Sunderland's Doxford Park Morrisons to generate its own electricity with almost 1,000 rooftop solar panels
Plans for almost 1,000 solar panels at a Sunderland supermarket have been given the green light by city development chiefs.
Sunderland City Council’s planning department has approved an application for the Morrisons supermarket in the Doxford Park area.
A structural assessment submitted on behalf of Morrisons concluded that the solar panels development would “generally be acceptable” and made recommendations for areas of the flat roof to avoid.
A proposed site plan showed solar panels arranged across the majority of the roof space, apart from an area of the flat roof nearest the customer car park and a small section of roof space to the rear of the supermarket.
The site plan said these areas would not house solar panels because of the “risk of cracking bulkhead and internal walls”.
After considering the planning application and assessing it against planning policies, Sunderland City Council’s planning department approved it on May 1, 2025.
Council planners said the design of the scheme was acceptable and that there would be “no substantial harm to the amenity of the area”.
A council decision report said that the “electrical generation capacity of the system would not exceed one megawatt (MW) but does exceed the 50kw ‘microgeneration’ threshold”.
It was noted that the solar panels “would not protrude more than 0.2 metres beyond the roof plane and would be positioned more than onemetre from the edge of the roof”.
Although the council’s environmental health team did not respond to a consultation request, council planners ruled the proposal would “not compromise residential amenity”.
This was because of the “acceptable distance of separation relative to nearest residential receptors, the broadly skyward orientation and position of the proposed panels behind the existing roof parapet, and partial intervening screening at the site boundary”.
The council decision report adds: “The local highways authority has assessed the proposal and raised no objection in relation to highway safety.
“As noted, the installation would be screened from the public domain courtesy of being positioned behind the existing parapet atop the roof.
“In any case, the external visual appearance is considered acceptable and unlikely to impact upon the highway or nearby residential receptors.”
The plans were part of the company’s wider commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions across its operations.
For more information on the Sunderland solar panel plans, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search application reference number: 25/00474/PCZ