Plug-in solar panels in Birmingham
Three things change depending on where you live: who you notify, how much the panel actually makes, and who has to say yes first. Here are all three for Birmingham.
In Birmingham you notify National Grid Electricity Distribution
National Grid Electricity Distribution · West Midlands licence area
Your network operator is fixed by your postcode. You cannot choose it and switching electricity supplier does not change it. Great Britain is divided into fourteen licence areas, and Birmingham falls in the West Midlands licence area.
The same group covers the East Midlands, South Wales and the South West under separate licences, so make sure any form you fill in names the West Midlands area.
G98 notification is not optional and it is not the same thing as telling your supplier. It is a short form, it is free, and the QR code on your kit links straight to the right one. Do it before you connect, not after.
What 800W realistically makes in West Midlands
These are irradiance model figures for 800W of panel, not measurements from a roof down the road. Treat them as a ceiling you will fall short of rather than a target.
770 kWh
Per year, south facing, angled properly on a garden frame or flat roof with nothing shading it.
480 kWh
Per year, mounted flat against a south-facing balcony railing. The convenience costs you output.
25–60%
The share you use as it is generated. The rest goes to the grid for nothing. Being home in the day is worth more than a bigger kit.
Being inland and central, Birmingham gets slightly less irradiance than the south coast but avoids the coastal salt exposure that shortens bracket life in seaside towns. Standard galvanised hardware is fine here.
Two panels on one 800VA inverter. The sweet spot for a typical home's background load, and the largest output the rules allow.
Housing stock in Birmingham
Birmingham's interwar semis in Hall Green, Kings Heath and Northfield are the natural fit here. Detached garages and wide side returns give you somewhere to put a ground frame that is out of sight and out of the way, which avoids most of the permission questions a balcony install raises.
The city centre apartment stock around Digbeth and the Jewellery Quarter is largely conversion rather than new build, and leases on converted industrial buildings are often unclear about who owns the external walls and balconies. Read the lease before you drill anything.
Permission questions locally go to Birmingham City Council, though for a freestanding panel in a private rear garden you are usually dealing with a lease or a landlord rather than a planning officer.
The national rules apply here as everywhere
800VA cap, one device per household, certified complete kits only, no batteries. Full explainer →
Straight answers
Which DNO do I notify in Birmingham?
National Grid Electricity Distribution, in its West Midlands licence area. G98 notification is mandatory before you connect a plug-in solar kit, and it goes to your network operator, not your electricity supplier.
How much electricity will a plug-in solar kit make in Birmingham?
An 800W array in Birmingham models at roughly 770 kWh a year at optimal tilt, or around 480 kWh flat against a vertical balcony rail. You only save money on the share you use as it is generated.
I have a detached garage. Is that better than the house?
Often yes. A garage roof or a frame beside it puts the panel out of sight, avoids fixing anything to the house, and usually gets you clear of the shading from neighbouring buildings. It also sidesteps most permission questions.
Kits that ship to Birmingham
Every kit is certified as a complete product, ships free, and comes with the G98 notification link for National Grid Electricity Distribution. Use National Grid Electricity Distribution here and it fills in the local operator.
Kits available from 27 August 2026
That is the date SI 2026/848 comes into force and plug-in solar becomes legal to self-install in Great Britain. Certified kits are listed here as soon as they are available.
See all kitsShips to England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland sits outside SI 2026/848, so we cannot supply plug-in kits to NI addresses.