Solar grants for business: what's actually available in 2026
An honest look at solar grants for business — how to find a scheme that is genuinely open, what a grant does to your tax relief, and why allowances and asset finance usually matter more.
Why most "business solar grant" searches end in disappointment
Plenty of pages promise grants and then quietly pivot to a finance or PPA pitch. The reality in 2026 is that there is no nationwide capital grant scheme for commercial rooftop solar. What exists is real but indirect, and for a profitable business it is usually worth more than a one-off grant would be. The national schemes people remember were aimed elsewhere: ECO4 is for households, not businesses, and now runs until 31 December 2026 after a nine-month extension, and the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme was for public bodies, built around replacing fossil-fuel heating, and closed its final phase to new applications in November 2024.
The support that genuinely moves the numbers
- Capital allowances (the big one). Solar is special-rate expenditure, so it qualifies for the Annual Investment Allowance at 100% on up to £1m, and — for companies — the 50% first-year allowance above that. At the 25% main rate of corporation tax that is up to a quarter of the qualifying cost back as tax relief. It does not get 100% full expensing, which covers main-rate plant only.
- Smart Export Guarantee (Great Britain). Larger electricity suppliers must offer an export tariff, and others may, for exports from installations up to 5MW — paid to whoever is entitled to the payments, which is normally the system's owner.
- Local and regional grants. Councils, combined authorities and devolved-government business-support services run occasional energy-efficiency or decarbonisation rounds for businesses. They open and close, they are often capped, and eligibility is usually tied to location and business size.
Our grants and funding guide sets out how these stack with asset finance.
How to find a grant that is genuinely open
The most common mistake is trusting a list. Grant lists — including long regional round-ups — go out of date quickly, because a local scheme can open, spend its budget and close within months. The reliable method is to start from the bodies that publish live schemes and confirm the status at the source:
- Search the government's Find a grant service. GOV.UK's Find a grant lists government grant schemes with their opening and closing dates, and lets you filter by who can apply.
- Ask your local business-support service. In England that is your local Growth Hub; in Wales, Business Wales; in Scotland, Business Gateway, or Business Energy Scotland for energy-saving support and funding; in Northern Ireland, nibusinessinfo.co.uk. They can tell you which local schemes are open now.
- Check your council and combined authority. Local decarbonisation funds are frequently run at this level and are rarely listed nationally.
- Confirm three things on the scheme's own page before you plan around it. That it is open now (not "opening soon" or already allocated), that solar PV is an eligible measure rather than only insulation or lighting, and whether you must apply before you order equipment. Many schemes will not fund work that has already been contracted.
- Read the offer letter's conditions before you sign anything else. Grants commonly carry conditions on how long you must keep the equipment and what happens if you sell or refinance it.
If nothing suitable is open, that is not a reason to delay: every month you wait is a month of energy savings lost, so weigh the likely wait against the grant's after-tax value.
What a grant does to your capital allowances
This is the part almost nobody mentions, and it changes the arithmetic. Under the Capital Allowances Act 2001, expenditure that has been met by a contribution from a public body is not treated as expenditure you incurred. In plain terms: you cannot claim capital allowances on the part of the cost a grant paid for. You claim only on the portion you funded yourself.
A grant is still worth having — cash is cash — but for a profitable company it is worth less than its face value, because every pound of grant removes a pound of allowances. We cover the mechanics in more detail in does a grant reduce the capital allowances on solar panels?
Worked example: grant, finance and allowances together
The figures below are illustrative and the grant percentage is hypothetical — it is not the rate of any particular scheme. Take a company paying the 25% main rate of corporation tax, installing a £100,000 system.
| No grant | With a 30% grant | |
|---|---|---|
| System cost | £100,000 | £100,000 |
| Grant received | £0 | £30,000 |
| Cost the business funds (cash or finance) | £100,000 | £70,000 |
| Qualifying expenditure for allowances | £100,000 | £70,000 |
| Tax relief at 25% (Annual Investment Allowance) | £25,000 | £17,500 |
| Net cost after grant and tax relief | £75,000 | £52,500 |
The £30,000 grant improves the net position by £22,500, not £30,000, because it also removes £7,500 of tax relief. That is still a good result — but it is the figure to compare against the cost of delaying your project while you apply, and against any conditions the grant attaches. The £70,000 balance is where asset finance typically comes in, with repayments that can be structured to sit below the energy the system saves.
Grants are subsidies — expect to declare them
A grant from a public authority to a business is generally a subsidy under the Subsidy Control Act 2022. In practice that means a grant-giving body may ask you to declare other public support your business has received recently, and may attach reporting or record-keeping conditions. It is a routine part of applying, but it is worth gathering the information before a short application window opens rather than after.
Grants plus finance: how they stack
Where a local grant is open, it rarely covers the whole project — so the usual structure is grant plus finance: the grant funds part, asset finance funds the rest, and the allowances reduce the net cost of the portion you funded. Two cautions. First, check whether the scheme requires you to own the equipment outright, because that rules out some lease structures. Second, a grant-funded system can carry clawback terms triggered by a later sale or refinance or sale-and-leaseback, so we check the conditions before structuring anything.
What we'd recommend instead of waiting for a grant
For most businesses the fastest route to a good outcome is not a grant hunt — it is owning the system through finance so you capture the allowances and export income, with the repayment structured below the energy saving. Run the search above; if something suitable is open, we will build it into the structure. If not, we will not hold your project hostage to a grant that may not come. Model the numbers or ask us for a full comparison.
Related guides
Business solar grant FAQs
Can you get a government grant for solar panels for a business?
There is no single nationwide capital grant for commercial rooftop solar in 2026. Support is mostly indirect: the Annual Investment Allowance at 100% on up to £1m of spend, the 50% first-year allowance above that for companies, and the Smart Export Guarantee for exported power. Direct cash grants, where they exist, tend to be local or regional and open in short rounds, so the practical step is to search what is open for your postcode rather than rely on a published list.
Can I claim solar panels as a business expense?
Not as a simple revenue expense, because solar is capital expenditure — you claim it through capital allowances instead. Solar is special-rate expenditure, and on up to £1m a year the Annual Investment Allowance gives the same 100% first-year deduction; above that, companies can claim the 50% first-year allowance. For a company paying the 25% main rate of corporation tax, that relief can be worth up to a quarter of the qualifying cost.
Does a grant reduce the capital allowances I can claim?
Yes. Where part of the cost is met by a grant from a public body, that part is not treated as expenditure you incurred, so you cannot claim capital allowances on it. You claim on the portion you paid yourself. A grant is still worth having, but it is worth less than its face value to a profitable business, so model it after tax.
Is the ECO scheme or a free-solar offer available to businesses?
No. ECO4 is a domestic scheme for qualifying households, not commercial premises, and it now runs until 31 December 2026, extended from 31 March 2026. A "free commercial solar" offer is usually a Power Purchase Agreement, where a third party owns the system and you buy the power back — useful for some sites, but you give up the capital allowances and the export income. We compare that honestly against owning the system through finance.
Can my business use Salix funding or the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme?
Not as a private business. The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme was for public bodies, was led by heating replacement rather than standalone solar, and its fourth phase closed to new applications in November 2024 — the government has described that phase as the final one. In England, Salix administers grant programmes rather than loans; its public-sector loan schemes run in Scotland (zero-interest) and Wales (a low fixed rate, with an interest-free strand for bodies without borrowing powers).