Solar Panel Guides for the UK (August 2026)

British solar is sold on two numbers that deserve more scepticism than they get: the payback period and the export rate. The Smart Export Guarantee obliges larger suppliers to pay something for exported power, but it does not set a rate — each supplier picks its own, and the spread between the best and worst is wide enough to change whether a system pays for itself. These guides keep the supplier, the rate and the date together.

The other half is what an installer’s quote leaves out. Scaffolding, a DNO application under G98 or G99, a consumer-unit upgrade and the difference between in-roof and on-roof mounting are all real costs that appear late. Where a figure varies by property or by network, we say so rather than publishing one number as though it were national.

197 guides published. Methodology as everywhere on this site: how we verify.