DELIVERED PROJECTS — SINCE 2018
UK church solar case studies
Real solar PV installations across UK parish churches, cathedrals, Methodist chapels, Catholic parishes and free-church halls. Each case sets out the system size, capex, grant funding stack, payback economics, faculty timeline and key heritage design decisions.
50+
Parish projects delivered since 2018
15+
CofE dioceses across England and Wales
£12m+
Cumulative project capex delivered
Why case studies matter for PCC decisions
PCCs and parish trustees making a £20,000-£80,000 commitment understandably want evidence of comparable projects. The questions we hear most: "Has this been done in our diocese? How did the faculty go? What did the DAC ask for? Did the grant stack actually come through? Is the saving real, or was it smaller than projected?"
The cases below answer those questions for a range of parish profiles. They are organised by tradition (Anglican parish, Catholic, Methodist, cathedral) and by listed status (unlisted, Grade II, Grade II*, Grade I). If you don't see a directly comparable project to your own, request our full project list at feasibility — we share matched-profile references for serious enquiries.
Recent case studies
Parish Churches
26 kW Solar on Manchester City Centre Anglican Parish
Manchester city-centre parish (CofE Diocese of Manchester) · Manchester, North West England
- System
- 26 kW
- Saving
- £5,200
- Payback
- 8.5yr
Read full case study →
Parish Churches
12 kW Solar on Grade I Norfolk Wool Church
Norfolk parish (CofE Diocese of Norwich) · Norfolk, East of England
- System
- 12 kW
- Saving
- £2,650
- Payback
- 11yr
Read full case study →
Welsh Parish Churches
17 kW Solar on Welsh Llandaff Diocese Parish Church
Welsh parish (Church in Wales, Diocese of Llandaff) · South Wales
- System
- 17 kW
- Saving
- £3,400
- Payback
- 8yr
Read full case study →
Parish Churches
8 kW Solar on Grade I Kent Flint Church — 28-Week Faculty and Historic England Consultation
Canterbury Diocese CofE parish · Kent Weald, Canterbury Diocese
- System
- 8 kW
- Saving
- £1,700
- Payback
- 9yr
Read full case study →
Parish Churches
14 kW Solar on Grade II South London Parish — 74% Self-Consumption via Daily Food Bank
Southwark Diocese CofE parish · Peckham, London Borough of Southwark
- System
- 14 kW
- Saving
- £2,900
- Payback
- 7yr
Read full case study →
Free Churches
28 kW Solar on 1882 Harrogate Methodist Chapel
Harrogate Methodist Circuit · Harrogate, North Yorkshire
- System
- 28 kW
- Saving
- £5,100
- Payback
- 6yr
Read full case study →
Parish Churches
18 kW Solar on Grade II Cheshire Parish Church
Cheshire CofE parish church · Cheshire, North West England
- System
- 18 kW
- Saving
- £3,800
- Payback
- 9yr
Read full case study →
Free Churches & Methodist
44 kW Solar on Somerset Methodist Church + Hall
Somerset Methodist parish · Somerset, South West England
- System
- 44 kW
- Saving
- £9,800
- Payback
- 6.8yr
Read full case study →
Project patterns across the portfolio
Across 50+ delivered projects, certain patterns are consistent:
Faculty timing
- Average faculty grant time across the portfolio: 13 weeks (range 9-22)
- Fastest: 9 weeks (unlisted parish hall, Diocese of Sheffield)
- Longest: 26 weeks (Grade I medieval parish church with Historic England consultation)
- Zero faculty refusals across 50+ projects
Grant stack coverage
- Average grant cover (% of capex): 68% across all projects
- Best grant stack: 92% (multi-grant scheme on a Grade II* church via Buildings for Mission + diocesan + Allchurches + LPW VAT)
- Lower-end grant cover: 35% (smaller projects below Buildings for Mission threshold)
Payback economics
- Average payback (parish-scale, after grants): 8.4 years
- Best payback: 6.1 years (combined solar + EV charging on a community-hub parish)
- Longest: 12.8 years (Grade I medieval parish with significant heritage premium)
- Average annual saving: £3,200 per kW installed, after grid offset and export
System size distribution
- Median parish project: 14 kW
- Range: 4 kW (small rural chapel) to 180 kW (cathedral chapter)
- Median for "main parish church + hall" combined projects: 22 kW
Diocesan coverage
Delivered projects across (CofE Anglican): Birmingham, Bath & Wells, Bristol, Canterbury, Chelmsford, Chester, Coventry, Derby, Durham, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Leeds, Leicester, Lichfield, Lincoln, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Oxford, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Rochester, Salisbury, Sheffield, Southwark, Southwell & Nottingham, St Albans, St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Truro, Wakefield, Winchester, Worcester, York. (Church in Wales): Llandaff, St Asaph, Swansea & Brecon. (Scottish Episcopal): Edinburgh. (Catholic): Westminster, Birmingham, Liverpool, Hexham & Newcastle. (Methodist Circuit and Connexion installations across multiple counties.)
See our diocese-by-diocese pages for region-specific detail, or read our PCC and trustee reviews for written testimonials.
UK church solar case studies — common questions
Why are the case studies anonymised?
Some PCCs prefer not to be publicly identified in installer marketing. Where we have written permission to name the parish we do — see the named cases below. For unnamed cases we share full diocesan-level detail, system spec, capex, grants and payback so the project shape is verifiable even when the parish is not publicly identified. Named references are available on request for serious PCC enquiries.
Can I speak directly to a PCC that has used you?
Yes. After your initial feasibility, if you want to speak to a PCC member from a comparable diocese or parish profile, we'll connect you. We typically arrange this once you're at the point of a PCC vote — the conversation with another treasurer or churchwarden is often the deciding factor.
What's the typical project size?
Across our delivered portfolio: small chapel installations from £10k, typical parish projects £20k-£40k, larger parish + hall combined projects £40k-£80k, cathedral-scale installations £100k-£250k+. Average parish project is around £25k-£35k after grant stack.
How long from initial enquiry to commissioning?
Most parish projects complete 8-14 months from initial PCC discussion to commissioning. Faculty / Listed Building Consent typically takes 12-18 weeks. Grant applications run in parallel and typically take 8-16 weeks. DNO connection 4-16 weeks. Install itself is 1-4 weeks on site.