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 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 and facilities management trade press. Each entry links to the publisher's own page.

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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