Roofs First

Widespread building of huge industrial solar ‘farms’ is destroying the British countryside unnecessarily.

Once this green space is gone, it’s gone for good.

But there is another way that protects our countryside and gets us the green energy we need.

It’s called Roofs First.

Did you know over half of the UK’s solar energy needs could be met by putting solar panels on the south-facing roofs of car parks, warehouses, public buildings, and our homes?

Roofs are a vast untapped resource capable of generating solar-powered electricity close to where it is needed.

An area, the equivalent of 50,000 Wembley stadium roofs, is south facing. You’d only need half of this to supply over 50% of the solar energy we need.

Roofs First is simple: put the solar panels we need on the abundant roof space we have before green space.

Existing rooftops could provide at least 40-50GW of low carbon electricity, contributing more than half of the total national target of 70GW of solar energy by 2035.

We are fighting for the planning rules to be changed, so that ‘Roofs First’ is a formal part of the National Planning Policy framework to help protect our countryside.

Roofs First will benefit local communities by putting money into local pockets, creating good jobs, and protecting businesses and people from future energy price fluctuations.

Payback time for solar panels is now six years, so households stand to benefit from 19 years of free electricity.