Financing solar, battery and EV charging together

Most commercial sites that look at solar end up wanting two more things soon after: a battery to store what the roof produces, and EV charging for fleet vehicles, staff and visitors. Doing all three as separate projects, paid for in separate ways, is how businesses end up with three quotes, three sets of paperwork and worse economics than they needed. This guide is about treating solar PV, battery storage and EV charging as one capital project, and financing it under one facility.

We arrange the funding; we do not install. Our job is to structure the borrowing so the kit goes in, the tax reliefs land where you want them, and the monthly cost is comfortably covered by what the system saves and earns.

Why the three assets belong together

The technical case for bundling is straightforward. Solar generates most strongly in the middle of the day, which rarely matches a business’s demand curve. A battery shifts that midday surplus into the early-morning and evening peaks, lifting the share of your own generation you actually consume — self-consumption — from perhaps 40-50% to 70% or more on a typical commercial load. Higher self-consumption is what makes the numbers work, because every unit you use yourself displaces grid electricity at full retail price rather than being exported for a few pence.

EV charging then adds a second, controllable load that the solar and battery can feed. Daytime workplace and fleet charging soaks up generation that would otherwise be exported. Where you offer paid charging to visitors or the public, the chargers also become a small revenue line in their own right. Designed together, the three assets reinforce each other; bought piecemeal, they often fight each other.

One facility instead of three

When the whole system is owned by your business, the cleanest route is usually a single equipment loan covering the PV array, the battery and the chargers as one drawdown. You can read the detail on our solar equipment loan page, but the principle is simple: one application, one credit decision, one monthly payment, and you own the assets from day one. That ownership matters for the tax position, which we come to below.

A single facility also avoids a common trap. Finance a battery or EV charging on a standalone consumer-style agreement and the rate, term and tax treatment can be quite different from your solar funding. Putting the package under one commercial facility keeps the structure consistent and, in most cases, keeps the blended cost of credit lower than three separate deals. If you want to see how the monthly repayment compares with the projected saving across the bundle, our finance calculator is the quickest way to sketch it.

Keeping the tax reliefs and the export income

This is where ownership earns its keep. Solar PV is treated as special-rate (integral-feature) expenditure for capital allowances. That means it qualifies for the Annual Investment Allowance at 100% on up to £1m of qualifying spend a year, with a 50% first-year allowance on anything above that. Both reliefs are permanent. Solar does not qualify for 100% full expensing — that relief is for main-rate plant only — so be wary of any quote that claims otherwise. Battery storage and EV charging equipment that form part of the same installation generally fall to be claimed alongside the solar; our capital allowances explainer walks through the categories.

Who gets those allowances depends entirely on the finance route:

• Hire purchase, equipment loan or cash purchase — your business owns the kit and claims the allowances directly.
• Finance lease — the lessor usually claims the allowances and passes the benefit back through lower rentals (unless it is a long-funding lease).
• Operating lease — no allowances for you as lessee, though the rentals are deductible.
• Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) — the third-party funder owns the system, claims the allowances and keeps the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) income.

That last point is the heart of the case for owning via asset finance. Under a PPA you pay for the electricity and someone else banks the allowances and the export income. Own the system — through HP, an equipment loan or cash — and the allowances reduce your corporation tax bill while the SEG payments for exported units come to you. Over a 15-25 year asset life that is a material difference. We set out the comparison in full on our asset finance vs PPA page.

There is a VAT point worth flagging too. A VAT-registered business can reclaim the VAT on the equipment whichever way it is funded. With HP or a loan you pay that VAT up front and reclaim it; with a lease the VAT is spread across the rentals. It is a cash-flow difference rather than a cost difference, but it can matter on a larger combined solar, battery and charging spend.

What the 2026 accounting change means

Finance directors planning a bundled project this year should factor in the revised FRS 102. For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026, most leases come on-balance-sheet for lessees as a right-of-use asset and a corresponding liability, with only short-term and low-value leases exempt. In practice the old “operating lease keeps it off the balance sheet” advantage largely disappears. If keeping debt off the balance sheet was part of your reasoning for leasing the battery or chargers, that calculation needs revisiting — and for many businesses it tips the decision further towards owning via HP or an equipment loan, where you hold the asset and the allowances regardless.

Matching the structure to the sector

The right blend differs by use case. A logistics depot charging an electric fleet overnight has a very different load shape from a retail park offering daytime public charging, and both differ from a manufacturer running plant through the day. The mix of solar size, battery capacity and charger count — and therefore the ideal term and structure of the finance — follows from that load profile. Our solar finance by sector page sets out how we approach the common cases, from agriculture and warehousing to hospitality and offices.

For most owner-managed and mid-sized businesses the recommendation is the same: own the whole package via a single equipment loan or HP facility, claim the capital allowances, keep the SEG income, and match the term to the period over which the combined energy saving repays the borrowing. That keeps the value of solar, battery and charging inside your business rather than handed to a funder.

If you would like an indicative structure for a bundled solar, battery and EV charging project — covering the likely monthly cost, the tax treatment and which facility fits — request a quote and we will model it against your site’s load and accounts.