Solar Panel Grants UK 2026: Every Scheme Explained

Check What You're Eligible For

Rather than reading through every scheme and trying to work it out, use our eligibility checker. Answer a few questions about your home and it'll tell you which grants apply to you.

Now let's go through each scheme in detail: what it covers, what you actually get, and the catches nobody mentions.

UK-Wide Schemes (England, Scotland & Wales)

0% VAT on Solar Panels

This is the single most valuable incentive for most homeowners, and it's completely automatic: no application, no means testing, no waiting list. Since April 2022, solar panel installations have been charged at 0% VAT instead of the standard 20%.

Here's what that actually saves you:

So the headline range across the systems most people buy is £800 to £3,200, and around £1,000–£1,400 on the typical 4 kW install. The saving is simply 20% of what you pay, because at the standard rate the same job would have cost 20% more. Those cost ranges match the ones in our solar panel costs guide and its calculator.

The 0% rate covers solar PV panels, battery storage, inverters, and the installation labour. It does not cover purely electrical work done separately from the renewable installation.

Important: the government has not committed to extending 0% VAT beyond March 2027. VAT Notice 708/6 states plainly that "from 1 April 2027 onwards, supplies of installations of energy-saving materials will revert to the reduced rate of VAT of 5%" (gov.uk, checked 18 September 2026). That's not the end of the world, but it's worth factoring into your timing. The relief applies UK-wide, Northern Ireland included.

Smart Export Guarantee (SEG)

The SEG is the government scheme that requires large electricity suppliers (those with 150,000+ customers) to pay you for surplus electricity you export to the grid from your solar panels. It replaced the old Feed-in Tariff, which closed to new applicants in March 2019.

Unlike the Feed-in Tariff, SEG rates aren't set by the government; each supplier sets its own, and most of them don't publish it anywhere a non-customer can see. We've stopped printing the long comparison table other sites run, because we couldn't stand up most of those numbers on the suppliers' own websites. Here's what we could verify on 18 September 2026:

The key takeaway hasn't changed: don't just take the first SEG tariff offered to you. A 4 kW system without a battery generates about 3,800 kWh a year (950 kWh per kWp, south-facing and unshaded in central England) and exports about 2,090 kWh of it. On a 4p legacy tariff that's £84/year; on Octopus Outgoing at 12p it's £251. Over 20 years, £1,670 versus £5,020, for a switch that costs nothing and takes an afternoon.

The bigger lever is the installer-linked rates, and that's exactly where the published information runs out. If an installer is offering you an exclusive export tariff, get the rate, the fixed term, and what you roll onto afterwards in writing before you compare it against a cheaper quote. A headline rate that lasts 12 months and then drops to 5p is worth far less than it looks.

How to pick the right SEG tariff

1. If your installer offers an exclusive tariff, take the written figures and work out the income over the fixed term, then assume you're on the open market rate afterwards. If it still beats a cheaper install plus Octopus Outgoing, take it.
2. If you don't have an exclusive offer, go to Octopus Outgoing at 12p. It's the best rate open to everyone and you can join it whoever supplies your electricity.
3. If you have a battery, compare Prime Outgoing's 16p peak window against the flat 12p. Intelligent Octopus Flux is the one that used to make this genuinely lucrative and it's temporarily shut, so don't buy anything on the strength of it.
4. Re-check every year. These rates move constantly, and switching export supplier is independent of who supplies your import.

You need an MCS-certified installation and a smart meter to access any SEG tariff. Your installer handles the MCS certification; you can ask your supplier for a smart meter if you don't have one.

See what you could earn

How to register for SEG

1. Ensure your installation is MCS-certified (your installer handles this)
2. Get a smart meter installed if you don't have one (your supplier arranges this, free of charge)
3. Apply to your chosen supplier's SEG tariff online
4. You can switch SEG suppliers independently of your electricity supplier. Shop around annually.

England: Grants and Funding

Warm Homes: Local Grant (New for 2025)

This is the closest thing to a direct solar panel grant in England, and it's genuinely significant. The Warm Homes: Local Grant replaced the old Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) in April 2025 and was expanded under the 2026 Warm Homes Plan.

What you get: a fully funded package of measures, chosen for your home by a surveyor, with no contribution from you. gov.uk lists what a council can install as wall, loft and underfloor insulation, air source heat pumps, smart controls and solar panels.

What's not on that list: battery storage. Plenty of sites say the grant covers solar plus a battery. gov.uk's own eligible-measures list doesn't mention batteries, so plan on panels without storage, and if a council or installer tells you otherwise, get it confirmed in writing before you count on it.

Who qualifies (gov.uk/apply-warm-homes-local-grant, checked 18 September 2026):

• Household income usually £36,000 a year or less. Councils run their own variations, so check your council's rule.
• EPC rating of D, E, F or G. You can find yours out during the application if you don't know it.
• Privately owned home in England, either by you or your landlord. Landlords may have to pay towards some measures.
• Earn more than £36,000 and you might still qualify if you live in a designated postcode, or if someone in the household gets certain benefits.

How to apply: through your local council via gov.uk. The council usually contacts you within 10 working days, arranges a home survey, then agrees which measures your home needs and pays for them.

This scheme is means-tested, so it won't help higher-income households. But if you're eligible, it's easily the most valuable thing on this page: a solar array plus insulation, and a heat pump if your home suits one, installed at zero cost to you.

ECO4 (Energy Company Obligation 4)

ECO4 requires large energy suppliers to fund energy efficiency improvements in low-income and vulnerable households. It's the main route through which some homeowners receive solar panels at no cost. Tens of thousands of homes have received ECO4-funded solar so far, and around 10% of all ECO4 measures installed by mid-2025 (out of 875,900 in total) were micro-generation, the bulk of those solar PV (Ofgem ECO4 statistics, August 2025).

To qualify, you generally need to:

• Receive qualifying benefits (Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Child Tax Credit, income-related ESA, or others)
• Live in a property with an EPC rating of D, E, F, or G
• Own your home, or have a landlord willing to participate

The catch with solar under ECO4: Solar PV can only be included as part of a whole-house retrofit; it can't be a standalone measure. Your home's heating system must be a heat pump, electric storage heaters, or electric heating for solar to qualify. In practice, this means ECO4 solar usually comes as part of a package alongside insulation and heating improvements.

There's also the LA Flex route: if you don't receive qualifying benefits but your household income is below £31,000/year, your local authority can refer you to ECO4 under their flexible eligibility criteria. Contact your council's energy team to ask.

A warning about ECO4 cold callers: If someone phones you unsolicited offering "free solar panels under a government scheme," be very cautious. Legitimate ECO4 installers rarely cold-call. Check any company on the TrustMark register before agreeing to anything.

Warm Homes Plan (Announced January 2026)

Published 20 January 2026, the Warm Homes Plan is a £15 billion programme to upgrade up to 5 million homes by 2030, lift 1 million households out of fuel poverty, and support 180,000 jobs. It's billed as the biggest home upgrade programme in British history.

For solar specifically, the key components are:

• A government-backed Consumer Loan Scheme, with up to £1.7 billion of private finance plus £300 million of government support to deliver 0% or low-interest loans for solar panels, batteries and heat pumps, available to all homeowners regardless of income. The government says it will confirm eligibility and timing during 2026; it isn't open yet.
• £5 billion of public investment for low-income households, covering fully funded packages of solar, batteries, heat pumps, smart controls, insulation and draught-proofing.
• £2.7 billion for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to 2030, kept open in England and Wales (this funds heat pumps, not solar, but pairs well with solar).
• A new Warm Homes Agency to take over delivery from the multiple departments and Ofgem teams that run schemes today.

The catch: The Consumer Loan Scheme isn't open yet, and the government hasn't confirmed a launch date (the gov.uk Warm Homes Plan says it will set out eligibility and timing during 2026). Exact rates and the application process are not yet final. The £5 billion low-income funding is delivered through the Warm Homes: Local Grant and ECO4 successor schemes. For now, don't delay a decision waiting for the loan offer. The existing 0% VAT and SEG benefits are concrete and available today.

Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Not for Solar, But Worth Combining

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) provides £7,500 towards an air-source heat pump or ground-source heat pump. It doesn't cover solar panels directly, but installing solar alongside a heat pump is one of the smartest financial moves you can make. The solar offsets the heat pump's electricity costs, dramatically improving the combined payback period.

A heat pump plus 4 kW solar system could cost you as little as £3,000–£5,000 out of pocket after the BUS grant and 0% VAT on the solar. For more on this, see our guide to solar panels and heat pumps together.

Scotland: Grants and Funding

Home Energy Scotland (HES)

Home Energy Scotland is funded by the Scottish Government and offers grants and interest-free loans for energy improvements. The usual line you'll read online, that Scotland has nothing for solar, is wrong, and it's costing Scottish households £5,000.

What's true: standard solar PV, the ordinary panels-on-the-roof job, has not been funded since June 2024.

What almost nobody tells you: the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan still lists solar thermal at £5,000 and hybrid solar PV-T at £5,000, both grant only with no loan available (homeenergyscotland.org, checked 18 September 2026). Hybrid PV-T panels generate electricity and capture the waste heat off the back of the cells to preheat your hot water, so they are solar PV, just with a thermal collector bonded to them. If you're in Scotland and you were told there's no solar funding, that's the £5,000 you were never offered.

The catch is honest: PV-T systems cost more per kW than plain PV, there are fewer installers who fit them, and they only make sense if you have a decent hot water demand and a cylinder to put the heat into. Get quotes for both PV-T with the grant and plain PV without, and compare the net figures rather than assuming the grant wins.

What Scottish homeowners CAN access:

• £5,000 HES grant for hybrid solar PV-T, or £5,000 for solar thermal. Grant only, no loan.
• 0% VAT: applies UK-wide, worth £800–£3,200 depending on system size.
• Smart Export Guarantee: the same UK-wide tariffs, and Octopus Outgoing's 12p is open in Scotland too.
• ECO4: if you're on qualifying benefits with an EPC of D or below.
• Heat pump support: up to £7,500 grant plus £7,500 interest-free loan, with a £1,500 rural and island uplift on the grant, and up to £18,000 of total grant funding across measures.

Call Home Energy Scotland on 0808 808 2282 before you commit to anything, and ask specifically about PV-T rather than "solar", because the answer to the second question is no and the answer to the first is £5,000. Rural and island communities may also have local grants on top.

Wales: Grants and Funding

Nest (Warm Homes Nest Scheme)

The Welsh Government's Nest scheme provides free home energy improvements (including solar panels) to eligible households in Wales. The Welsh Government has invested over £251 million in Nest from 2011 to 2024, helping more than 60,000 households (gov.wales annual reports).

To qualify:

• Own or privately rent your home in Wales
• Receive means-tested benefits OR be a low-income household
• Have an EPC rating of 54 (E) or lower; or 68 (D) or lower if someone in your household has an eligible health condition affected by cold (respiratory, circulatory, mental health, dementia, or developmental conditions)

Nest is fully funded, with no cost to qualifying households. Call 0808 808 2244 or visit the Nest website to check eligibility.

Green Homes Wales

If you don't qualify for Nest, Green Homes Wales offers interest-free loans from £1,000 to £25,000, repayable over up to 10 years, for energy efficiency improvements. Solar PV, solar PV with a battery, solar PV with a diverter and solar PV-T are all on the eligible measures list, alongside heat pumps and insulation. A six-month upfront repayment holiday is built in so the savings start before the repayments do, and there's grant funding available alongside the loan on some measures (developmentbank.wales, checked 18 September 2026).

The scheme also includes a fully funded Retrofit Coordinator assessment up front, so you get a clear view of which measures will actually help your home before you borrow.

There's no means test, but there are conditions worth knowing before you get your hopes up: the home has to be in Wales, owned by you, your primary residence, and not a new build under six months old. Listed buildings aren't currently supported and landlords can't apply. Every application goes through affordability and credit checks. Start by calling Nest on 0808 808 2244, then register your interest with the Development Bank of Wales, who issue application forms as funding allows.

Welsh homeowners also benefit from 0% VAT, SEG, and ECO4 (which covers Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales).

Solar Together: Group Buying Discounts

Solar Together is a council-backed group-buying scheme that runs in some areas of England. Residents register their interest, a reverse auction is held, and vetted installers bid to win the whole batch at a discounted price.

On the savings: you'll see figures of "30 to 35% below average" quoted for Solar Together, but those come from installer and comparison sites rather than from the councils running the auctions, and we can't stand them up on a primary source. What's genuinely true is that the price is set by a reverse auction, so it varies by area and by round. Register, wait for your personal offer, then compare it against two independent quotes before accepting. That's the only number that means anything.

It's not available everywhere, as it depends on whether your local council participates. As of 2026, active areas include Surrey, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, the West of England (Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset) and Kent (Ashford plus 11 other district and borough councils). It does not run in Scotland or Northern Ireland. Check your council's website or search "Solar Together [your area]" to see if it's running near you.

There's no means test; it's open to all homeowners and businesses in participating areas. The installation quality is typically good because the council vets the installers.

What Each Scheme Is Actually Worth

The Myths You Need to Ignore

Myth: "There's a £5,000 Government Grant for Solar in England"

This one circulates endlessly on social media and in dodgy Facebook ads. There is no universal £5,000 solar grant in England. The Warm Homes: Local Grant can cover the whole installation rather than a fixed sum, but it's means-tested (income usually £36,000 or less) and you need an EPC of D to G. If someone is advertising a flat "£5,000 grant" with no mention of eligibility criteria, they're misleading you.

Myth: "Free Solar Panels"

The "free solar panels" offers from the early 2010s were rent-a-roof schemes, where a company installed panels on your roof for free, kept all the Feed-in Tariff income, and left you with only modest bill savings. These schemes are essentially extinct now that the FiT closed in 2019. Any company still marketing "free solar panels" should be approached with extreme caution. Read the small print. You may be signing a 20–25 year lease that complicates any future sale of your home.

The exception is ECO4 and Nest, which genuinely provide free solar panels to eligible low-income households. But the eligibility criteria are strict, and you won't get cold-called about them.

Myth: "Solar Pays for Itself in Two Years"

At the October 2026 cap, realistic payback is 7 to 10 years for solar only and 9 to 14 years with a battery. A 4 kW system generating 3,800 kWh, self-consuming 45% at 26.32p and exporting the rest at 12p, is worth £701 a year, so £6,000 installed pays back in 8.6 years. Add a 5 kWh battery and the benefit rises to £810 while the cost rises to £7,500–£11,000, which is 9 to 14 years. Anyone claiming two years is using fantasy assumptions about electricity prices or self-consumption. See our solar panel costs guide for the full working.

Schemes That Have Ended (Don't Get Caught Out)

If you're researching solar grants, you'll find a lot of outdated information about schemes that no longer exist. Here's what's closed:

If any website or company references these schemes as current, their information is out of date, or they're deliberately misleading you.

How to Maximise Your Total Support

The smartest approach depends on your circumstances:

If your household income is under £36,000 (England)

1. Apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant through your council. It can fund solar panels, insulation, a heat pump and smart controls outright, but battery storage is not on gov.uk's list of eligible measures, so don't plan on one
2. If that doesn't work out, check ECO4 eligibility (especially via the LA Flex route)
3. Either way, you'll benefit from 0% VAT and can register for SEG once installed

If you're on qualifying benefits (anywhere in UK)

1. Check ECO4 first, as this could cover solar as part of a whole-house package at no cost
2. In Wales, also check Nest
3. In England, also check Warm Homes: Local Grant

If you're a higher-income homeowner

1. Act before 31 March 2027 to get 0% VAT (saving £800–£3,200 depending on system size)
2. Ask every installer whether they're linked to an exclusive export tariff, and get the rate and the fixed term in writing. A higher export rate for 20 years beats a £500 discount on the install; a higher rate for 12 months usually doesn't.
3. Check if Solar Together is running in your area. The discount depends entirely on how many people register and how keen the local installers are, so treat any headline percentage as marketing until you see your own auction price
4. Consider pairing with a heat pump to access the £7,500 BUS grant for the heating element

If you're in Wales

1. Check Nest first (fully funded if eligible)
2. If not eligible for Nest, use Green Homes Wales for an interest-free loan up to £25,000 (owner-occupied, non-listed, subject to credit and affordability checks)
3. Benefit from 0% VAT and SEG on top

If you're in Scotland

1. Ask HES on 0808 808 2282 about hybrid solar PV-T, which carries a £5,000 grant. Standard PV isn't funded, PV-T is.
2. Check ECO4 if you're on qualifying benefits
3. Benefit from 0% VAT and SEG

Bottom line: most homeowners in England won't get a cash grant for solar. What you will get is 0% VAT worth £800–£3,200, and an export tariff worth £85–£250 a year on a 4 kW system depending entirely on which one you pick. If your household income is £36,000 or less and your EPC is D to G, the Warm Homes: Local Grant can pay for the whole thing, so apply through your council before you do anything else. And if you're in Scotland, ask specifically about hybrid solar PV-T, because that's £5,000 that standard panels don't attract.