Commercial solar installers in Hexham

Key facts

Where businesses are in Hexham

• Haugh Lane Industrial Estate: An existing employment area that the council's 2018 employment land paper proposed to keep mostly in employment use, open to a wider range of employment uses, with about 0.8 hectares of land then available.
• Bridge End Industrial Estate: The 2018 council paper lists Bridge End Industrial Estate as an employment area to be kept, with about 0.5 hectares then available, next to the Egger site at Bridge End, where 15.35 hectares were identified as expansion land.
• Harwood Meadows: About 10 hectares east of the Egger plant taken out of the Green Belt for employment in the Northumberland Local Plan adopted in March 2022, because Hexham needs 10 to 15 hectares of new employment land; it is to be made ready after sand and gravel extraction, with access from Rotary Way.

Large employers and sectors with sites here include:

• Wood-based panels (Egger): Egger's Hexham plant has around 620 employees and is one of the largest manufacturing employers in Northumberland. Egger Timberpak's £15 million recycling plant beside the chipboard plant began operating in 2022 to raise the recycled content of its boards.
• Healthcare (Hexham General Hospital): Northumbria Healthcare completed a four year, multimillion pound redevelopment of Hexham General Hospital when new operating theatres opened in February 2026, and in April 2026 applied for planning permission for air source heat pumps and a new substation there.

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

Hexham is served by Northern Powergrid (North East 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 Hexham

Hexham follows the national planning rules for England, decided by Northumberland 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:

• The Hexham Conservation Area, designated in 1972, covers about 103.4 hectares and holds 180 listed buildings, five of them Grade I including the Priory Gatehouse, so roofs across the historic centre need more care.

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

What a business roof in Hexham could generate

Modelled with PVGIS for the town centre, a south-facing roof at 30 degrees produces about 912 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 Hexham 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 Northumberland

At the end of 2025, Northumberland had 14,650 solar PV installations with 64.7 MW of capacity, up 114% since 2020, according to government figures. The Northumberland page has the full local figures and how they compare.

Nearby towns

• Consett, about 14 miles away
• Gateshead, about 20 miles away
• Morpeth, about 21 miles away
• Cramlington, about 22 miles away

Sources

• ons.gov.uk: census2021
• ons.gov.uk: datadownload.xlsx
• northumberland.gov.uk: Employment Land Strategy and Assessment of Sites Technical
• northumberland.gov.uk: Northumberland Local Plan Adopted March 2022
• egger.com: locations
• northumbria.nhs.uk: final phase hexham hospital redevelopment programme completed opening
• heritagecheck.co.uk: hexham
• letsrecycle.com: egger makes 15 million investment in hexham plant
• northumbria.nhs.uk: nhs trust seeks planning approval support net zero
• gov.uk: maps of north east investment zone tax sites
• gov.uk: enterprise zones
• gov.uk: investment zones in england
• gov.uk: maps of uk freeports
• 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.