Aerial view of a large UK distribution warehouse with rooflight bands across a long span roof, HGVs at the loading bays

Newsroom

News and coverage

Announcements from Solar Surveys Ltd, and independent trade press coverage of our commercial rooftop structural data. Every entry gives the publication, the date and a direct link to the original. We reproduce no third-party content on this page.

In the press

Our UK Roof Plane Dataset 2026, our 575-survey dataset, and our reading of what MIS 3002 V6.0 changed on 18 June 2026, have been covered by the insurance, construction, energy, installer, facilities management and architecture press. Each entry links to the publisher's own page.

12 November 2026 Heat Pumps & Renewables Bylined article

Flat-roof solar without a certified kit: what your clause 5.5.5 file has to show

A bylined piece by our Managing Director for MCS installers, on pages 22 and 23 of the November 2026 issue. MCS has extended the use of clause 5.5.5 of MIS 3002 for uncertified flat roof mounting kits until further notice, and V6.0 turned that clause into a list of evidence the contractor must be able to produce. The article works through the ballasted case under clause 5.9.13: wind actions set for the actual site, a friction coefficient of 0.3 unless a higher value is backed by a test report, and a qualified structural engineer consulted on whether the roof can carry the system and its ballast, with no size threshold. It closes with what to keep on file.

Read in Heat Pumps & Renewables →

12 November 2026 Energy Manager Magazine Bylined article

Rooftop solar: capacity and condition are two different questions

A bylined piece by our Managing Director for energy managers, drawing on the UK Roof Plane Dataset 2026. It separates two questions that a solar business case tends to fold into one line: whether the structure can carry the array, and whether the roof is fit to carry it for the life of the system. Roofs with a visible condition issue used a median 75% of their capacity and roofs without one 73%, so a pass on the loading check is no evidence about the covering. A visible issue was photographed on 93% of felt flat roofs and 83% of fibre cement, against 51% of profiled metal. The article closes with four things to ask for before procurement. It appeared in the November/December 2026 issue of the magazine.

Read on Energy Manager Magazine →

11 November 2026 Urban Realm Opinion article

Snow, not panels: what decides whether a Scottish roof can take solar

An opinion piece by our Managing Director on solar for Scotland’s older and rural homes. A typical array adds about 0.13 kN/m² and is rarely the load that decides the answer. Snow is, and it rises with altitude: in the UK Roof Plane Dataset 2026 the median home used 51% of its roof capacity below 50 m and 96% at 150 m and above, with panels and snow counted together. The piece is clear that those homes are mostly in the north of England, not Scotland, and that they describe roofs assessed for solar, not the housing stock as a whole. It sets out three checks to make before the panels are ordered: the site’s own snow load, a look in the loft, and what the roof is covered with now and was covered with before.

Read on Urban Realm →

27 October 2026 Facilitate Bylined article

Snow on a solar roof: how to prepare before winter

A bylined explainer by our Managing Director for facilities managers, published ahead of winter. Snow, not the array, is usually the load that decides whether a roof copes, and an array changes where snow gathers. From the UK Roof Plane Dataset 2026: 18% of commercial buildings with a stated figure were already at 90% or more of their roof capacity with PV and snow combined, and schools and faith and community buildings reached that level most often. The article gives a short check to make before the first fall: find the structural report and the snow load it used, confirm that it covered drift, clear the gutters and outlets, and keep people off the roof.

Read on Facilitate →

5 October 2026 The Energyst Contributed article

Rooftop solar: what actually fills a roof’s structural headroom

Our Managing Director on what the UK Roof Plane Dataset 2026, 1,568 roof planes on 651 UK buildings and homes, says about roof headroom. A typical array adds about 0.13 kN/m², around a fifth of a median commercial roof’s allowable imposed load. It is snow, and the altitude that drives it, that uses the headroom up: the median commercial roof used 61% of its capacity below 50 m and 92% at 150 m and above, with PV and snow combined. Schools and faith and community buildings ran closest to the limit. The piece closes with three planning points: use site-specific snow loads, screen low-lying sites first, and budget for strengthening on high and older buildings.

Read on The Energyst →

24 September 2026 PBC Today Bylined article

What MIS 3002 actually requires, and who it lets sign it off

A bylined piece by our Managing Director that works through MIS 3002 V6.0 clause by clause. The universal roof check under 5.9.4 falls to a suitably competent person. A qualified structural engineer is required in named cases, including the unusual roofs in 5.9.6 and every flat roof ballasted system under 5.9.13(h), and 5.5.5 sets out the evidence of structural assessment the standard accepts. The article also names two gaps: arrays above 50 kWp sit outside the standard altogether, and it requires a check without saying what the check must contain. It also ran in print in the November 2026 edition of PBC Today, pages 92 to 93 (view the edition).

Read on PBC Today →

2 September 2026 Facilities Management Journal Bylined article

The FM's pre-solar checklist: what to establish before you sign the PPA

A bylined piece by our Managing Director, written for facilities managers rather than engineers. Rooftop solar rarely reaches an FM as a question; under a funded model it arrives as a decision already made, and the roof becomes the FM's responsibility at handover. The article sets out six things worth establishing before signature rather than after: the capacity a roof has already spent, which asbestos survey is actually held and whether it covers the area the work will disturb, who carries the roof warranty once third-party fixings go through the waterproofing, what happens to the array at the end of a 25-year term, how ballast is distributed on a flat roof, and how anyone reaches the roof afterwards. Draws on our PV Structural Feasibility Dataset 2026.

Read on Facilities Management Journal →

4 August 2026 Insurance Times Independent analysis

A third of commercial rooftops unfit for solar without remedial work

Analysis by George McDade drawing on 575 PV structural feasibility surveys carried out between 2024 and 2026. The piece reports that 35% of the commercial buildings surveyed could not take a PV array without remedial work or alteration, and separates the 5% found structurally inadequate from the 30% that could carry an array once strengthening or reconfiguration is carried out. Sahir Raihan, Managing Director, is quoted throughout.

Read on Insurance Times →

15 July 2026 PBC Today Bylined article

Mind the gap: the structural blind spot in the new rooftop solar mandate

A bylined piece by our Managing Director on what MIS 3002 V6.0 actually changed. From 18 June 2026 the structure has to be checked before an array goes on. The standard does mandate a qualified structural engineer in named cases, including every flat roof ballasted system, but the universal check falls to a suitably competent person. The article sets out where that leaves a commercial project, and who ends up carrying the risk.

Read on PBC Today →

12 June 2026 The Energyst Contributed analysis

Who is allowed to sign off your roof? The gap in the new solar mandate

Our analysis of the competent-person question in MIS 3002 V6.0, and of where the standard does and does not compel a qualified engineer. It reports our finding that one in three of the commercial roofs we assessed needed structural intervention before panels could go on, and notes that lenders and insurers routinely ask for engineer-signed structural documentation whether or not the standard requires it.

Read on The Energyst →

Company announcements

Publications, memberships and changes of standing. Listed newest first.

20 August 2026 Solar Surveys Ltd Membership

Solar Surveys joins Solar Energy UK

Solar Surveys Ltd is a member of Solar Energy UK, the trade association for the UK solar and energy storage industry. We have applied for a seat on its Standards and Certifications Steering Group, the group that works on the standards and certification schemes governing how solar is specified, installed and signed off in the UK.

That is the part of the industry our work sits closest to. Every structural appraisal we issue is written against the Eurocodes and, where the scheme falls within its scope, MCS MIS 3002 V6.0. Having a hand in how those requirements develop is worth more to us than the badge.

About Solar Surveys →

14 August 2026 Solar Surveys Ltd Publication

PV Structural Feasibility Dataset 2026 published in full

The aggregate findings from 575 commercial rooftop structural feasibility surveys carried out across the UK between 2024 and 2026, published openly with the method stated and no registration required. Record-level data is not released and no building or client is identified: the sites are covered by client confidentiality.

View the dataset →

16 July 2026 Solar Surveys Ltd Membership

Corporate membership of ACE and the Environmental Industries Commission

Solar Surveys Ltd is a corporate member of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) and the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC), member number AM2026009, for the 2026 membership year.

About Solar Surveys →

Press enquiries

Enquiries are answered by us directly. There is no agency in between, and no waiting on a sign-off chain.

The dataset. Aggregate figures from 575 commercial rooftop surveys, with the method and the sample composition stated, at the dataset page.
Attributable comment on structural feasibility for rooftop PV, MIS 3002 V6.0, ballast and wind uplift, asbestos-cement substrates, and the condition of ageing industrial roof stock.
Figures checked before you print them. Send the sentence you intend to run and we will confirm it or correct it.
Photography from live surveys, where the consent held for that site allows it.

Contact: contact@solarsurveys.co.uk or +44 141 628 9009. We do not name clients or sites without written consent, and we do not release record-level survey data.

Aerial view of an ageing corrugated sheet roof with translucent rooflight panels, set among a town roofscape, recorded during a structural survey — **Survey photography of the kind available to press.** Frames are supplied where the consent held for that site allows it, and sites are not identified.

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