Trees, solar panels and shading disputes

Trees shading solar panels is a poor reason to fell a healthy protected tree, and councils say so regularly. There is no right to sunlight for a photovoltaic array. Rights of light in property law attach to defined windows in buildings and have nothing to do with panel yield, so an owner whose neighbour's oak shades the roof has no legal claim to have it removed. What does exist is a planning process, an amenity balance, and a set of design alternatives that usually work better than an application to fell.

Is shading a reason to fell?

Where a tree is protected by a Tree Preservation Order, works need the council's consent. Where it stands in a conservation area, you give the council six weeks notice under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and it decides whether to make an Order.

In both cases the authority weighs the amenity value of the tree against the reasons put forward. Structural damage, disease, dangerous condition and a demonstrable threat to a building are the reasons that succeed. Loss of solar yield is a material consideration rather than a decisive one, and on a mature specimen in a prominent position it will rarely carry the day on its own.

The balance is still a balance. A modest self-seeded sycamore of limited amenity value, shading a whole array, is a different case from a veteran oak. Councils distinguish between them, and a well-evidenced application makes the distinction for them.

How the amenity balance is struck

Officers assess amenity using the tree's visibility from public places, its condition, its life expectancy, its contribution to the character of the area and its value as habitat. Many authorities use a scoring system, and most will explain their approach if asked.

Against that sits your case. Carbon saving is a legitimate consideration and it engages national policy on renewable energy, so it is worth making. The weakness in most applications is that the carbon argument is asserted rather than quantified, while the tree's amenity value is plainly visible to anyone standing in the street.

Expect the officer to ask whether the array could go elsewhere. Have an answer ready before you apply.

Evidencing yield loss credibly

Assertion fails. Modelling works.

Ask your installer for a shading assessment using the standard method, which records the horizon profile and the obstructions around the array and produces a shading factor. Then ask for annual yield modelling in two scenarios: as-built with the tree, and with the tree removed or reduced.

The submission that persuades contains five things.

• A sun path diagram or shading analysis showing the obstruction through the year.
• Modelled annual yield with and without the tree, from a named tool, with the assumptions stated.
• Photographs from the roof at different times of day and, ideally, different seasons.
• An arboricultural note on the tree's condition and likely growth over the next decade.
• A description of the alternatives considered and why they were rejected.

That last item is what turns an application into a reasoned case. Growth matters too: a tree that currently clips the array in December will shade it in June within a few years, and that projection is a legitimate part of the argument.

Alternatives that usually work better

Felling is the last option. Four alternatives come first, and three of them cost less.

Crown thinning or reduction. Careful, proportionate crown works can restore useful light and are far more likely to be approved than felling. The effect is temporary, because trees regrow, so plan on a management cycle rather than a single operation. The note on specifying crown works councils will accept covers how to word the application.

Relocating the array. A shaded south roof can be worse than an unshaded east and west split, which spreads generation across the day and often loses less than owners expect.

Electronics. Power optimisers or microinverters limit the effect of partial shading on the rest of the string. On an array where one or two modules are shaded for part of the day, this can recover a useful share of the loss for a fraction of the cost of any tree work.

Ground mounting. Where the garden has an unshaded corner, a standalone array may be possible, subject to the limits in Part 14 of the General Permitted Development Order on height, area and position, and subject to any Article 4 direction.

Applying where the tree is protected

Applications for consent to work on a tree covered by an Order go to the council on the standard form, free of charge, with a plan identifying the tree and a clear specification of the works.

1. Confirm the protection status with the council, including whether the tree is in a conservation area.
2. Commission an arboricultural report if the tree's condition forms part of your case.
3. Prepare the shading and yield evidence.
4. Describe the works precisely, using recognised arboricultural terms rather than cut it back.
5. Submit, and expect a decision within eight weeks for an Order application.

Doing the work without consent is an offence, and for a tree covered by an Order the penalties are substantial. The note on penalties for damaging a protected tree sets out what that means in practice. A contractor who says it will be fine is not the person who will be prosecuted.

Neighbours' trees and the limits of your rights

If the tree belongs to your neighbour, you cannot fell it. You may cut back branches that overhang your boundary, to the boundary line, at your own cost, and the arisings belong to your neighbour, so ask before you dispose of them.

That common law right is subject to the same controls. Overhanging branches on a protected tree still need consent, and cutting them without it is the same offence as any other unauthorised work.

Evergreen hedges are the exception worth knowing about. Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 allows a complaint to the council about a line of two or more mostly evergreen trees or shrubs over two metres high that blocks light to a domestic property. The council can issue a remedial notice, and there is a fee. It applies to hedges rather than to individual trees, so it will not help with a single oak, and the council expects you to have tried to resolve matters directly first. Where ownership of the tree itself is unclear, the note on boundary trees and shared ownership is the place to start.

Designing an array around trees in the first place

For a new installation, survey the shading before you fix the layout. Stand on the roof with a shading app or a horizon tool, record the obstructions, and model the options. Moving eight modules from the shaded end to the unshaded end costs nothing at design stage.

Where the property is in a conservation area or the building is listed, the panels themselves may need permission, so check that at the same time. And where a scheme is large enough to need supporting documents, a Tree Survey prepared to BS 5837:2012 gives you the crown spreads and future growth the shading model needs.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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