Solar & Battery Funding in Wales

The standout scheme in Wales. Owner-occupiers of existing Welsh homes can borrow £1,000 to £25,000 at 0% interest over terms up to 10 years, with a 6-month repayment holiday, free advice and a home assessment included.

What it covers: solar PV, and solar PV with battery storage. Battery-only projects and listed buildings are excluded.

Who qualifies: owner-occupiers of an existing home in Wales that is their main residence.

The scheme was topped up with a further £5m for 2026-27. Combined with 0% VAT on the installation itself (below), a Welsh home or smallholding can currently finance a solar and battery system interest-free and VAT-free, which is as good as domestic solar funding has ever been in Britain. We can support the technical side of the assessment on any system we design.

Installation of solar panels and battery storage in homes is zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027, after which the rate rises to 5%. This includes off-grid homes, standalone batteries and batteries retrofitted to existing systems. No application needed: the zero rate is applied directly on the invoice.

It does not apply to farm or commercial buildings, where standard 20% VAT applies (recoverable if the business is VAT registered).

Nest provides free energy efficiency improvements to eligible lower-income households in Wales, assessed on benefits received and the energy performance of the home. Solar can form part of a whole-house package where the assessment recommends it. It is not a general solar grant.

If you think you may qualify, check your eligibility with Nest on 0808 808 2244.

As of July 2026 there is no open Welsh Government capital grant that funds solar PV or battery storage on farms. Some grant-list websites still suggest otherwise, so here is the verified position.

The Sustainable Farming Scheme's 2026 capital layers contain no renewable energy or battery items. The Small Grants - Efficiency windows fund listed equipment, not solar PV (the most recent window closed 27 February 2026). Farming Connect provides advice, skills and mentoring rather than solar capital grants.

What Welsh farms do have: capital allowances. The £1m Annual Investment Allowance gives a 100% first-year tax deduction on solar and battery systems for companies, sole traders and partnerships, with further first-year allowances beyond it. And the underlying economics are the real driver: on farms running diesel generation, solar and storage routinely pays for itself in a few years, sometimes under two. We publish real numbers from real installs in our case studies.

If a Welsh farm energy scheme opens, our weekly monitoring will catch it. Join our funding alerts on the Grant Checker page to hear the day it happens.

For a farm or rural business anywhere in the UK, up to 100% of a solar and battery system can usually be written off against tax in the year of purchase through the Annual Investment Allowance (100% deduction on up to £1m of plant and machinery per year, covering solar and batteries).

Beyond the AIA, companies get a 50% first-year allowance on special-rate assets such as solar panels, and from 1 January 2026 a new 40% first-year allowance applies to main-rate plant for incorporated and unincorporated businesses.

Speak to your accountant before the install is invoiced so the claim lands in the right year. This is general information, not tax advice.