Solar · Battery · EV — Greater London
Solar Panels Richmond
Solar panels, battery storage and EV chargers for homes in and around Richmond — designed from your actual usage, installed by an MCS-certified team, and explained in plain English before you commit to anything.
Only one view in Britain is protected by its own Act of Parliament, and it belongs to this town: the sweep of the Thames from Richmond Hill, safeguarded by the Richmond, Petersham and Ham Open Spaces Act since 1902. That single fact says a lot about how carefully Richmond treats its roofscape — the borough holds 85 designated conservation areas, taking in the Georgian terraces on the Hill, the lanes of Petersham and the streets around Kew Green. None of that rules out solar; it simply raises the standard for how thoughtfully an array is sited. We quote for homes in and around Richmond, and this page collects the genuinely local detail worth knowing first.
On sunshine, Richmond can point to better evidence than almost anywhere we write about: the Met Office station inside Kew Gardens, roughly a mile from the town centre, averaged 1,693 hours a year over 1991–2020, topping out near 222 hours in July. Those are comfortably workable numbers for a domestic array — though the honest caveat stands that your roof's orientation and shading will always matter more than the borough's climate record. The same discipline applies to battery storage: it earns its place when it fits how your household actually uses electricity, and if the sums don't stack up for your home, we'll say exactly that.
Quick answer
Solar panels in Richmond:
- Cost: the Energy Saving Trust puts a typical 4.5 kWp home system (around 12 panels) at around £7,600 installed. Your own figure comes from a survey of your roof, not a table.
- Generation: we model your own roof's pitch, orientation and shading at the survey rather than quote a generic Richmond yield.
- Payback: on the Energy Saving Trust's table, with export payments and fuel prices as of July 2026, a London home pays back in about 9 years.
- VAT: residential solar installations carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, then 5% from 1 April 2027.
- Battery: the Energy Saving Trust puts a 5 kWh battery at around £4,600; fitting it with the panels costs less than a separate visit later.
- Who fits it: HCE is a NAPIT member (73495), MCS-certified for solar PV via NAPIT, and a HIES Consumer Code member. Check both registers yourself.
Figures: Energy Saving Trust (solar, updated 27 August 2026; batteries, updated 19 August 2026) · HMRC VAT Notice 708/6. Each is cited in full further down this page.
How solar panels get fitted in Richmond
Four steps from first call to switch-on. No pressure at any stage, and a straight answer if it would not pay its way.
- Step 1
A survey of your roof
A free visit to your Richmond home: roof pitch, orientation, shading, the loft and your fuse board, plus a year of your bills so the system is sized to how you actually use power.
- Step 2
Design and a written quote
Panel count and layout, inverter and any battery, cable routes and scaffolding, set out line by line so you can compare it with any other quote.
- Step 3
Installation and grid paperwork
Fitting usually takes one to two days. Small systems are notified to South Eastern Power Networks after commissioning (G98); larger ones are approved before work starts (G99).
- Step 4
Handover
Commissioning, the MCS certificate you need for export payments, electrical certification, warranties and the monitoring app set up with you.
Solar on Richmond's housing
Richmond upon Thames remains one of London's most owner-occupied boroughs. At the 2021 Census, 62.4% of households owned their home outright or with a mortgage — barely moved from 63.6% a decade earlier — against 24.7% renting privately and 12.1% in social housing. That ownership base shapes the solar conversation, because the person weighing a twenty-five-year roof investment is usually the person who controls the roof; for the growing private-rented quarter, landlord consent comes first. The stock itself stood at 86,049 dwellings in 2024, with a median sale price of £715,000 as of September 2024, running from Georgian terraces on Richmond Hill through Victorian streets in Mortlake and North Sheen to Edwardian villas in East Sheen and St Margarets.
The energy data is where the period charm bites back. Across 61,266 assessed properties the borough averages EPC band D, with only around 40% rated A–C — below the England and Wales average, and a direct legacy of all that pre-war brick. Read constructively, that is headroom: solar sits alongside insulation and glazing among the upgrades that move an older house forward rather than just flattering it. Zoom into TW9, which covers Richmond and Kew: 22,987 residents at the 2021 census across 579 postcodes, with 2024 sales averaging £1.13m for terraced houses (109 sales) and £542k for flats (209 sales). At those values, owners are protecting a serious asset — which is an argument for specifying roof work properly, not for rushing it.
What London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is doing
Richmond Council declared a climate emergency on 9 July 2019 and now works to two dates: carbon neutral as an organisation by 2030, and a net zero borough by 2043, with the route mapped in its Climate and Nature Strategy 2025–2030. Unusually, it has results to show as well as targets. The global CDP body has awarded the council a top 'A' grade for climate action three years running — most recently in May 2025, when it was one of just five London local authorities to receive it — and the council reports cutting its own organisational emissions by 76.8% since 2017/18. In April 2025 it added £7 million from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, plus £1.94 million of its own match funding, to decarbonise five sites including Pools on the Park in Richmond and East Sheen Library — projected to cut energy use by around 82% across that portfolio.
For homeowners, the live route is the council's partnership with MakeMyHouseGreen: the borough negotiated collectively, and residents receive a £600 discount on a solar installation, with battery storage offered through the same scheme — the successor in spirit to Richmond joining the Mayor of London's Solar Together group-buying round in early 2021. A negotiated discount is worth having, but it is only a good deal if it survives comparison, so set it against an independent quote before signing anything. And on planning, note that Richmond's solar guidance is more specific than most boroughs': no panels on a wall fronting a highway in a conservation area, prior approval needed for flat-roof installs, and both planning permission and listed building consent for listed buildings.
What solar costs on a Richmond 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 Richmond
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.
Solar through the year, local uptake and the grid in Richmond
The annual figure hides the seasons. For the same 4 kWp south-facing array, PVGIS estimates about 479 kWh in June and 482 kWh in July, against about 139 kWh in December and 156 kWh in January. On our arithmetic, December is roughly 29% of June in Richmond, which is why we size a system to your daytime use across the year and treat any battery as an evening store, not a winter guarantee.
DESNZ records about 2,608 solar PV installations of every size across Richmond upon Thames, with 10.15 MW of capacity (end of 2025, as first published). DVLA records about 6,425 privately kept plug-in vehicles in the same area (2026 Q2), up from 5,499 a year earlier, which is why we size Richmond systems with a possible EV charger in mind.
Central Richmond is on UK Power Networks's South Eastern Power Networks network, close enough to the edge of the area that some homes may be on Southern Electric Power Distribution. A typical home system up to 3.68 kW per phase is notified to the operator after commissioning (G98); larger systems, or panels plus a battery above that limit, are applied for before work starts (G99), and we handle both. Ofgem's reported 2024/25 figures for the South Eastern Power Networks area are about 42.2 interruptions per 100 customers and 30.4 minutes lost per customer, against 39.7 and 35.1 across Great Britain.
Sources: PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission Joint Research Centre) (monthly output) · Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Regional Renewable Statistics · DfT/DVLA VEH0142 · Ofgem, RIIO-ED2 annual report
Local facts, sourced
Richmond in numbers
Every figure below comes from a named public source — the same standard we hold our savings estimates to.
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The Met Office weather station at Kew Gardens, about a mile from Richmond town centre, records 1,693 hours of sunshine a year (1991–2020 average), peaking at around 222 hours in July — comfortably viable for domestic solar generation.
Source: Met Office — Kew Gardens location-specific long-term averages
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Homes in Richmond upon Thames average EPC band D across 61,266 assessed properties, with only around 40% rated A–C — broadly below the England and Wales average, reflecting the borough's older period housing and leaving clear headroom for energy upgrades like solar.
Source: EPC Advisor — Richmond upon Thames EPC ratings (epcadvisor.co.uk/browse/richmond-upon-thames)
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The borough has 85 designated conservation areas, and the council's own solar guidance says that in a conservation area panels must not be fitted to a wall that fronts a highway, panels on flat roofs need prior approval from the council, and listed buildings need both planning permission and listed building consent.
Source: Richmond Council — About conservation areas / Solar panels and permitted development (richmond.gov.uk)
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Richmond Council runs an official solar partnership with MakeMyHouseGreen: the council negotiated on behalf of the whole borough, and residents receive a £600 discount on a solar installation (battery storage also offered), in support of the borough's net zero 2043 goal.
Source: MakeMyHouseGreen x Richmond Council partnership page (makemyhousegreen.com/richmond-council)
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Richmond joined the Mayor of London's Solar Together group-buying scheme in early 2021, which let households register alongside neighbours across the borough for group-discounted rooftop solar (registration for that round closed 23 March 2021) — part of the council's track record of backing home solar.
Source: Richmond Council blog, 2021 (corroborated by Solar Power Portal and Teddington Nub News coverage of Richmond joining Solar Together)
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Richmond Council declared a climate emergency on 9 July 2019 and is working towards being a carbon neutral council by 2030 and a net zero borough by 2043, with the roadmap set out in its Climate and Nature Strategy 2025–2030.
Source: Richmond Council — Climate emergency (richmond.gov.uk/climate_change; declaration date per the council's climate emergency campaign pages and the CAPE climate action register)
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The local electricity distribution network in Richmond is operated by UK Power Networks — its power-cut and connections services cover Richmond — and new home solar and battery systems in TW9 and TW10 are notified to it under the standard G98/G99 process.
Source: UK Power Networks — Power cut check for Richmond (ukpowernetworks.co.uk/power-cut/richmond)
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The view from Richmond Hill is the only view in Britain protected by its own Act of Parliament (the Richmond, Petersham and Ham Open Spaces Act 1902) — a marker of how sensitive the town's roofscape and setting are, and why discreet, well-sited panel layouts matter here.
Source: Discovering Britain (Royal Geographical Society) — Richmond Hill viewpoint; Richmond, Petersham and Ham Open Spaces Act 1902
Data last reviewed: July 2026
Where we work around Richmond
We quote for homes in and around Richmond, including Kew, North Sheen, Richmond Hill, Ham, Petersham, East Sheen, Mortlake and St Margarets, across the TW9, TW10 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 South West London.
If you are weighing storage as well, our page on battery storage in Richmond sets out what a battery does on a Richmond roof through the year, and what it costs.
Driving electric, or about to? See EV charger installation in Richmond for the supply check, parking and grant position. The battery in our own job photos is EnSmart: see EnSmart battery installation across South West London.
Richmond solar questions
Do I need planning permission for solar panels in a Richmond conservation area?
For most Richmond houses a roof-mounted array is permitted development, but this borough rewards checking before you commit: there are 85 designated conservation areas, and Richmond Council's solar guidance sets out three specific rules — panels must not be fitted to a wall that fronts a highway, installations on flat roofs need prior approval from the council, and listed buildings need planning permission plus listed building consent. Given that the view from Richmond Hill is protected by its own Act of Parliament (1902), it should surprise nobody that the council takes roofscape seriously. We confirm the designations for your address as part of quoting, not afterwards.
What is the £600 Richmond Council solar discount?
Richmond Council runs an official partnership with MakeMyHouseGreen under which the council negotiated on behalf of the whole borough, and residents receive a £600 discount on a solar installation — battery storage is offered through the same scheme, all in support of the borough's net zero 2043 goal. It follows the council's earlier move of joining the Mayor of London's Solar Together group-buying round in 2021. Our advice is the same as for any group scheme: treat it as a benchmark. Get the partnership price and an independent quote, compare panel output, inverter, battery and workmanship warranty like for like, and let the numbers decide.
Does Richmond get enough sunshine for solar panels?
Richmond has better local evidence than most towns can offer, because the Met Office runs a weather station inside Kew Gardens, about a mile from the town centre. Its 1991–2020 averages record 1,693 hours of sunshine a year, peaking at around 222 hours in July — comfortably viable for domestic solar generation. That said, panels generate from daylight rather than direct sun alone, and the deciding factors remain the ones on your own roof: orientation, pitch and shading, including from the borough's many mature trees. A survey answers those questions; a climate average never will.
Who handles the grid connection for a solar install in Richmond?
Richmond sits in UK Power Networks' territory — its power-cut and connections services cover the town — so a new home solar or battery system in TW9 or TW10 is notified to UKPN rather than to SSEN or another operator. Smaller systems go through a G98 notification once the work is done, while larger arrays need G99 approval from the network before installation. This is paperwork your installer submits as a routine part of the job; you don't need to arrange anything with UKPN yourself, though it's useful to know who keeps your street's cables running.
Is solar worthwhile in a band D period home in Richmond?
Band D is the borough norm: across 61,266 assessed properties, Richmond upon Thames averages EPC band D, and only around 40% of homes rate A–C — below the England and Wales average, largely because of the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian stock the town is loved for. Solar can absolutely form part of the answer, and it is one of the upgrades that adds EPC points, but in older brick housing we would usually discuss insulation and draught-proofing in the same breath, because cutting waste makes every kilowatt-hour the panels generate go further. We won't promise a payback figure from an average — those numbers come from your roof, your usage and your tariff.
Nearby
We also cover solar panels in Twickenham, solar installation Kingston upon Thames and Surbiton solar and battery installers.
Also for Richmond homes
Solar is usually the first step, not the last. If you are wondering whether a battery would pay its way, we can talk you through home battery storage; if you are charging a car at home, we can talk you through a home EV charge point; if you are comparing battery brands, we can talk you through Sigenergy storage systems; and if you are set on a particular battery, we can talk you through Tesla Powerwall. 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.