–2030 · Switch Together council pages. Read 15 October 2026.
Two towns have a second gatekeeper. Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council’s Estate Management Scheme covers most homes in Sherrards and Handside wards and parts of Haldens, Peartree, Hollybush and Howlands; consent is granted where panels sit on a rear or side slope, a principal slope is left to the case officer’s judgement, and wall-mounted panels are not acceptable anywhere. In Letchworth, the Heritage Foundation’s May 2026 principles allow panels on any roof slope in its Modern Character Area but only on rear elevations, out of public view, in its Heritage Character Area; where one half of a pair of semis has panels, it expects the other to mirror them.
Elsewhere, panels on a house roof are usually permitted development, with named exceptions. The Cunningham Avenue Article 4 direction in St Albans withdraws the right to install solar PV or solar thermal equipment; the Bishop’s Stortford Conservation Area direction brings renewable energy equipment on homes into the planning system on all elevations; Watford’s 2013 directions in Nascot cover the street-facing roof of named properties. Inside the Chilterns AONB, a flat-roof array needs prior approval. A listed home always needs listed building consent.
Sources: Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council and wgc-ems.org, Estate Management Scheme policies and design guide · Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, Solar Panels Design Principles (revised May 2026) · St Albans City and District Council, Cunningham Avenue Article 4 Direction · East Herts District Council, Bishop’s Stortford Article 4(1) Directions · Watford Borough Council, Conservation Areas Management Plan SPD (July 2013) · North Herts Council, Constraints to development. Read 15 October 2026.
Hertfordshire’s network was run by Eastern Electricity and is now part of UK Power Networks. On UKPN’s own boundary data, all 14 of our town centres sit in its Eastern licence area, so the paperwork for a home system goes to UKPN whether you are in Cheshunt or Letchworth. A system up to 16 A per phase is notified under G98; above that it needs G99 approval before work starts, and UKPN says it approves systems exporting under 5 kW automatically. Your installer deals with it, and the grid paperwork is separate from any estate or Heritage Foundation consent.
Sources: UK Power Networks, licence boundaries open data (town-centre point checks) · UK Power Networks, Our history and Solar and storage: cost, time and what’s involved · ENA EREC G98/G99. Read 15 October 2026.
If your only south-facing slope is the front of a house in Letchworth’s Heritage Character Area, or a principal slope under the Welwyn Garden City scheme, the honest answer may be a smaller rear array, or none. In Cunningham Avenue or the Bishop’s Stortford Conservation Area, the planning application comes first. If your council holds Warm Homes: Local Grant funding and you might qualify, check that before paying for anything.
And if the house is empty all day, much of what a 4 kWp array makes would be exported at a supplier-set rate; a battery or an EV charger can change that sum, and we’ll show you the arithmetic. In Letchworth even the battery must sit out of public view. The battery systems in our own job photos are EnSmart and Hanchu.
Watford, St Albans, a new town or a garden city: one survey of your roof and usage, designed to your council’s and your estate’s rules, and one written, itemised quote, no chasing.
Very likely, and it is separate from planning permission. Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council’s Estate Management Scheme covers most of Welwyn Garden City and grants consent where panels sit on a rear or side roof slope; wall-mounted panels are not acceptable, and a PV application carries no fee. In Letchworth, most homes need the Heritage Foundation’s written consent: panels go on rear elevations out of public view in its Heritage Character Area, and batteries and inverters must not be visible from the public realm either.
No. It now trades as Switch Together, and on 15 October 2026 its pages for all nine council areas our Hertfordshire towns sit in said it was not active there, inviting residents to register interest. Several councils have a record with it, East Herts most of all, with 1,438 panels installed through it in the year to August 2023. Registering for a future round and getting an independent quote are not mutually exclusive.
It depends on your council. Watford (jointly with Three Rivers), Broxbourne, St Albans, Welwyn Hatfield, Stevenage, East Herts, North Herts and Dacorum all hold Warm Homes: Local Grant funding, and most list solar panels among the measures, typically up to £30,000 of fully funded work for eligible homes rated EPC D to G. Hertsmere, which covers Borehamwood and Potters Bar, was not on the government’s list updated 2 July 2026. We don’t run or arrange these grants.
No. Green belt shapes where new homes are built, not what goes on an existing house roof. The Hertfordshire rules that do bite are narrower: the Cunningham Avenue Article 4 direction in St Albans withdraws the solar right, the Bishop’s Stortford Conservation Area direction brings renewable energy equipment on homes into the planning system on all elevations, and inside the Chilterns AONB a flat-roof array needs prior approval first.
UK Power Networks. Its predecessor, Eastern Electricity, ran Hertfordshire’s cables and lines, and on UKPN’s own boundary data all 14 town centres sit in its Eastern licence area (Distributor ID 10 on your bill). A system above 16 A per phase needs G99 approval before work starts, and UKPN says it approves home systems exporting under 5 kW automatically. The network operator is not your energy supplier.
Towns we cover
Each town page carries that town’s own census housing figures, conservation areas, estate rules and council schemes, with every source named.
Welwyn Garden City
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
Solar panels Welwyn Garden City
Battery storage Welwyn Garden City
Hemel Hempstead
Dacorum Borough Council
Solar panels Hemel Hempstead
Battery storage Hemel Hempstead
Bishop's Stortford
East Hertfordshire District Council
Solar panels Bishop's Stortford
Battery storage Bishop's Stortford
Letchworth Garden City
North Hertfordshire District Council
Solar panels Letchworth Garden City
Battery storage Letchworth Garden City
Tell us your town, and whether you are inside the Welwyn Garden City scheme or Letchworth’s Heritage Foundation area, and we’ll arrange a survey and a written, itemised quote, with no obligation. Ring HCE on 0204 547 1892 or use the form.
Also see: north London · Essex · Bedfordshire
For a longer read, see Where do panels and a battery go on Hertfordshire homes?.
