News

UK Solar News

Policy changes, SEG rates, grants and industry news, curated for East Kent homeowners weighing up a DIY plug-in setup or an MCS-certified install.

Grants

ECO4 has been given a final nine-month extension to 31 December 2026, but the government has confirmed there will be no successor supplier obligation scheme after it closes

Following last year's consultation, ECO4 now runs to 31 December 2026 instead of closing this spring, giving eligible households a final window for free or subsidised solar, battery and insulation measures before the scheme winds down for good and support moves to the publicly funded Warm Homes Plan.

31 July 2026 · Energy Trust

Export income

The highest SEG export rate on the UK market right now, Octopus Intelligent Flux at up to 32.17p per kWh, is only available if you have a battery and an Octopus import tariff, which tells you where export income is actually heading

July 2026's best flat SEG rate without a battery requirement is 25p per kWh from Good Energy, but the genuine ceiling, Octopus Intelligent Flux's 32.17p peak, is locked behind owning a battery, which is no longer an edge case in how export tariffs are being designed.

31 July 2026 · EnergyPlus

Market

The UK has passed 2.5 million MCS-certified installations across solar, battery storage and heat pumps combined, half a million more than the solar-only two million milestone we covered in May

Segen's milestone counts every MCS-certified renewable technology together rather than solar alone, and the gap between the two figures is itself informative: battery storage and heat pump attachment rates are climbing fast enough to add half a million certified installs on top of solar in a matter of months.

31 July 2026 · Segen UK

Grants

The government opened a call for evidence on community battery storage on 4 June 2026, asking whether shared street-level batteries could let renters and flat-dwellers benefit from solar-style savings without installing anything themselves

The call for evidence, which closes on 30 July 2026, covers bill savings and system benefits, technical and financial barriers, safety frameworks, and what government support could scale community batteries up to help households, including low-income ones, who can't access a domestic battery for technical or financial reasons.

30 July 2026 · GOV.UK

Grid connection

Grid connection delays, not installer availability, are now the real bottleneck for UK solar, with some South East England DNO applications taking 20 to 24 weeks instead of the standard 4 to 8

Installer waiting lists have stayed manageable at one to four weeks even through the busy spring period, but Distribution Network Operators in constrained areas including South East England and suburban zones around major cities are processing record volumes of larger G99 connection applications, pushing approval times to five to six months in the worst cases.

30 July 2026 · OpenSolar

Market

The Ofgem price cap rose to 26.11p per kWh for standard variable electricity from 1 July 2026, and every penny of that rise makes a solar system's self-consumed power more valuable

The July-to-September 2026 cap period pushed the average direct-debit electricity unit rate to 26.11p per kWh, with the October-to-December rate still to be confirmed by Ofgem by 26 August 2026, and predictions currently pointing to a slight fall rather than a further rise.

30 July 2026 · Ofgem

Export income

British Gas cut its Smart Export Guarantee rate for systems above 15kW from 15.1p to 8p per kWh, a change aimed at larger commercial installs that still shows why every SEG rate is a variable business decision, not a fixed promise

From 6 July 2026, British Gas pays 12p per kWh for exported solar up to 15kW and just 8p above that threshold, a cut that turns 100,000 kWh of annual export from roughly £15,100 into about £8,000, hitting manufacturing sites, warehouses, farms, schools and other larger operations hardest.

29 July 2026 · Flame Energy

Regulation

Solar panels on new-build homes stop being a developer's choice from 24 March 2027, when Requirement L3 makes rooftop solar a legal building-control obligation rather than one option among several

The Future Homes Standard's new Requirement L3 demands on-site renewable electricity generation equivalent to 40% of a dwelling's ground-floor area, effectively rooftop solar PV, with token or trade-off compliance no longer accepted, and a 12-month transitional window for schemes already under construction before 24 March 2027.

29 July 2026 · GOV.UK / Future Homes Standard

Market

UK solar output topped 16 gigawatts for the first time ever during the late-June heatwave, 50% above the 2022 energy-crisis peak, and roughly 1.9 million home installations did real work absorbing the demand surge

Over four consecutive heatwave days combined domestic and utility-scale generation reached 483.6 GWh, a 45.9% jump on the previous week, at times pushing wholesale electricity prices negative and triggering Demand Flexibility Service reward events for households that cut consumption during the peak.

29 July 2026 · HeatPumpsAndSolar

Grants

Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant rises to £9,000 for oil and LPG homes, worth knowing if you're pairing solar with a heat pump

From 21 July 2026 the Boiler Upgrade Scheme increased its heat pump grant from £7,500 to £9,000 for homes currently heated by oil or LPG, covering an estimated 1.7 million UK households, while the ECO4 scheme that has funded some solar installs closes at the end of December 2026 with no direct replacement.

28 July 2026 · OVO (solar-and-heating.ovo.com)

Grid connection

Most home solar doesn't need DNO approval before install, but if yours does, budget months not weeks

The dividing line is 3.68kW per phase: below it, G98 lets you install first and notify your network operator within 28 days, but above it, G99 approval can now take anywhere from 6 weeks for a straightforward case to 18 months where the local network needs reinforcement.

28 July 2026 · SolarLove

MCS standards

MCS solar installation standard tightens again with MIS 3002 issue 6.0, documentation is the theme, not relaxation

MIS 3002 issue 6.0, available for reference from 18 March 2026, is the latest update to the MCS Solar PV Installation Standard, and every recent revision in this cycle has moved toward more rigorous documentation and stricter mounting requirements, not fewer.

28 July 2026 · MCS (mcscertified.com)

Regulation

Plug-in solar becomes legal across the UK from 27 August 2026, the biggest change to DIY solar since it started

The government has confirmed changes to the 1994 Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations that make plug-in solar panels lawful UK-wide from 27 August 2026, with the Electrical Contractors' Association backing the change while warning it must not come at the expense of proper safety limits.

28 July 2026 · Envirotec Magazine

Export income

SEG rates now span 1p to 32p per kWh, and the simplest flat-rate tariff just got worse, not better

There are around thirty live Smart Export Guarantee tariffs on the market as of July 2026, but the spread between the best and worst is enormous, and Octopus Outgoing, previously the cleanest no-battery-required flat rate, dropped from 15p to 12p per kWh on 1 March 2026.

28 July 2026 · EnergyPlus

Market

UK solar passed two million installations after the busiest single month since 2012, and the momentum is still building

March 2026 saw more than 27,000 new UK solar installations, the highest monthly total since 2012, pushing the national count past two million for the first time, with April adding a further 23,000 and total capacity reaching 22.1 GW.

28 July 2026 · pv magazine International

VAT

0% VAT on solar and batteries has a firm end date, and it's closer than the 2027 headline makes it sound

Solar panels and battery storage installed at a UK home currently carry 0% VAT under HMRC's relief, but that rate rises to 5% from 1 April 2027, meaning a typical £12,000 solar-and-battery system will cost roughly £600 more once the deadline passes.

28 July 2026 · Sunsave

Grants

The government's new solar and battery loan scheme is real money, but it isn't open yet and won't be until 2027

The Warm Homes Plan's Consumer Loan Scheme puts up to £1.7 billion into low- and zero-interest loans for solar panels, batteries and heat pumps, backed by £300 million of government capital, but lenders only start onboarding from August 2026 and the scheme itself doesn't launch in England until April 2027.

28 July 2026 · GOV.UK

New solar news added regularly. Questions about how any of this affects your own setup? Ask us directly.