Not approximately. The same number, from the same dataset, queried the same way on the same afternoon. Below it sits a second pairing that lands level, and a third that does not balance at all, which is the one worth staring at.
Norwich
A frame standing in the garden
795kWh a year
Due south at 30 degrees, fixed to nothing at all.
Central London
A flawless south-facing roof
795kWh a year
Due south at 35 degrees, unshaded, which is as good as a London roof gets.
Norwich
A south-facing wall
594kWh a year
Vertical, which is what a wall bracket gives you.
Exeter
A south-facing wall
594kWh a year
Two hundred miles apart and the same figure to the kilowatt hour.
Brighton
An east-facing wall
424kWh a year
The sunniest point of the thirteen, aimed at the morning.
Inverness
A frame standing in the garden
623kWh a year
The dimmest point of the thirteen, aimed properly, and it is not close.
All six figures from PVGIS, 13 September 2026, at 0.8 kWp with 14 per cent system losses and nothing shading the panel.
Two things are being traded against each other, and only one of them is geography.
Across the thirteen points in the dataset, a due-south frame at 30 degrees performs within about one per cent of a due-south roof at 35 degrees. Standing a panel on the ground costs you almost nothing, and it is available to anybody with a few square metres of open sky.
Turning a panel from south to east costs about half. That is the expensive decision, it gets made by default on most houses, and no amount of southern latitude compensates for it.
So a region with room to put something on the ground is trading a strong asset. Sunlight you cannot change. Aim you can.
The permitted development right rewritten in August 2026 refuses to cover plug-in solar on wooden walls, balconies and timber cladding. A free-standing frame is not attached to any of those. The best-performing realistic option is also the least contentious one, which does not happen often.
Queried at Norwich, which is our representative point for the East of England. Third of the thirteen, and within eight kilowatt hours of London and Cardiff.
| Mounting | Output a year | Against the roof |
|---|---|---|
| Pitched roof, due south at 35 degrees | 802 kWh | 100% |
| Frame on the ground, due south at 30 degrees | 795 kWh | 99% |
| Flat against a south-facing wall | 594 kWh | 74% |
| Flat against an east-facing wall | 412 kWh | 51% |
Every figure here is what the panel makes, not what you keep. A unit only counts if the house is drawing it at the moment it arrives, and storage is outside the approved class, so nothing can be held back for the evening. Empty the house between eight and six and most of what the panel makes goes back down the wire unpaid.
Norwich is a point on a map. Your garden is a place with a hedge in it.
Tell us the postcode and whether there is ground you could use, and we will run the same calculation at your coordinates, name the licence area we believe covers you and how to confirm it, and say whether the planning right reaches whatever you had in mind.
We sell nothing, fit nothing, and are paid by nobody in this market.