Solar panels · Cornwall

Solar panels in Launceston

We design and fit solar panels and battery storage for homes in Launceston. Our base at Allerford Farm, Lewdown, near Okehampton, is under 6 miles from the town centre as the crow flies, on the Devon side of the Tamar, so Launceston is the nearest sizeable town to us. Our own installation team does the work, starting with a free site survey.

Book a free site survey

Or call 07441 369 505

All-black solar panels set into an old slate roof, with a scaffold walkway along the eaves
  • MCS certified, NICEIC Approved Contractor
  • RECC, Renewable Energy Consumer Code member
  • TrustMark registered
Homes built since 2000
36.2%

or more of homes built in 2000 or later (Cornwall 22.7%)

Listed buildings
219

listed building entries in the parish, 7 of them Grade I

Heating by mains gas
68.9%

of households heat with mains gas only (Cornwall 46.7%)

Across the Tamar

Cornwall’s gateway town

Over 600 years

as Cornwall’s chief fortress and seat of governmentEnglish Heritage

Launceston Castle was established around 1068 close to a road crossing of the Tamar, the river that forms Cornwall’s eastern border, and for over 600 years, English Heritage says, it was the county’s chief fortress and its centre of government.

Polson Bridge, built in about 1833 on the site of a medieval bridge on the principal route into Cornwall, carries the A388 over the Tamar between our base and the town. On our side of the river we also cover homes across Devon, and Launceston is the nearest of the towns on our coverage list.

The 2006 conservation area appraisal, which calls Launceston an important ‘gateway’ settlement to Cornwall, stresses that the roofscape matters in views from the castle, so we’ll talk through where panels would sit during your survey.

Roofs old and new

Solar panels on slate roofs in Launceston

From Dunheved around the castle to St Stephens and Newport, most of the historic town is built of rubble stone, mainly slate, often with granite dressings and rendered fronts. ‘Slate is the prevailing roofing material’, says the 2006 appraisal, and a high percentage of original Delabole rag and scantle slate roofs survive.

Much of the town is far newer: more than a third of the homes in the Launceston statistical area date from 2000 or later (at least 36.2%, against 22.7% across Cornwall), while 22.2% predate 1919 (Cornwall 27.3%).

Either way, the free site survey looks at the roof itself, the way it faces, any shading and the space available, and we design the system around it with Easy PV Pro.

Distance from our base

Launceston and around

Miles from Allerford Farm, Lewdown, as the crow flies.

Launceston and the six towns nearest it on our map.

  • Launceston6 mi
  • Tavistock8 mi
  • Callington10 mi
  • Holsworthy13 mi
  • Liskeard17 mi
  • Bude19 mi
  • Camelford20 mi

Places in and around Launceston

  • Dunheved
  • St Stephens
  • Newport
  • St Thomas
  • Kensey Valley
  • Stourscombe

The conservation area

Planning in the old town

Cornwall Council decides planning here. Its guidance is that a home can often have solar panels without planning permission, under the national permitted development rules, which changed on 27 August 2026. The wider picture is on our page about solar panels across Cornwall.

Historic England’s data shows 219 current list entries in Launceston parish, 196 of them inside the town’s one conservation area, which covers the town centre and St Stephens. Inside it:

  • panels on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure fronting a highway fall outside permitted development
  • a flat-roof installation needs prior approval from Cornwall Council
  • free-standing panels sited between the house and a road can be no higher than 2 m and need prior approval
  • a listed building, as anywhere, needs planning permission and listed building consent

Heating and the grid

A town on mains gas

Launceston is much more on mains gas than Cornwall as a whole: more than two in three households in the Launceston statistical area heated with mains gas alone at the 2021 Census (68.9%), against fewer than half across the county (46.7%).

In a gas-heated home, the design follows your electricity use: how much you use, and when. Panels make nothing after dark, so a battery to store daytime electricity lets you use it in the evening.

Launceston is in National Grid Electricity Distribution’s South West licence area. Your system may need approval from National Grid before we can connect it. This is called a G99 application. We handle the application for you and keep you updated while we wait for their response.

Checked facts

9 verifiable local data points on this page.

  1. Distance from our baseLaunceston town centre is 5.65 miles from our base at Allerford Farm, Lewdown, as the crow flies.OpenStreetMap (straight-line measure)
  2. One conservation areaCornwall Council’s records hold one Launceston Conservation Area, ref DCO110, covering the town centre and St Stephens.planning.data.gov.uk (Cornwall Council data)
  3. Listed buildingsLaunceston parish has 219 current listed building entries: 7 Grade I, 14 Grade II* and 198 Grade II.Historic England data (planning.data.gov.uk)
  4. Delabole slate roofsThe 2006 Launceston Conservation Area Appraisal records that ‘a high percentage of original Delabole rag and scantle slate roofs survive’.Launceston Conservation Area Appraisal (2006)
  5. Heating by mains gasAt the 2021 Census, 68.9% of households in the Launceston statistical area heated with mains gas only, against 46.7% across Cornwall.Census 2021 (ONS)
  6. Homes built since 2000At least 36.2% of homes in the Launceston statistical area were built in 2000 or later, against 22.7% across Cornwall.Valuation Office Agency
  7. Launceston CastleEnglish Heritage says that for over 600 years Launceston Castle was ‘the most important fortress and centre of government in Cornwall’.English Heritage
  8. Outside protected landscapesIn the national planning datasets, neither of the two National Landscapes in Cornwall nor the World Heritage Site overlaps Launceston parish.planning.data.gov.uk
  9. Planning authorityCornwall Council has decided planning in Launceston since 1 April 2009, when North Cornwall District Council was abolished.legislation.gov.uk

Data last reviewed:

Design and support

Survey, installation and aftercare

Our home solar panel installation follows the survey with a design, then installation by our own family-run team. Homes usually take one to three days, and at handover we show you how to follow the system in the app.

Our 10-year workmanship warranty covers our work and sits alongside the manufacturers’ own product warranties. One year of The Solar Owners Club comes with every installation, including an annual system health check. Export payments, money for the electricity your system sends to the grid, depend on MCS certification, which we hold; they’re paid under the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG).

Questions

Solar panels in Launceston: your questions.

Cornwall Council. It has been the single council for Cornwall since 1 April 2009, when North Cornwall District Council, which covered Launceston, was abolished. Launceston Town Council’s Planning and Economic Development Committee comments on the applications Cornwall Council sends it, as a statutory consultee.

Part of it is. Cornwall Council’s records hold one Launceston Conservation Area (ref DCO110), covering the historic town centre and St Stephens. Panels on a pitched roof there can still be permitted development within the national limits, and the council says no Article 4 Direction in Cornwall takes away the permitted development rights that cover solar panels. We’ll advise during your survey.

Launceston parish has 219 current entries on Historic England’s list: 7 Grade I, 14 Grade II* and 198 Grade II. The Grade I entries are the castle keep and both gatehouses, the churches of St Mary Magdalene and St Stephen, the South Gate and the West Bridge.

No. In the national planning datasets, neither the Cornwall National Landscape, the Tamar Valley National Landscape nor the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site overlaps Launceston parish. The nearest, the Tamar Valley National Landscape, has its edge about 3.2 miles from the town centre in a straight line.

They can. Launceston’s 2006 conservation area appraisal finds that a large share of the old town’s roofs are still their original rag and scantle slate from Delabole, alongside some 19th-century roofs in imported slate, usually Welsh. We fit panels on slate roofs as well as tiled ones, and the survey looks at the roof before anything is designed.

Nearby

Solar panels nearby.

Also in Launceston

Next steps

Request a quote

Thinking about solar panels for your Launceston home, whether it sits under historic slate in the old town or was built this century? We’ll give you a plain answer about what your roof can take. Call us, or use our contact form to arrange a free site survey.

Call us07441 369 505

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Allerford Farm, Lewdown, Okehampton, Devon EX20 4PU
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