GUIDE · FOR UK SOLAR INSTALLERS · 13 MIN READ

Do Solar Panels Earn Carbon Credits? What Installers Should Tell Commercial Customers

CO2e per kWh of UK grid electricity (DESNZ 2026 factor)

0.131 kg

CO2e per kWh of UK grid electricity (DESNZ 2026 factor)

CO2e a year off scope 2 in our 100 kWp illustration

9.2 t

CO2e a year off scope 2 in our 100 kWp illustration

Main UK or international standards that credit a UK business roof

None

Main UK or international standards that credit a UK business roof

kWh of energy use, below which SECR disclosure isn't required

40,000

kWh of energy use, below which SECR disclosure isn't required

Business owner? Read the business owner's guide to solar and carbon reporting.

"Will we get carbon credits for this?" comes up more often now that carbon credits are in the news. Say yes and you have promised something the customer can't get. Say no without explaining and you leave the carbon case on the table. This guide gives you the honest answer, the figure you can quote, and the reporting terms customers use.

General information from GOV.UK, Ofgem, legislation.gov.uk, the GHG Protocol and the standards' own documents, checked 6 November 2026. It isn't carbon accounting or legal advice.

What carbon credits are

A carbon credit is a certificate for one tonne of CO2e reduced or removed by a project, issued under a standard and recorded on a registry so it can be bought, sold and retired. There are two kinds of market.

Compliance markets are set up by law. In the UK that is the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, which covers energy intensive industries, power generation installations, aviation and, since 1 July 2026, domestic maritime. Installations come in when they run combustion units with a total rated thermal input over 20MW. Those sites must hold allowances for their emissions. It is a cap on big emitters, not a scheme an ordinary business joins, and it doesn't reward a warehouse for putting panels on its roof.

Voluntary markets are where companies buy credits by choice, usually to offset emissions. The UK has two domestic codes: the Woodland Carbon Code, a government-backed standard for creating new woodland, and the Peatland Code, a voluntary standard for peatland restoration that grew out of a Defra-funded pilot. Both list projects on the UK Land Carbon Registry. Neither covers solar or any other electricity generation, and we found no UK code that does. Internationally, the two largest standards for energy projects are Gold Standard and Verra.

Can a UK business roof earn carbon credits?

Not under any of the schemes below, as we read their rules. A rooftop system on a business that is connected to the grid is grid-connected renewable electricity in a high income country.

Gold Standard. Its Renewable Energy Activity Requirements (version 1.4) say renewable energy projects connected to a national or regional grid are ineligible if they are in an upper middle income or high income country. Its renewable energy page says it focuses on grid-connected projects in least developed countries, small island developing states and conflict zones.

Verra. Under version 4 of its VCS Program, only grid-connected renewable projects in least developed countries could register. Its new methodology, VMR0017 (active since 23 April 2026, and required for registrations from 1 January 2027), widens that, but Table 1 limits terrestrial solar PV to low, lower middle and upper middle income countries, using the World Bank's classification. The UK is a high income country.

The reason is additionality. Credits are meant to pay for reductions that wouldn't happen without the carbon money, and solar in a country like the UK pays for itself on the electricity bill. There are other, smaller registries we haven't checked. If a customer has been offered money for "the carbon from your panels", the right response is to ask which standard, which methodology and which registry, and read its eligibility rules before relying on it.

The carbon saving you can quote

The figure UK businesses use is the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's greenhouse gas conversion factor for UK electricity. In the 2026 conversion factors (published 11 June 2026) it is 0.13096 kg CO2e per kWh for scope 2. Each kWh the customer uses from the panels is a kWh they don't buy, so it comes off their scope 2 at that rate.

Worked example (an illustration, not a quote). A 100 kWp system at about 1,000 kWh per kWp a year makes about 100,000 kWh. PVGIS gives roughly 810 to 1,156 kWh per kWp across UK regions, and our payback calculator uses those figures. Say 70% is used on site.

So the line for the proposal is "about 9.2 tonnes CO2e a year off your scope 2 emissions, on the government's 2026 factor". Two cautions. First, the factor changes every year: the 2025 factor was 0.177 kg, which would have made the same 70,000 kWh worth 12.4 tonnes. As the grid gets cleaner, the tonnes per kWh fall, so don't multiply one year's figure by 25. Second, use the customer's real self-use: a site with an export limit under G100 or low daytime demand will look very different.

Talking about scope 2

Scope 1 is what a company burns itself, scope 2 is the electricity, heat and steam it buys, and scope 3 is everything else in its value chain. Solar used on site lowers scope 2. Under the GHG Protocol's Scope 2 Guidance, companies in markets with supplier data report scope 2 two ways:

• Location-based: the electricity they draw from the grid times the grid average factor. In the UK that is the DESNZ factor above. Solar cuts this because the site draws less.
• Market-based: the same electricity times factors from their contracts, such as a supplier's fuel mix or certificates like REGOs. Solar cuts this too, for the same reason.

The guidance says a company that owns solar panels and uses the power reports no scope 2 for that power. It also says scope 2 must be worked out from gross grid purchases, not purchases net of what the site exports, so exported power doesn't lower the company's scope 2. Avoided emissions are an optional figure reported separately, not subtracted. The GHG Protocol consulted on changes to its scope 2 guidance between October 2025 and January 2026; the 2015 guidance is the published version as we write.

SECR: where solar shows up in a company's report

Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting applies to UK quoted companies, large unquoted companies and large LLPs, with "large" taken from the Companies Act accounts rules (GOV.UK guidance). Under the 2018 regulations, their annual report must include energy use, emissions from electricity bought and fuel burned, at least one intensity ratio and the methods used. If they took any measures to improve energy efficiency that year, it must describe the principal ones. A company using 40,000 kWh or less in the period doesn't have to disclose, as long as the report says so.

That makes SECR a useful point with larger customers: the system shows up in the report twice, as lower purchased electricity and as a named energy efficiency measure. The government encourages location-based reporting for anyone not dual reporting. Smaller businesses aren't required to report, but many are asked for carbon figures by larger customers or in tenders, and the same numbers answer that.

REGOs and green tariffs

Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin are Ofgem certificates, one for each MWh of eligible renewable output, used mainly by suppliers for fuel mix disclosure. They come up in two ways in a commercial pitch:

• "We're already on a green tariff." A REGO-backed tariff can lower market-based scope 2. It doesn't change how much grid power the site draws, its location-based figure or its bill. Solar changes all three.
• Accrediting the system. Generating stations can apply to Ofgem through the Renewable Electricity Register. If the customer then sells REGOs for power they use themselves, the GHG Protocol says they report that power in scope 2 as if they had bought it from the grid. They can't sell the green claim and keep it.

Why reducing comes before offsetting

The first of the UK government's principles for voluntary carbon and nature market integrity (November 2024) is that credits should only be used in addition to ambitious action within a company's own value chain: companies "should make every reasonable effort to minimise their own impacts", and credits should complement that, not displace it. For a customer buying offsets, that is the opening: solar is a reduction in their own emissions, which comes first, and it saves money rather than costing it.

Common customer misconceptions

Proposal checklist

• State the carbon saving in tonnes of CO2e a year, worked from the self-consumed kWh and the latest DESNZ UK electricity factor, and name the year of the factor.
• Show generation, self-use and export separately. Only the self-used kWh reduce the customer's own scope 2.
• Say the figure is a location-based estimate and will change as the grid factor changes. Don't give a 25-year tonnage as if it were fixed.
• If the customer reports under SECR, point out that the system belongs in the directors' report as an energy efficiency measure, and give them the kWh their accountant or consultant will need.
• Don't promise carbon credits, offsets or carbon neutrality. If the customer asks, the honest answer is that a UK roof doesn't qualify under the main standards, and the value is in the reduction.
• If a third party is offering the customer credits for their panels, suggest they ask which standard, which methodology and which registry, and check those rules themselves.
• Keep REGOs out of the pitch unless the customer is comparing solar with a green tariff, or plans to accredit the system with Ofgem.

The carbon line sits best next to the money. Our capital allowances guide covers the tax relief, and how to sell commercial solar covers the proposal and objections. Systems up to 50kW need MCS certification for the customer to get the Smart Export Guarantee, and larger ones usually need a G99 application.

None of it matters until you're in front of the customer. Solar Surveys UK books qualified commercial solar survey appointments with business owners for UK installers. You only pay for appointments that are actually attended, and any that aren't viable we replace. See what commercial solar leads cost.

Solar panels and carbon credits: FAQ