Rooftop Solar Potential in Grays
3,584 of the 5,462 buildings in this part of Grays, Thurrock have room for solar panels on roof faces that get at least 70% of the best possible sunshine. Together they could carry about 29.3 MWp and make about 25.8 GWh of electricity in an average year, about as much as 10,300 typical UK homes use.
Grays, Thurrock, Essex: homes and the town centre. An area of 3.0 km², worked out on 13 November 2026. Indicative figures, an upper bound before roof strength, wiring and the grid connection are checked. The tool is in preview: built and tested, not yet signed off as validated.
The Headline Figures
Buildings with room for panels
3,584
of 5,462 buildings
Peak power they could carry
29.3 MWp
about 68,100 panels of 430 W
Electricity in an average year
25.8 GWh
2005 to 2023 weather
About as much as
10,300
typical UK homes use in a year (2,500 kWh each, Ofgem)
- 80 roofs could each carry 50 kWp or more. Between them they hold about 10.6 MWp, 36% of the area's peak power.
- 2,881 homes have room for panels. The middle home could carry about 3.4 kWp, 8 panels.
- Shade from trees and neighbouring buildings takes 2.8% of the sunshine from the middle building. The best roof plane here is pitched at 40° and faces south: it gets about 1,305 kWh of sunshine per m² a year.
By Type of Building
Buildings with room for panels, by the use recorded for them in the map data.
| Type | Buildings | Peak power | Electricity a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes | 2,881 | 13.6 MWp | 11.9 GWh |
| Not recorded | 475 | 7.86 MWp | 6.95 GWh |
| Industry and warehouses | 45 | 3.27 MWp | 2.89 GWh |
| Schools, health and public | 52 | 2.40 MWp | 2.18 GWh |
| Shops and offices | 119 | 1.94 MWp | 1.72 GWh |
| Outbuildings | 12 | 168 kWp | 146 MWh |
“Not recorded” means the map data gives the building no use. Many of the largest roofs are in that group.
The Largest Roofs
The ten roofs that could carry the most panels. Buildings are shown by a number, never by address: each link opens that roof on the map with its faces, its panels and its months.
| Building | Type | Outline | Peak power | Electricity a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building 4968 | Not recorded | 5,780 m² | 958 kWp | 815 MWh |
| Building 735 | Shop or office | 7,010 m² | 511 kWp | 464 MWh |
| Building 4260 | Not recorded | 2,900 m² | 497 kWp | 436 MWh |
| Building 1743 | Not recorded | 10,700 m² | 405 kWp | 371 MWh |
| Building 2976 | School, health or public building | 4,800 m² | 375 kWp | 338 MWh |
| Building 3945 | Industrial building or warehouse | 1,860 m² | 319 kWp | 256 MWh |
| Building 4102 | Not recorded | 1,790 m² | 312 kWp | 272 MWh |
| Building 361 | Shop or office | 1,700 m² | 283 kWp | 251 MWh |
| Building 2632 | Industrial building or warehouse | 1,480 m² | 276 kWp | 244 MWh |
| Building 3722 | Not recorded | 1,620 m² | 241 kWp | 216 MWh |
On large roofs, rooflights and access routes that 1 m LiDAR cannot see will take some of this space.
Electricity by Month
All the roofs together, in an average month of the weather record. July makes the most, December the least.
| Month | Electricity | Share of the year |
|---|---|---|
| January | 699 MWh | 2.7% |
| February | 1.07 GWh | 4.2% |
| March | 2.02 GWh | 7.8% |
| April | 2.98 GWh | 11.6% |
| May | 3.45 GWh | 13.4% |
| June | 3.59 GWh | 13.9% |
| July | 3.60 GWh | 13.9% |
| August | 3.08 GWh | 11.9% |
| September | 2.36 GWh | 9.1% |
| October | 1.50 GWh | 5.8% |
| November | 876 MWh | 3.4% |
| December | 594 MWh | 2.3% |
Why Some Buildings Have No Panels
1,878 buildings have no panels counted. The map says why for each one.
| Why | Buildings |
|---|---|
| Not enough room for panelsFewer than 4 panels fit on the roof faces that get enough sunshine, so no panels are counted here. | 1,078 |
| Too little sunshineNo usable roof face gets at least 70% of the best possible yearly sunshine, because of the way it faces or the shade on it. | 335 |
| No clear roof faceThe LiDAR shows no roof face here that is even enough and large enough to lay panels on. | 319 |
| Not in the LiDAR surveyThis building does not show in the LiDAR survey, which may be older than the building, so its roof could not be read. | 145 |
| Left out of the countThis outline is mapped as a car park, a glasshouse or something else that is not a roof for panels, so it is left out of the count. | 1 |
How It Was Worked Out
- Each roof is split into faces from the Environment Agency LIDAR Composite 1 m (surveys up to 2022). The same LiDAR gives the shade from trees and buildings within 300 m.
- Building outlines and uses are from Overture Maps release 2026-10-21.0.
- Sunshine is every hour of PVGIS 5.3, PVGIS-SARAH3, 2005 to 2023 (European Commission), so each month is a long-term average of real weather.
- A face counts when it gets at least 70% of the best possible yearly sunshine. 430 W panels are laid out face by face, and a building counts when at least 4 fit.
- Compared with PVGIS's own model on unshaded roof planes facing east through south to west, the yearly sunshine agrees within 2%. That compares two models, not metered output.
The Data Behind It
LiDAR Composite, 1 m (first return and last return surface models, and the terrain model)
Environment Agency · Open Government Licence v3.0
Building outlines and uses, including OpenStreetMap and Microsoft ML Building Footprints
Overture Maps Foundation · Open Database Licence 1.0
PVGIS solar radiation and PV performance, 2005 to 2023
European Commission, Joint Research Centre · © European Union. Free to reuse with credit (European Commission reuse notice, CC BY 4.0)
| Data | Published by | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| LiDAR Composite, 1 m (first return and last return surface models, and the terrain model) | Environment Agency | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
| Building outlines and uses, including OpenStreetMap and Microsoft ML Building Footprints | Overture Maps Foundation | Open Database Licence 1.0 |
| PVGIS solar radiation and PV performance, 2005 to 2023 | European Commission, Joint Research Centre | © European Union. Free to reuse with credit (European Commission reuse notice, CC BY 4.0) |
Every dataset and its credit line is on data sources and licences.
The roof layer is built on OpenStreetMap and Overture building outlines, so it is shared under the same Open Database Licence. Ask us for a copy.
Questions
Something else? Ask us.
How much solar power could the roofs of Grays carry?
About 29.3 MWp of peak power, on 3,584 of the 5,462 buildings in the mapped part of Grays, Thurrock. That is an upper bound from 1 m LiDAR and a panel layout on every roof face that gets enough sunshine, before roof strength, wiring and the grid connection are checked.
How much electricity would that make?
About 25.8 GWh in an average year of real weather (2005 to 2023), about as much as 10,300 typical UK homes use in a year at 2,500 kWh each (Ofgem). July makes about 3.60 GWh and December about 594 MWh.
Where is most of the potential?
On a small number of large roofs. 80 roofs that could each carry 50 kWp or more hold about 10.6 MWp, 36% of the area's peak power. The 2,881 homes with room for panels hold about 13.6 MWp.
Can I see a single building?
Yes. Open the map of Grays and pick any building to see each roof face, the panels that could fit, the shade it gets and the electricity it could make each month. Buildings are shown by a number, not by address.
Can you make this for another area?
Yes, for places in England. Send us the area or the buildings and we make the same map, the ranked list of roofs and the figures for it.
Want This for Your Area or Your Buildings?
Tell us the area, the estate or the list of buildings. We make the same roof-by-roof map and a ranked list of the roofs, and a person checks it before it reaches you.