LJM Solutions fits solar PV, battery storage and EV charging across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. The work is done by our own engineers rather than subcontracted crews, and we deal with National Grid Electricity Distribution on your behalf so the grid side never lands on your desk. Every system we finish is issued with an MCS certificate.
Comparing solar panel installers in Birmingham? Start with the roof, not the brochure.
Birmingham sits under National Grid Electricity Distribution, which covers roughly 2.5 million homes and businesses across the West Midlands. It traded as Western Power Distribution until 2022, so older paperwork still carries the previous name. Where your system lands matters: anything above 3.68kW per phase of inverter output needs G99 approval before it can be switched on, while smaller systems are simply notified afterwards under G98. We also check Article 4 Directions before quoting. Parts of Moseley, St Agnes and the Jewellery Quarter have had permitted development rights withdrawn, which changes the route entirely. Getting both of those right early is what keeps an installation on schedule.
Solar advertising is everywhere and most of it sounds identical. What separates installers is what happens after the quote is signed.
Survey, design, installation and commissioning are handled in house, so you are dealing with one accountable team rather than being passed between a sales office and whichever subcontractor is free that week. The engineer who surveys your roof is working to the same design as the engineer who fits it. Questions get answered by someone who has actually seen the property.
We will tell you when solar is a poor fit. A heavily shaded roof, a north facing slope or a covering that needs replacing first are all reasons to wait, and saying so costs us a sale but saves you a bad investment. Recommendations come with the figures behind them, so you can check the arithmetic rather than take our word for it.
Our involvement does not stop at the first kilowatt hour on the app. Systems drift over time: a string drops out, an inverter throws a fault, a bird gets under the panels. We monitor, service and repair what we install, and we take on systems fitted by companies that have since disappeared, which in this industry is not a rare request. Warranty paperwork is registered properly so it is there when you need it.
The solar trade has a long history of short lived companies. Before you sign anything, check that your installer is MCS certified, ask who actually carries out the work, and confirm who you call in three years if something stops working.
Birmingham housing falls into two broad camps and they behave very differently. Large parts of Hall Green, Kingstanding and Great Barr are interwar semis with hipped roofs, where the hip cuts into the usable plane. A roof that looks big enough for fourteen panels will often take eight to ten. The Victorian terraces around Balsall Heath, Sparkbrook and Small Heath have the opposite issue: the front slope faces the street and frequently the wrong way, leaving the rear as the sensible option.
We work across Edgbaston, Moseley, Kings Heath, Harborne, Erdington, Sutton Coldfield and the rest of the B postcode area. Survey, design, scaffold, installation, commissioning and your MCS certificate are all handled by us. Most domestic installations take one to two days on site once the grid side is cleared.
We also install across Nottingham, Derby and Leicester, and you can see the full picture of our work on our about us page.
Commercial premises tend to suit solar better than homes do, for one simple reason: the load is during daylight. A warehouse or office consuming power at midday uses its own generation directly instead of exporting it cheaply. We design and install from 10 kWp up to 250 kWp.
Before sizing anything we look at your half hourly consumption data, because a system matched to the meter rather than to the roof is what makes the return stack up. Three phase design, G99 applications to National Grid Electricity Distribution, ballasted flat roof systems and pitched roof mounting are all covered. For procurement teams, we hold CHAS SSIP, Constructionline Gold and Cyber Essentials.
Commissioning is the start of a system’s life rather than the end of a job. Panels carry performance warranties measured in decades, but inverters are electronics and they are the component most likely to need attention first. Output drifts quietly: a shaded string, a failed optimiser or a loose connection will cost you generation for months without anything obvious going wrong. We monitor what we install, service it on request, and deal with the warranty claim when a component fails rather than handing you a manufacturer’s phone number. Birds nesting under arrays are a recurring nuisance in Birmingham’s older suburbs, and proofing is straightforward once the scaffold is up.
If another company installed your system and you cannot get hold of them, we can take it on. That means fault finding, inverter replacement, panel cleaning, bird proofing, adding battery storage to an array that was fitted without it, and sorting out export registration where it was never completed. Plenty of Birmingham homeowners are sitting on systems that were never registered for the Smart Export Guarantee and have been giving their surplus away since the day it was switched on. That one is usually worth fixing first.
Usually not. Roof mounted solar on a house is normally permitted development, as long as panels sit below the highest part of the roof and project no more than 200mm from the slope. Listed buildings and streets under an Article 4 Direction are the exceptions, and Birmingham has several.
It is a council tool that removes permitted development rights in a defined area, normally to protect a conservation area's character. Where one applies, fitting panels to a visible elevation needs a planning application. Moseley, St Agnes and the Jewellery Quarter are among the Birmingham areas affected. We check your address before quoting.
National Grid Electricity Distribution, West Midlands region. It was Western Power Distribution until the 2022 rebrand. They approve G99 applications and receive G98 notifications, and they are a separate organisation from whoever supplies your electricity.
G98 covers systems up to 3.68kW per phase of inverter output and is notified after the work is done. G99 applies above that figure and has to be approved before the system is energised, with a window of up to 45 working days. The threshold is inverter output, not panel capacity.
Most domestic installations run four to eight weeks from signing to generating. The install itself is one to two days. The variable is the grid application, which is why we submit it early rather than once the scaffold is booked.
Panel performance warranties typically run twenty five years. Inverters are the shorter lived component, usually warranted around ten to twelve years, and they are the part most likely to need replacing during the system's life. Budget for one inverter change over the long run.
MCS certification first, because without it you cannot register for the Smart Export Guarantee. Then ask whether the engineers are employed or subcontracted, whether the quote followed a site visit or just a postcode, and who handles a fault in year three. Vague answers to that last one are the warning sign.
Yes, with adjusted numbers. Hipped roofs reduce usable area so the panel count drops. East or west facing slopes generate roughly 15 to 20 per cent less per year than south facing, but they spread output across morning and afternoon, which suits households using power at both ends of the day.
Around 1,000 to 1,050 kWh per kWp each year on an unshaded south facing pitch. A 4.4 kWp array therefore lands near 4,400 kWh annually. Shading changes that figure more than anything else, which is why it gets measured across the day rather than estimated.
Not necessarily, but it changes the economics. Without storage, anything generated while the house is empty is exported at your export rate. With storage, that same energy offsets electricity you would otherwise buy at the full import price, which is normally the larger number.
It varies by supplier rather than by region, and the spread is wide. The bottom of the market sits near 1p per kWh. The best flat rates with no battery requirement reach around 25p, and time of use tariffs peak higher but require both a battery and a matching import tariff. Compare at commissioning, not months before.
Local, directly employed engineers, no call centre and no third party sales agency. We handle the grid application and the planning check rather than leaving them with you, and we will tell you when a roof is not worth doing.
We install domestic solar systems across:
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Unit 3, Gainsborough Business Park Long Eaton, Nottingham NG10 1PX
Experienced solar, electrical & energy-efficiency specialists in Nottingham, with 25+ years of industry expertise.
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