Solar panels in Edinburgh: where you need permission and where you do not

Solar panels on a home in Scotland are covered by Class 6HA of the Scottish General Permitted Development Order, explained in Planning Circular 1/2024. Panels must not protrude more than 1 metre from the roof or wall surface, and must be removed once they are no longer needed or working. English guidance, including the 200 mm rule for pitched roofs used south of the border, does not apply in Edinburgh.

Panels on an outbuilding such as a garden studio fall under a separate class, Class 6HB, with a lower protrusion limit of 500 mm and a ban on outbuildings in the front garden.

Source: gov.scot · legislation.gov.uk · planningportal.co.uk

The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh are a World Heritage Site. Class 6HA does not permit panels on a dwelling within a World Heritage Site, nor on a listed building or within its curtilage. Every installation there therefore needs planning permission, and listed building consent if the building is listed.

Roofs in the New Town are often hidden valley roofs behind parapets, which can make panels invisible from the street. That may help an application succeed, but it does not remove the need for one. Choose an installer willing to prepare drawings and photographs for the council and to wait for the decision before ordering equipment.

Source: historicenvironment.scot

Edinburgh has many conservation areas beyond the World Heritage Site. There, panels are permitted development only if they are not on the principal elevation and not on a side elevation that fronts a road. In practice that means rear roof slopes and some side slopes. For a south-facing front roof in a conservation area, you will need to apply.

• is the property in the World Heritage Site
• is it listed, or within the curtilage of a listed building
• is it in a conservation area, and which roof slopes face a road
• does anything protrude more than 1 metre
• for outbuildings: is it in the front garden

Source: gov.scot · legislation.gov.uk

A New Town or Marchmont flat sits under a roof whose repair costs every owner in the stair shares. Whatever the deeds say about who owns the slates, adding panels changes a roof your neighbours pay to maintain, so agreement in the stair comes first and planning second. Where the roof is also listed, the owners will need to apply together.

Owners who want solar often do better combining it with a roof repair the stair already has to fund, because the scaffolding, the most visible cost on a four-storey building, is then paid once.

Edinburgh households can look to Home Energy Scotland, whose grant and loan cover solar PV-T panels that make heat as well as electricity; plain PV panels are not covered by themselves. Panels installed in a home carry zero-rated VAT for now.

Describe the property and whatever you know about its listing or conservation status. Installers working in Edinburgh receive the request anonymously; one firm can purchase it outright, and you learn that firm's name, address and phone number from us before it learns yours. There is nothing to pay.

Source: homeenergyscotland.org