Solar Panel Grants and Loans for Businesses in Wales

What a Welsh business can get for solar now

Every row links to the scheme's own page. Councils close rounds when the money runs out, often without notice, so check the page on the day you apply. Capital allowances on solar panels apply in Wales as in the rest of the UK: see capital allowances on solar panels.

Vale of Glamorgan: the SME Low Carbon Grant

The Vale of Glamorgan Council runs this scheme with money from the Local Growth Fund for Wales (Vale of Glamorgan Council). It works in two phases:

• Phase 1, an energy assessment. An assessment of your building and how you use energy, with a report of no-cost, low-cost and capital recommendations. The budget for this phase is £25,000, and it closes once that is committed.
• Phase 2, a capital grant. £1,000 to £20,000 towards measures from the report, covering up to 50% of eligible costs. Your business pays at least the other 50% and pays upfront. Solar PV, batteries linked to solar panels and heat pumps are eligible.
• Who can apply. SMEs with fewer than 250 employees and turnover under £50 million, with a registered business address in the Vale that is not a home. You must own the freehold or hold a lease with at least seven years left after the grant is paid, with your landlord's written consent.
• Sized for your own use. The council says the grant supports decarbonisation, not income generation: solar must be sized mainly to meet the business's own demand, and systems designed mainly to export are not eligible.
• Deadline. Installations must be finished by 26 February 2027. Don't start work before you have a grant offer, and have planning and network operator approval in hand where they apply.

Sizing to your own daytime use usually gives the best payback too. See how much solar your business needs.

Development Bank of Wales: the Green Business Loan

This is the one Wales-wide scheme for business solar. It is a loan, not a grant (Development Bank of Wales):

• What it funds. Energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects. The bank lists "Renewables: solar PV, ground/air/water source heat pumps" among its typical projects.
• The terms. Discounted fixed interest rates for energy efficiency and low carbon heat, upfront capital repayment holidays, and a loan term linked to the project's payback. The page gives no rates or loan sizes.
• Who can apply. Limited companies, sole traders and partnerships based in Wales, trading for at least two years with at least one set of filed annual accounts.
• Advice first. A Business Wales Resource Efficiency Advisor's report on your business is fully funded. For a deeper look, a grant covers up to 50% of a detailed energy audit by an accredited independent expert, to a maximum grant of £10,000 (£20,000 of total costs).
• Farms. The bank says a Sustainable Agriculture Loan Scheme for Welsh farm businesses is in development for launch later in 2026. See our farm solar grants page.

How a loan compares with paying cash, leasing or a PPA: paying for commercial solar. Farms: farm solar grants.

Business Wales: free advice before you buy

Business Wales is the Welsh Government's business support service. Its Green Ambition team offers fully funded one-to-one sessions with specialist advisers to plan how a business cuts its energy use and carbon (Business Wales), and it is the route to the audit grant above. The helpline is 03000 6 03000 (GOV.UK).

An adviser looks at all of your energy use. A solar site survey looks at one thing in depth: whether your roof or land and your daytime demand suit panels, and what size of system. The two work well together. See cutting business energy costs.

The Local Growth Fund for Wales, and closed rounds

The Local Growth Fund for Wales is £547 million for economic growth across Wales from 2026 to 2029 (Business Wales, Neath Port Talbot Council). It replaces money that used to come from the EU, and local authorities and other partners have a key role in deciding how it is spent. The Welsh Government said it would encourage investment in renewable energy (GOV.WALES), and council pages list energy projects within its scope.

It has already paid for two council business renewable schemes. Carmarthenshire County Council's Business Renewable Energy Fund offered £1,000 to £30,000, no more than 50% of eligible costs, paid after the work (the offer). It covered roof and ground-mounted solar PV and batteries, with MCS certification for equipment under 45 kW (what it covers). It is now closed for applications; the council keeps a waiting list and says it will contact businesses if the scheme is extended or a new round opens (Carmarthenshire).

If your business is elsewhere in Wales, ask your council's economic development team and Business Wales whether a similar round is planned. Rounds can close as soon as the money is committed, so it helps to have a survey and a quote ready.

Who runs the electricity network in Wales

Two network operators cover Wales. National Grid Electricity Distribution runs the network in South Wales (NGED), and SP Energy Networks runs North Wales and parts of Mid Wales as SP Manweb. Boundaries don't follow county lines, so check your postcode with the Energy Networks Association's look-up (ENA).

Your installer applies to the operator for any system above 16 A per phase, and the answer can limit how much your system may export. What the operator checks and what export limitation means: grid connection for business solar.

Solar in Wales: the figures

Source: DESNZ regional renewable statistics, solar PV columns. The sites include homes and the capacity includes solar farms, so these are figures for all solar in Wales, not business rooftops. On the same figures Wales has about twice Scotland's solar capacity (847 MW).

Planning and business rates in Wales

Wales has its own permitted development rules for solar on non-domestic buildings (GOV.WALES):

• On a wall or pitched roof. Panels project no more than 200 mm from the surface.
• On a flat roof. The highest part is no more than one metre above the highest part of the roof, and no equipment within one metre of the roof edge.
• Where the rights don't apply. Within 3 km of an airport or aerodrome, on a listed building or scheduled monument, and on designated land (National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, conservation areas, World Heritage Sites) panels must not be on a wall or roof slope fronting a highway.
• Article 4 directions. Your council may have removed permitted development rights, most often in conservation areas, so check before you start (GOV.WALES).

Business rates: the Wales regulations leave plant used to generate or store power mainly from renewable sources, including photovoltaics, out of the rating valuation from 1 April 2024 for days before 1 April 2035 (WSI 2023/1229). More: planning permission, listed buildings and business rates.

Homes schemes are not for businesses

Much of what comes up for "solar panel grants Wales" is for homes. Nest is the Welsh Government's scheme for home energy improvements (GOV.WALES), and the UK Warm Homes Loan Scheme's rules say "Lending to business or SPV type structures will not be allowed" (rule 3.9). A farmhouse is a home; panels on farm buildings or business premises are not covered by either.