Frederick House and a Heslington chemistry block have applied for 702 rooftop panels, and the Railway Museum wants an array. Updated November 2026.

Three of York’s bigger buildings have asked to put solar panels on their roofs. Two of the applications alone cover 702 panels, and all three are waiting for a decision on the council’s planning register.

The three applications

Building Reference What is planned Council deadline
Block C, Chemistry Department, Alcuin Way, Heslington 26/01694/SOLAR 386 panels, 174kWp 24 November
Blocks B to D, Frederick House, Fulford Road 26/01908/SOLAR 316 panels, 145.36kWp 20 December
National Railway Museum, Leeman Road 26/01813/FUL Solar array and roof refurbishment 29 December

The two “SOLAR” applications use permitted development rights for rooftop panels, under Schedule 2, Part 14, Class J of the planning rules. The museum’s is a full application, because it also covers work to the existing roof, steelwork and cladding. It was only validated on 3 November, and its documents were not yet on the register when we checked. So we do not know how many panels it involves or which roof they would go on.

What the Frederick House figures show

The application form describes Frederick House as purpose-built student accommodation and names Greystar as the company. It is the only one of the three with a published costing, in the installer’s proposal:

  • a system price of £168,975, excluding VAT
  • about 106,148kWh of electricity a year
  • estimated savings on energy bills of £10,039 a year

On those figures, the panels would take about 17 years to pay for themselves before VAT. That sum is ours, not the installer’s.

The council’s own energy schemes

The applications arrive as the council spends grant money on two bigger ideas. Both contracts were signed off by the Director of City Development in late October, and both are paid for by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority rather than the council.

  • Harewood Whin: Arcadis gets £200,000 to write the full business case for a solar farm on the former landfill site. The work takes nine months.
  • City centre heat network: Arup gets up to £200,000 for a study of whether a network is feasible. The work takes ten months.

Neither one commits the council to building anything. They are designed to tell it whether it should.

What it means for you

The register marks all three applications as open for comments. You can read them and respond through the reference links above. The National Railway Museum runs its Christmas programme from 12 November.

Sources