Commercial solar installers in Crawley

Key facts

Where businesses are in Crawley

• Manor Royal Business District: The biggest business park in the Gatwick Diamond, next to London Gatwick Airport, covering 540 acres with over 600 businesses and 30,000 jobs, and over 70% of Crawley's employment land. Occupiers range from aircraft simulation and geophysical exploration to printing, distribution and food production.
• Gatwick Green: A site where the council's Crawley Growth Deal 2025 to 2030, agreed with West Sussex County Council, aims to unlock new commercial space.

Large employers and sectors with sites here include:

• Aviation (London Gatwick): London Gatwick is one of Crawley's three key employment areas, and the council says the airport's expansion could bring up to £1 billion a year to the regional economy and create thousands of jobs.
• Transport, storage and corporate occupiers: Crawley's main employment sectors are transportation and storage and administrative and support services, and the borough's 3,400 active businesses include Virgin, Nestle, Elekta, Doosan, Siemens Healthineers and Thales.

Large, simple roofs on distribution sheds and modern industrial units are usually the quickest and cheapest to fit. Older mill, factory and workshop buildings can work well too, but often need a structural survey first, and roofs from before 2000 may contain asbestos cement: see asbestos roofs.

Grid connection

Crawley is served by UK Power Networks (South Eastern Power Networks licence area). Almost every commercial system needs G99 approval from the network operator before it is switched on, and the question is usually how much the local network can take back. Where export is limited, a G100 export limitation scheme can let a larger array connect. See G99 and DNO applications.

Planning in Crawley

Crawley follows the national planning rules for England, decided by Crawley council. Rooftop solar on most non-domestic buildings is permitted development, within height and edge limits, and systems above 50 kW need a prior approval application covering design and glare.

Points that come up locally:

• Crawley has 13 conservation areas, including Crawley High Street, Queens Square and The Broadway in the town centre, and Ifield Village, and the council says planning controls are tightened inside them.

Our guides on listed buildings and conservation areas explain what these mean for a solar project.

What a business roof in Crawley could generate

Modelled with PVGIS for the town centre, a south-facing roof at 30 degrees produces about 1,030 kWh per kWp a year.

Illustrative, not a quote: the same sums as our commercial solar calculator. A company paying corporation tax can usually shorten the payback with capital allowances.

Funding and support

We found no council or regional grant for business solar open in Crawley at the time of writing (November 2026). National reliefs still apply, such as capital allowances and, in England, the business rates exemption for onsite renewables: see grants and reliefs in England.

Solar across Crawley

At the end of 2025, Crawley had 2,264 solar PV installations with 11.1 MW of capacity, up 105% since 2020, according to government figures. The Crawley page has the full local figures and how they compare.

Nearby towns

• Horsham, about 7 miles away
• Tonbridge, about 21 miles away
• Hailsham, about 26 miles away
• Seaford, about 27 miles away

Sources

• ons.gov.uk: census2021
• ons.gov.uk: datadownload.xlsx
• en.wikipedia.org: Crawley
• manorroyal.org
• manorroyal.org: the place
• crawley.gov.uk: new crawley growth deal drive jobs investment and
• investcrawley.co.uk: economy crawley
• gov.uk: enterprise zones
• gov.uk: freeports
• gov.uk: investment zones in england
• crawley.gov.uk: conservation areas
• Yield: PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission Joint Research Centre), SARAH3 data, 14% system losses, for the town centre, modelled 4 November 2026.
• Council area figures: DESNZ, renewable electricity by local authority 2014 to 2025.