Some households do get solar panels for nothing. It comes through your council or a government scheme, never through a leaflet, a phone call or a knock at the door. Here is who qualifies, nation by nation, and what the adverts usually mean.
If you have just come from an advert saying free solar panels, take a breath. Nothing on this page asks for your name, your number or your bank details, because nobody needs them to tell you whether a scheme exists. We do not sell anything and we do not pass anyone on. It is just the rules, with the official page linked under each one.
Yes, for some households, through the Warm Homes Local Grant. You apply through the council, not through a company. Panels go on only where a survey says the roof suits them. ECO4, in the next section, applies in England too.
This is the one that actually buys panels, and it is England only. You apply through your council, not through a company that rang you. Up to £16,600 towards making the house more efficient, and the same again towards low carbon heating. You can qualify three ways: household income under £36,000, or living in one of the most deprived postcodes with no income check at all, or being on certain means-tested benefits. Your EPC needs to be D to G. Owner-occupiers and private renters both count. Solar goes on where a survey says the roof suits it, which is the right answer even when it is not the one you were hoping for. One thing to watch: plenty of guides still say the cap is £15,000. It went up in July 2026.
You apply on gov.uk, or through your council. The council then gets in touch, usually within ten working days, to arrange a survey of the house. No company needs to be involved at that stage, and none can apply for you.
Possibly, through ECO4, but only alongside a heat pump or certain electric heating fitted in the same job. There is no version of ECO4 where panels arrive on their own. You need to be on means-tested benefits, which means benefits that depend on your income, or be referred by your council.
This is the scheme behind most of the free solar panels advertising, and the ads leave out the important half. ECO4 can pay for panels, but only alongside a heat pump or certain electric heating fitted in the same job. There is no route where panels turn up on their own. The rules never actually use the word solar, which is partly why so many websites get it wrong and partly why the ads get away with it. You need to be on means-tested benefits, or referred by your council, with an EPC of D to G.
Solar PV funded only as part of a heating measure, where the home has or is getting a heat pump or qualifying electric heating in the same project
eligibility condition
Covers 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2026.
Source: The Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) Order 2022 · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
31 December 2026
last date for measures to be installed
Covers 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2026.
Possibly, through Nest, and ECO4 above applies in Wales as well. Nest depends on your income or benefits and on how energy-efficient the house is, which is what the EPC rates. EPC means Energy Performance Certificate, the A to G rating a home gets when it is sold or let.
Wales runs its own scheme, Nest, and solar panels are on its list of possible improvements. You need to own your home or rent privately, and either be on a means-tested benefit or under the low-income thresholds. Your EPC has to be band E or lower, or band D or lower if someone in the house has a qualifying health condition. Batteries are not named on the official pages, so do not count on one.
Solar panels named as a possible improvement; batteries not named
scheme scope
Covers 1 April 2024 onwards.
Source: Welsh Government · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
There is no Scottish scheme, grant or loan for solar panels at the moment. We are sorry to be the ones to say it, and we would rather say it than let you find out after a sales visit. The loan you may have read about ended in 2024. ECO4 above still applies in Scotland, on the same terms: panels can come only alongside a heat pump or qualifying electric heating in the same job, for households on means-tested benefits or referred by the council.
If you live in Scotland, there is no grant and no loan for solar panels or batteries. That is the honest answer and it is not the one most websites give you. It was withdrawn in 2024. Sites still advertising a £6,000 interest-free solar loan for Scotland are quoting something that has not existed for over two years. The one thing still funded is hybrid solar thermal, at £5,000 on an interest-free loan.
No grant or loan for solar PV or battery storage
availability
Covers 6 June 2024 onwards.
Source: Home Energy Scotland · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
Home Energy Scotland is the Scottish Government's free advice line. They will tell you what support exists for your house, and for solar panels the honest answer is currently none. They do not sell anything.
0808 808 2282, free, Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, Saturdays and bank holidays 9am to 5pm
contact route
The source page carries no date. Read 8 September 2026.
Source: Home Energy Scotland · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
No. There is no scheme for homeowners, and ECO4 does not apply in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland has no homeowner support for generating your own electricity. The zero VAT rate applies here as it does everywhere else, and that is the whole list.
The schemes above are the only ways panels are paid for in full, and none of them advertise. So an advert that says free solar panels is normally one of three things. None of them is a scheme.
A council puts it plainly. Under the old feed-in tariff, some companies fitted panels for nothing and kept the payments the roof earned. Some schemes mean renting your roof to a company, and that can affect your ability to sell your home later. Understand what you are signing before you sign it.
Under some schemes a company keeps the payments from your roof, and renting your roof may affect selling your home
official description
The source page carries no date. Read 8 September 2026.
Source: Sheffield City Council · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
Citizens Advice puts it in one line: do not use a company that cold calls you, find an installer yourself. It also says to be careful of promises that sound too good to be true, which is a fair description of most free solar adverts.
Do not use a company that cold calls you. Find an installer yourself
official advice
Page dated 4 April 2025.
Source: Citizens Advice · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
Every scheme above has an official page, and every official page will tell you whether it exists and who qualifies without asking who you are. Go there first.
If a website wants your details before it will tell you whether you qualify, that is the answer to a different question. It is telling you what the website is for.
Two things worth knowing before anyone knocks. Both are from Citizens Advice and the government, and both are linked so you can read them yourself.
If you agreed to something in your own home, on the doorstep or anywhere that is not the company's own premises, and it costs £42 or more, you have 14 days to cancel for any reason. The 14 days start the day after you agree. If you paid anything up front you get all of it back, unless you asked for the work to start inside those 14 days. Fourteen days is the minimum the law gives you. The contract may give you longer.
14 days to cancel, for any reason, if you agreed to a service away from the trader's premises and it costs £42 or more
days, from the day after the contract is made
Covers 13 June 2014 onwards.
Source: Citizens Advice · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
If a company put pressure on you, was not clear about the price, or said a scheme was something it is not, you can report them. Trading Standards act on reports, but you do not contact them directly. You go through the consumer helpline for your nation, and they pass it on.
In England and Wales you cannot report a trader to Trading Standards yourself. You tell the Citizens Advice consumer helpline, and they pass it on. Pressure to sign and prices that were not made clear are both things they want to hear about. In Wales there is also a Welsh-language line on 0808 223 1144.
Citizens Advice consumer helpline, 0808 223 1133, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm
contact route
The source page carries no date. Read 8 September 2026.
Source: Citizens Advice · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
In Scotland the consumer helpline is consumeradvice.scot, run by Advice Direct Scotland. It is free to call and works with local Trading Standards teams.
consumeradvice.scot, 0808 164 6000, free to call
contact route
The source page carries no date. Read 8 September 2026.
Source: Advice Direct Scotland (consumeradvice.scot) · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
In Northern Ireland consumer problems go to Consumerline. Citizens Advice points you to its website.
Consumerline, through its website
contact route
The source page carries no date. Read 8 September 2026.
Source: Citizens Advice · checked 2026-09-08 · JSON
Most households do not, and that is not a failure on your part. It means the panels would be yours to buy, at a price the government records rather than the price an advert names. The cost page has what systems actually cost on existing homes, and the grants page has everything that still helps, including the VAT rate, which is zero for everyone for now.
For some households, yes. In England the Warm Homes Local Grant pays for panels where a survey says the roof suits them, and you apply through the council. Across Great Britain ECO4 can pay for panels, but only alongside a heat pump or qualifying electric heating in the same job. Wales has Nest. Every one of them comes through the council, your energy supplier or a government service. None of them comes through an advert.
Sometimes, and never on its own. ECO4 pays for a heating measure first, and panels can be added to that job when the rules allow it. If nobody is fitting a heat pump or qualifying electric heating, ECO4 is not paying for your panels, whatever the advert said. The conditions, and the closing date, are in the ECO4 section above.
No. The official pages for every scheme are linked above, and each one says who qualifies without asking who you are. A council will need your details when you actually apply. A website that wants them before telling you whether a scheme exists is collecting them for another reason.
ECO4 ends on 31 December 2026. There is no replacement coming from energy suppliers. From 2027 the government plans to fold the Warm Homes Local Grant into one larger scheme for low-income households, and solar panels and batteries are both named in it. What it will be called, who will qualify and when it opens have not been published. When they are, this page will say so. Anyone telling you the rules of a scheme that does not exist yet is guessing.
Not through any Scottish scheme. The Home Energy Scotland loan that used to cover panels stopped doing so in 2024, and nothing Scottish has replaced it. The one route left is ECO4, which covers Great Britain and only pays for panels alongside a heating measure. Both are set out in the Scotland and ECO4 sections above, with Home Energy Scotland's free advice line if you want to talk it through.