Solar · Battery · EV — Berkshire
Solar Panels Windsor
Solar panels, battery storage and EV chargers for homes in and around Windsor — designed from your actual usage, installed by an MCS-certified team, and explained in plain English before you commit to anything.
Windsor spent 2024 quietly making solar history. The Castle — a royal residence for the better part of a thousand years — took its first-ever solar panels, fitted on the roof of the Lord Chamberlain's Upper Store where an old lead roof came off, with plans for more to follow. The Windsor Great Park estate had already gone further: over 1,000 panels installed across the estate in 2023/24, expected to generate 300,000 kWh of renewable energy every year and save 60 tonnes of CO2 — the carbon absorbed by 2,500 trees growing for a year. When the most scrutinised roofs in Berkshire can carry panels, the interesting question for the town's homeowners isn't whether solar belongs in Windsor — it's how to do it well on your particular house.
That question is what this page tries to answer. Windsor lies around 17 miles north of Guildford, and we quote for homes in and around the town — from the streets below the Castle walls out to Dedworth, Clewer and Old Windsor. The local energy picture is unusually clear-cut: of the 13,517 EPC-certificated homes in the SL4 district, only 44% reach band C or above, and solar photovoltaics is the single most-recommended improvement on local certificates, appearing 11,356 times. Whether it's the right improvement for your house comes down to the roof, how you use electricity, and whether battery storage earns its place alongside the panels — you can test the numbers with our savings calculator, and if the survey says no, you'll hear it from us plainly.
Solar on Windsor's housing
The SL4 numbers sketch Windsor's housing honestly: 13,517 EPC-assessed properties splitting roughly 59% houses, 33% flats, 4.4% bungalows and 3.9% maisonettes, averaging band D. That one-third flat share is high for a Berkshire town and matters in practice — leaseholders and apartment owners generally need freeholder or management-company consent before anything is fixed to a shared roof, so the earlier that conversation starts, the smoother the job. For the houses, a band D average means most owners carry real efficiency headroom, and the certificate register shows assessors treating rooftop PV as the most frequent route to closing it.
Tenure is shifting in ways worth knowing too. At the 2021 Census, 66.2% of Windsor and Maidenhead households owned their home outright or with a mortgage, down from 68.0% in 2011, while private renting climbed 4.4 percentage points to 20.6% — a bigger rise than the South East average — which puts landlord sign-off into a growing share of local solar conversations. The borough is growing as well: its population rose 6.2% between 2011 and 2021, from just under 144,600 to around 153,500, and the Borough Local Plan adopted in February 2022 provides for 712 new homes a year — 14,240 across the 2013–2033 plan period. So Windsor increasingly pairs better-insulated new-builds with its historic stock, and the sensible first step differs between the two: newer homes tend to be survey-ready, while older ones often repay a fabric-first check before the array is sized.
What Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is doing
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead declared an environment and climate emergency in June 2019 and targets net-zero carbon across the borough by 2050 at the latest. Its Environment and Climate Strategy, approved on 17 December 2020, makes energy — cutting consumption and decarbonising supply — one of four core themes, and the council has put its own buildings where its policy is: all the electricity it uses now comes from renewable sources, including solar panels on the Town Hall. For residents, the practical strand is Solar Together, the group-buying scheme the borough backs with iChoosr, where pre-vetted installers bid in a reverse auction for registered households' solar, battery-storage and EV-charger installations; the 2025 round took registrations until 29 August 2025, so check what's currently open — and comparing its offer against an independent quote costs nothing.
Heritage is the other half of the local picture. The borough has 27 designated conservation areas, several covering Windsor itself — Windsor Town Centre (with sub-areas including Castle and Royal Mews, Historic Core and High Street, and Riverside), Inner Windsor, Trinity Place/Clarence Crescent, Mill Lane in Clewer Village and Old Windsor — so a good many Windsor roofs sit inside protected townscape. An Article 4 Direction in the town centre goes further still, requiring planning approval even for the exterior painting of buildings. None of that rules solar out, as the Castle itself now demonstrates, but it does mean central-Windsor installs deserve a proper planning check before anyone quotes — which is the order we work in.
What solar costs on a Windsor 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 Windsor
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
Windsor in numbers
Every figure below comes from a named public source — the same standard we hold our savings estimates to.
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Windsor Castle got solar panels for the first time in its history in 2024 — installed on the roof of the Lord Chamberlain's Upper Store in place of its old lead roof, as reported alongside the 2023-24 Sovereign Grant accounts (July 2024), with plans to add more panels in future.
Source: Reuters, reporting the Sovereign Grant annual report, July 2024 (via Yahoo News UK / The Globe and Mail)
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Over 1,000 solar panels were installed across the Windsor Great Park estate in 2023/24, expected to generate 300,000 kWh of renewable energy every year and save 60 tonnes of CO2 — equivalent to the carbon dioxide absorbed by 2,500 trees growing for one year.
Source: Windsor Great Park — Sustainability (The Crown Estate)
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The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead backs residential solar through the Solar Together group-buying scheme (run with iChoosr), where pre-vetted installers bid in a reverse auction for residents' solar, battery-storage and EV-charger installations; the 2025 round's registration ran until Friday 29 August 2025.
Source: Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead — Solar Together
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The SL4 (Windsor) postcode district has 13,517 EPC-certificated homes with an average rating of band D — only 44% reach band C or above — and solar photovoltaic panels are the single most-recommended improvement on local certificates, appearing 11,356 times.
Source: EPC Advisor — SL4, Windsor and Maidenhead (government EPC register data)
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The Royal Borough has 27 designated conservation areas, several covering Windsor itself — Windsor Town Centre (with sub-areas including Castle and Royal Mews, Historic Core and High Street, and Riverside), Inner Windsor, Trinity Place/Clarence Crescent, Mill Lane (Clewer Village) and Old Windsor — so many Windsor roofs sit inside protected townscape.
Source: Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead — Conservation areas
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An Article 4 Direction covers Windsor Town Centre requiring planning approval even for the exterior painting of buildings, to preserve and enhance the historic town centre's appearance — a signal that roof-mounted work in central Windsor needs careful planning checks first.
Source: Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead — Permitted development rights
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RBWM declared an environment and climate emergency in June 2019 and targets net-zero carbon emissions across the borough by 2050 at the latest; its Environment and Climate Strategy (approved 17 December 2020) makes energy — reducing consumption and decarbonising supply — one of its four core themes, and all the electricity the council uses now comes from renewable sources, including solar panels on the Town Hall.
Source: RBWM — Environment and Climate Strategy; RBWM — Energy and sustainability
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Grid connections and export approvals for Windsor homes go through SSEN (Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks), whose central southern England distribution area covers Berkshire; SSEN serves over 3.9 million homes and businesses across its two networks, with engineering and customer-service teams at major offices including nearby Reading.
Source: SSEN — Who we are
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Windsor and Maidenhead's Borough Local Plan (adopted 8 February 2022) provides for 712 new homes a year — 14,240 across the 2013-2033 plan period — meaning a steady pipeline of modern, better-insulated new-builds alongside Windsor's historic stock.
Source: RBWM — Adopted local plan
Data last reviewed: July 2026
Where we work around Windsor
We quote for homes in and around Windsor, including Clewer Village, Clewer New Town, Dedworth, Spital, Old Windsor, Eton, Eton Wick and Oakley Green, across the SL4 postcode district. 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 Berkshire.
Windsor solar questions
Do I need planning permission for solar panels in Windsor's conservation areas?
Often not, but Windsor deserves more care than most towns. Roof-mounted solar on houses is usually permitted development in England, and that generally holds in conservation areas too — the standard restriction is on panels fixed to a wall fronting a highway. The catch is how much of central Windsor is designated: the borough has 27 conservation areas, with Windsor Town Centre (including its Castle and Royal Mews, Historic Core and High Street, and Riverside sub-areas), Inner Windsor, Trinity Place/Clarence Crescent, Mill Lane in Clewer Village and Old Windsor all protected — and an Article 4 Direction in the town centre requires planning approval even for exterior painting, a clear signal that extra restrictions can apply. Listed buildings always need consent. We check the exact designation for your address before quoting, not after.
Is there a council-backed solar scheme in Windsor?
Yes. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead backs Solar Together, a group-purchasing scheme run with iChoosr that covers solar panels, battery storage and EV chargers. Pre-vetted installers bid in a reverse auction for registered residents' installations, which tends to sharpen pricing; the 2025 round took registrations until Friday 29 August 2025, and the scheme runs in rounds, so check the council's Solar Together page for what's currently open. Registering doesn't oblige you to accept the offer, and it sits perfectly well alongside getting an independent quote — comparing the two is the sensible way to decide, and we're happy to be one of the numbers compared.
Windsor Castle has solar panels now — what does that mean for my home?
It's a useful precedent. In 2024 the Castle took solar panels for the first time in its history, fitted on the roof of the Lord Chamberlain's Upper Store in place of an old lead roof, with plans to add more — and across Windsor Great Park, over 1,000 panels installed in 2023/24 are expected to generate 300,000 kWh a year and save 60 tonnes of CO2. If panels can be sited acceptably on some of the most protected buildings in Britain, careful design can usually find an answer on a Windsor home too. What it doesn't change is the process: conservation-area designations and listed-building consent still apply to your own address, and the survey — not the precedent — decides whether your roof makes the numbers work.
Would solar panels improve my Windsor home's EPC rating?
The certificate data suggests it's the single most likely recommendation you'd be given. Across the SL4 district's 13,517 EPC-certificated homes the average rating is band D, only 44% reach band C or above, and solar photovoltaic panels are the most-recommended improvement on local certificates — appearing 11,356 times. Solar PV typically adds points at an assessment, but how far it moves your band depends on the home's starting point and everything else the assessor scores, so we won't promise a jump. If an EPC uplift is your main goal, say so at survey — occasionally insulation is the better first spend, and we'll tell you when it is.
Who approves a solar grid connection for a Windsor home?
SSEN — Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks — whose central southern England distribution area takes in Berkshire; the company serves over 3.9 million homes and businesses across its two networks, with engineering and customer-service teams in major offices including nearby Reading. In practice your installer notifies SSEN about a smaller system under G98 after the work is done, or applies for G99 approval before installation for larger ones, and export arrangements follow from that. It's paperwork the installer handles rather than anything you need to organise — but it's worth knowing which network your notification travels through.
Nearby
We also cover solar panels in Egham, solar installation Staines-upon-Thames and Maidenhead solar and battery installers.
Also for Windsor homes
Solar is usually the first step, not the last. 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; if you are set on a particular battery, we can talk you through Tesla Powerwall; and if you are wondering whether a battery would pay its way, we can talk you through home battery storage. 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.