Solar Panel Installers in West Sussex

The first thing that changes when we come over from Hampshire is the grid operator. Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Dorset sit with SSEN; West Sussex sits with UK Power Networks, as do East Sussex and most of Surrey. It makes no difference at all to the panels on your roof, but it does change who we apply to, which forms get filed and how the approval runs. We handle that application either way — it's part of the job, not an extra line on the quote — but it's worth knowing that a Worthing install and a Portsmouth install follow two different paper trails even when the system on the roof is identical.

The grid rule itself is straightforward. Anything up to 3.68kW per phase falls under G98: connect and notify, so the paperwork follows the installation. Anything larger, and anything with battery storage or export, is G99 — applied for and approved by UKPN before we fit a single bracket. Because most systems we design now include storage, the majority of our West Sussex jobs are G99. That isn't a problem, it just means the timeline starts with an application rather than a fitting date, and we would far rather tell you that at quotation stage than after you have paid a deposit.

Housing in the county splits fairly neatly either side of the South Downs. The coastal belt — Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Worthing — is dominated by bungalows, post-war housing and seafront terraces, often with smaller roof planes and a lot of east–west orientation, which costs roughly 15–20% against a south-facing array. North of the Downs around Horsham you tend to find larger detached and estate housing with bigger, cleaner south-facing roofs. The South Coast sees around 1,050–1,150 kWh per kWp a year either way, so a 4kW south-facing array here should generate somewhere around 3,900–4,600 kWh annually. The roof, not the postcode, is what usually decides your number.

Chichester and Arundel need more care than anywhere else in the county. Both have historic cores where conservation-area status and listed buildings genuinely constrain what can go on a visible elevation, and we would always rather establish that before designing a system than after. In practice it often means working with a rear roof, a garage or an outbuilding — and occasionally it means telling you the front elevation isn't worth pursuing. Gulls are the other coastal reality, which is why bird protection mesh is included as standard rather than sold as an upsell. And with Octopus Outgoing Fixed now paying 12p, cut from 15p on 1 March 2026, and open-market flat SEG rates around 10.5p–16.5p, using your own generation beats exporting it — which is why battery sizing matters more here than chasing panel count.