Rooftop solar grants

Funding to install solar panels on larger commercial and industrial roofs. Registration closed, please contact us if you are looking for support.

Funding available

Turn your roof into a renewable power station

A Rooftop Solar Grant is designed to encourage small and medium enterprises and registered charities to install solar panels on their larger commercial and industrial roofs such as warehouses, factories and larger offices. The resulting energy generation will help to cut your greenhouse gas emissions and your energy costs.

Registration is open until 30th September 2024. Grants were available first come first served. A total of £500,000 will be made available for this scheme. Applications were assessed on their own merit against set criteria and awards are made on a rolling basis throughout the grant window.

Funding

How much will I get?

When open, you could apply for a grant of up to 30% towards eligible capital costs of purchase and installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. The minimum grant request is £15,000 and maximum is £50,000. You would have needed to provide at least 70% match funding towards the project.

Solar projects where the grant request would be less than £15,000 can apply for grant through our Green Business Grants scheme instead, which is open for applications now.

This is a grant and does not need to be repaid. However, Rooftop Solar Grants are paid on defrayal, this means if you are successful in securing a grant, you must purchase and complete your project before claiming the funding you have been awarded. You should aim to do this within a 6 month claim window, although this can be extended in exceptional circumstances.

Am I eligible?

Existing applicants must:

Have a trading address in the Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol or South Gloucestershire local authority area
Be able to provide suitable match funding for your project
Be a legal entity such as a limited company, limited liability partnership, co-operative or registered charity
Be a small or medium sized enterprise (SME), this means you must not employ more than 249 people.
Have had an independent energy or carbon assessment done that recommends the project you are applying for grant for.

What can I use the Rooftop Solar Grant for?

You can use a Rooftop Solar Grant for the supply and installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of your premises or as solar carports on existing parking facilities. The generation capacity of your project must be at least 50kWp DC within a single array and an inverter output of at least 40kW AC.

Eligible costs include the supply and installation of solar panels, inverters, cabling, connections, meters and controls. You may not use grant to install new energy storage such as batteries, hot water tanks, electric vehicle charge points or electric vehicles, but may use the grant to connect into existing energy storage or infrastructure that you already have to maximise onsite usage.

Your application must be supported by independent advice and verification that installing solar panels is a worthwhile action to take. Our Carbon Surveys provide this support free of charge, but you can also use a third-party consultant or assessor if you wish.

In line with industry best practice, if significant electricity reduction actions are identified within your business, you may be required to take actions to address these first to ensure that solar electricity is used efficiently.

We will assess your application against our criteria for value-for-money, deliverability and financial viability, with the best scoring projects being awarded grant if we have more applications than grant available. More information on eligible projects, supporting evidence and assessment criteria will be available in our Grant Guidance once released.

Image credit: Timur Repin, Unsplash

Contact us

Existing applicants who have received an application pack have until Friday 28th June to apply.

You can contact us by email at lowcarbonbusiness@westofengland-ca.gov.uk with your query and contact details. Please include your business name, the address of your premises within the West of England Combined Authority region and telephone and email contact details.

You can also call the Low Carbon Business Support team on 0117 332 1520 between 9.30am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday. Our phone lines can be busy so please leave a message and we will try and get back to you as soon as we can. Please ensure you leave a name, phone number, email address and a summary of your enquiry.