The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) has developed Solar Wizard, an easy-to-use online tool, to encourage more individuals and communities to adopt solar energy.

Solar Wizard assesses the viability for installing solar photovoltaics (PV) on homes and non-domestic buildings, such as community centres, schools and offices.

It is designed to be used by everyone, including homeowners, community groups, local authorities, and anyone interested in making informed decisions and planning investments in solar PV technology.

Benefits of using Solar Wizard

• Quick and easy assessments through the online platform.
• Accurate and independent evaluations.
• Supports a wide range of goals – whether that’s solar for one home or for a group of buildings as part of a community action plan.
• Promotes informed decision-making for solar investments.
• Outlines your next steps for installation.
• Free to use for individual building assessment.

Solar power is a key part of our energy transition

Transforming the way we generate and use energy to produce less carbon is key to tackling the climate emergency and reaching the UK’s net zero target. Solar PV on buildings is an important part of the solution, but more people need to be involved.

Solar PV is one of the most commercially viable net zero technologies, but despite its huge potential, under 5% of the UK’s 29m homes have solar panels. Uptake is hampered by uncertainty over site and rooftop viability and a lack of local, trusted information and support.

Solar Wizard provides homeowners, communities and local authorities information about solar PV

To accelerate the growth of solar to the level recommended by the Climate Change Committee (40GW by 2030) people need access to trusted impartial information to assess how practical solar PV is for their building and needs.

Solar Wizard offers free individual building assessments. This means that homeowners can get quick, accurate and independent predictions about the potential for PV on their homes. And community groups can identify buildings within their neighbourhoods that offer the best solar potential to plan community energy projects. The tool outlines:

• Which areas of the roof might be most suitable.
• How much power could be generated per year or month-by-month on average.
• If the solar panels might be subject to shading from nearby buildings and other landscape features.
• Estimated costs for installation.
• How much money might you save on electricity bills.
• How much carbon could be saved per year.
• Next steps and advice for installation.

For local authorities, we’ve built a separate interface which allows for more in-depth planning, so you can view solar potential across a whole area. This is valuable for parish and town councils alongside larger district, unitary and county authorities to understand the role of rooftop solar in climate emergency responses, such as group solar buying schemes in their area. This is a paid-for service; get in touch for more information.

Building the tool – a collaborative approach

Solar Wizard is based on an innovative methodology which combines national LiDAR elevation data with CSE’s own in-house building energy models and wider datasets.

We designed and developed Solar Wizard with expert input from Sharenergy (who run the flagship Big Solar Coop and has supported the establishment of over 60 community solar coops across the UK) and Bath & West Community Energy (who are installing community-owned solar on schools and other non-domestic buildings, backed by a network of committed investors). We also consulted widely through our community energy and local council networks working on net zero delivery. We wanted to make sure the Solar Wizard calculator is accessible to newcomers to solar PV as well as those who are more informed and in need of further information.

We’ve made the code for the model that underpins the tool openly available under a Reciprocal Public License here.

The initial development work was funded through the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution programme.