Is Bradford too wet for solar?

What the Bingley gauge records

The Met Office publishes long-term averages for a climate station at Bingley, in the Aire valley between Shipley and Keighley. Over 1991–2020 it averaged 1,057 mm of rain a year, and at least 1 mm fell on 157 days of an average year: about 43% of all days, by our arithmetic (Met Office). Few people in the district would call that a surprise.

What the record does not hold is sunshine. When the station page was read again on 4 November 2026, the sunshine column was blank for every month and for the year, so there is no measured sunshine total for Bingley to quote, and this guide does not invent one. The output figures below come instead from PVGIS, the European Commission's solar model, which estimates what a panel would make at a given spot from recorded sunlight over 2005-2023. The cloud that crossed the district in those years is already inside every number it gives.

The rain is not spread evenly through the year. December is the wettest month at Bingley, with 121 mm on average, and May the driest, with 64 mm. Wet days follow the same pattern: from April to September rain falls on 11 to 13 days a month, against 16 in November and 16 in December.

The wet-day count measures rain, not light. A day qualifies once 1 mm has fallen, whether that came in a ten-minute shower or a day of drizzle, so the count says little about how much daylight reached a roof on that day. That is one more reason this guide leans on PVGIS, rather than on the rain gauge, for anything to do with output.

What a south roof makes across the district

We ran PVGIS at 13 places across the district, each time for 1 kW of panels facing due south at a 35° tilt, with the shape of the surrounding land taken into account (PVGIS 5.3). The city centre comes out at 934 kWh per kW a year. Idle and Bradford Moor, on higher ground to the north and east of the centre, make 941. Wibsey and Queensbury match the centre at 934; Manningham, Saltaire and Bingley give 933; Shipley and Thornton 929. Further up the valleys the figures fall a little: Ilkley 922, Keighley 917 and Haworth, the lowest of the set, 906.

From the best place to the lowest, the gap is 3.7%, by our arithmetic. That gap takes in the sky and the hills together, and it is far smaller than the gap between a south slope and an east or west one on the same house.

For a sense of scale, the Energy Saving Trust puts a typical home system at 4.5 kWp (Energy Saving Trust). Facing south in the city centre, that size would make about 4,203 kWh in an average year, and about 4,077 kWh in Haworth, by our arithmetic. Ofgem's typical domestic consumption value for electricity is 2,500 kWh a year (Ofgem). Making more than a household uses across a year is not the same as using it all, because the output arrives in daylight and mostly in the summer half. A battery moves some of it into the evening, which is what the battery guide weighs up.

The sunny half of the year

PVGIS also gives the shape of the year. At the best tilt for the city centre, 41°, each kW of panels makes 115 kWh in May and 31 kWh in December, about 3.7 times as much in the better month. Over a whole year that tilt gives 937 kWh per kW. The six months from April to September produce 67.8% of the year's output, by our arithmetic.

Set the rain record beside it and the two pull in opposite directions. Those same six months bring only 42.9% of Bingley's yearly rainfall. The wettest run of the year, October to January, carries 41.4% of the rain but only 17.8% of the output, because the sun is low and the days are short in those months whatever the sky is doing. In other words, most of the district's rain falls when a roof has the least to lose.

For the 4.5 kWp system above, the same shape means roughly 140 kWh in December against 518 kWh in May, by our arithmetic. Spread Ofgem's yearly figure evenly and a typical household gets through about 208 kWh a month. That even split is a simplification, but it shows the pattern clearly enough: from spring to early autumn the roof outruns the house, and in midwinter it falls well short, rain or no rain.

Cloud, daylight and grey days

Solar cells respond to daylight, not only to direct sun. The Energy Saving Trust says they do not need direct sunlight and work on cloudy days, though stronger sunshine makes more electricity (Energy Saving Trust). A roof under a flat grey sky over Thornton is still generating, just at a lower rate than on a clear June morning. What counts over a year is the total light that reaches the panels, and that total is what PVGIS adds up.

This is why no separate deduction for "Yorkshire weather" belongs in a quote. If an installer's yearly estimate per kW sits well below the PVGIS figure for your area, ask what has been taken off and why: shading from a chimney stack or a neighbour's gable, an east or west slope, or a cautious allowance of the installer's own. Each is a fair answer if it is written down. The hills and valleys guide shows how much the district's terrain takes in each place.

PVGIS figures are averages over 2005-2023. A single year can come in above or below them, and a dull summer will show in the totals. When you judge a system later, compare a whole year with the average rather than one month with another.

Rain as a cleaner

The wet days have an upside. The Energy Saving Trust says that in the UK rain will clean panels tilted at 15° or more (Energy Saving Trust). A pitched roof of slate or stone is normally steeper than that, so for most homes the 157 wet days a year do the rinsing without anyone lifting a hose. Panels on a low frame on a flat roof, or on a frame in the garden, are more likely to collect dirt and may need cleaning now and then, the Trust adds.

Do not go up a ladder to wash them. Bird droppings, moss creeping in from the edge of an old stone roof and leaves from a nearby tree are the usual reasons a panel stays dirty, and the upkeep guide covers each one, including when to bring someone in.

What matters more than the rain

On these figures, the direction a roof faces does far more to its output than the weather. In the city centre a south slope makes 934 kWh per kW a year, an east slope 742, a west slope 735, panels laid flat 774 and a north slope 505 (PVGIS). An east or west roof gives up around 21.3% against south, by our arithmetic, and is still a workable roof for many homes. Close shade from chimney stacks, dormers and next door's taller roof can matter more again, and PVGIS cannot see any of it.

The district's own count points the same way. Government figures record 3,633 solar PV installations of every size in the Bradford district at the end of 2015, 4,551 at the end of 2020 and 7,297 at the end of 2025 (DESNZ), every one of them working under the same sky as the rain gauge at Bingley.

To see what your own roof might make, start with the house-age estimator, then set the output against what solar costs in the district. If you are weighing panels alongside a heat pump, the seasonal mismatch matters even more, and the heat pump guide works through it. For the summer surplus that leaves the house, see export payments, and before signing anything, read how to check an installer.