Solar canopies over car parks under Part 14

A solar canopy over a commercial car park can be permitted development, but it does not sit in the same class as the panels on the roof of the building next to it, and in most cases it needs prior approval before anything is built. Part 14 of Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 covers microgeneration equipment, and it splits solar into separate classes for domestic and non-domestic premises, for equipment fixed to a building, for stand-alone equipment on the ground, and, since a 2023 amendment, for canopies over off-street car parks.

Getting the class right decides whether you serve a prior approval application, submit a full planning application, or simply build.

What Part 14 covers on non-domestic land

Part 14 is the microgeneration part of the Order. It deals with solar photovoltaics and solar thermal, ground source and water source heat pumps, air source heat pumps, biomass and combined heat and power, flues and, for solar, several distinct classes depending on where the equipment goes.

For a commercial site the relevant distinction is between equipment attached to a building and equipment standing on the land. Roof and wall mounted solar on a non-domestic building falls into its own class, with limits on how far the equipment may protrude from the roof plane, usually no more than 0.2 metres, and a rule that it must not sit higher than the highest part of the roof, excluding the chimney. Ground mounted solar on non-domestic land falls into the stand-alone class, with its own height, area and boundary limits.

None of this grants permission where the land is not within the curtilage of the relevant building or where the operator is not the occupier. Read the opening words of the class as carefully as the limitations, because the scope of the permission is set there.

Stand-alone equipment and its limits

Stand-alone solar means a free-standing array on the ground rather than fixed to a building. The class carries numeric limits on height and on the extent of the array, restrictions on how close it can sit to the boundary of the curtilage, and a rule that only one stand-alone installation benefits from the permission at any one time in some circumstances.

The limits have been amended more than once, and the figures in a 2018 article are not the figures in the current Order. Check the consolidated text on legislation.gov.uk before you rely on any number, including any you read here.

The practical difficulty with stand-alone solar in a car park is that the array has to be raised high enough for vehicles to park and manoeuvre beneath it. Once you do that, the structure stops resembling the low ground-mounted array the stand-alone class was drafted for, and its height is likely to exceed the class limit.

Canopy structures and the class that fits them

The canopy problem is why a separate class was introduced. A solar canopy over an off-street car park at a non-domestic property is now dealt with in its own class within Part 14, inserted by an amendment order in 2023, with a height limit of 4 metres and a requirement to apply to the local planning authority for prior approval before development begins.

The class is narrower than it first appears. It applies to off-street car parks at non-domestic premises, not to public highway parking, not to residential parking courts, and not to land that happens to be used for parking without being a car park. Where the parking serves a dwellinghouse or a block of flats the class does not help, and there are separation requirements from residential curtilages.

Because prior approval is required rather than optional, building first and applying later is not available. The development is only permitted if the procedure has been followed.

Height, siting and the conditions attached

Every class in Part 14 carries conditions as well as limits. The common ones for solar are that the equipment must, so far as practicable, be sited to minimise its effect on the external appearance of the building and the amenity of the area, and that it must be removed as soon as reasonably practicable when no longer needed for microgeneration.

For a canopy, siting is where most schemes are shaped. The authority will look at how the structure reads from the street, whether it obscures a listed building or a shopfront, what happens to the lighting columns and the drainage, and whether the surface water regime changes because a previously open car park now has a large impermeable roof over part of it. That last point catches people out. A canopy is a roof, and the run-off has to go somewhere.

Glint and glare is the other recurring issue, particularly near an aerodrome, a railway or a major road. If your site sits under an approach path, expect the authority to consult and expect to need an assessment.

Protected land, listed buildings and Article 4

The permitted development rights in Part 14 are reduced or removed on designated land. Conservation areas, National Landscapes, National Parks, the Broads and World Heritage Sites all attract additional restrictions, and the details differ between classes rather than following one rule.

On or within the curtilage of a listed building, treat solar as requiring listed building consent in addition to any planning position. The two consents are independent, and permitted development under the Order does not remove the need for listed building consent for works affecting special interest. Scheduled monuments are excluded outright.

Article 4 directions can also withdraw Part 14 rights. They are less common for microgeneration than for householder development, but they exist, and the only way to know is to check the authority's Article 4 register for the site.

Where rights are withdrawn or the limits are exceeded, the route is a full planning application supported by a Planning Statement that addresses the development plan and the national policy support for renewable energy.

Grid connection is a separate matter entirely

Planning permission and grid connection are unrelated processes, and the connection is usually the longer of the two. The distribution network operator decides whether the local network can accept the export, what reinforcement is needed and what it costs. Nothing in Part 14 obliges them to connect you.

Substations, switchgear housings and cable routes may themselves need permission or may fall under the separate permitted development rights for electricity undertakers. If the connection requires a new substation on your land, price it and consent it as part of the same programme rather than discovering it after the canopy is designed.

Battery storage is a further step again. It is not microgeneration and Part 14 does not cover it.

When a full application is the better route

Prior approval is faster on paper, with a determination period of 56 days for most Part 14 applications, but it is not always the right choice. A full application is worth considering where the canopy exceeds 4 metres, where you want to combine the canopy with electric vehicle charging infrastructure and lighting in one consent, where the site is in a conservation area, or where you expect to alter the parking layout at the same time.

The prior approval route also gives the authority a limited set of matters it may consider, and if your scheme fails on one of them you have spent the time without a fallback. Where the answer is uncertain, some occupiers run a lawful development certificate application in parallel. A certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the only formal way to confirm that proposed works are lawful, and it is the document a future buyer or lender will ask for. The prior approval procedure itself repays reading before you choose, and the way prior approval works for telecommunications apparatus shows how differently the matters for consideration can be drawn between parts of the Order. The meaning of curtilage matters here too, because it sets the outer edge of what the class can permit.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a car park solar scheme is likely to need.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.