Solar panels for your home

Earn money back with solar

What could be better than generating your own green electricity? Our solar tariffs give you different ways that could help reduce your electricity bills.

Find out more SEG tariff

Smart Export Guarantee tariffs

We now have three Smart Export Guarantee tariffs which pay our customers for each unit of electricity they generate and export back to the grid.

SmartGen - 6p - Price Per kWh⁵
SmartGen Premium - 12p Price Per kWh⁵ - Exclusive to ScottishPower customers
SmartGen Premium Plus - 15p Price Per kWh⁵ - Exclusive to ScottishPower customers who installed their solar panels/battery with us.

Frequently asked questions

There are a number of factors that help to inform you if solar panels will be suitable for your home.

Your roof size, pitch, direction, and shading are all factors that dictate the amount of energy you can produce based on how many panels can be installed and the total hours of exposure to sunlight. Analysis of these factors helps to calculate the cost of the install, how much electricity you can generate and therefore how long it may take for your solar panel install to pay for itself through energy savings. Our quotation process considers all of these factors.

Separately to these property considerations, we’d also recommend checking with your local planning office but generally solar panel installs are classed as ‘permitted developments’, which means you’re allowed to add them to your home without planning permission. If you live in a conservation or historic area, then you will need approval.

Some other factors that impact the solar panel install are: 1. Whether you’re the homeowner – you can’t install them if you don’t own the property unless you have specific consent from the landlord to do so. 2. It’s also important to get DNO approval. This is your local energy distribution network operator who operate the power infrastructure in your area. At ScottishPower, we manage this process on your behalf along with registering your solar panel install once it’s completed too. 3. You should also contact your home insurance provider to make sure that any existing policies are updated to reflect a solar panel installation.

There are a number of factors that need to be considered to understand the financial impact both initially, and longer-term. The following considerations are included in the ScottishPower quotation journey:

1. How much it will cost to buy solar panels and have them installed, which will be dictated mainly by your roof size.

2. How much of the energy you generate you’ll ‘self-consume’, store in a battery or have the potential to sell back to an energy supplier through a Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) tariff. Typically, the more self-generated electricity you use, the greater the financial benefit you’ll see.

3. Wholesale electricity prices can be volatile. Generating your own electricity means you’ll be less reliant on importing electricity into your home so the financial impact should be less.

4. While we’ve seen electricity prices increase, VAT has been removed from solar panel installations until April 2027, so the price of generating your own electricity has reduced.

5. You may also be able to access funding to help with the cost of the installation

Unlike a boiler, your solar panels should work efficiently without a yearly service. You shouldn’t need to pay extra costs for maintenance packages to keep them running well. In fact, you don’t usually even need to clean your solar panels – we get enough rain in the UK to do that for you.

The typical lifespan for a solar panel installation is 25 to 30 years. As part of our standard installation package, you’ll get a 24 month installer warranty, 15 year manufacturer warranty on solar panels, a 10 year inverter warranty (the inverter converts the electricity you generate into electricity you can use), and a 30 year performance warranty too, which guarantees a minimum generation performance each year. Terms and conditions apply for each warranty.

Solar batteries aren’t a compulsory addition to a solar panel installation. However, they can add a great deal of value depending on how much electricity your system will generate as well as how much electricity you use, and when you use it. The more electricity you generate and store, the less you’ll need to purchase from an energy supplier. Alternatively, you may be able to sell any surplus electricity you generate back through a SEG tariff. We’re able to provide proposals with and without a battery, so you can understand the costs and benefits of adding one to your home.

The size of battery you need depends on your own electricity consumption and solar generation. There’s no benefit to buying a larger battery than you need as you may struggle to generate enough electricity to fully charge the battery and, if you do, you may not use the electricity you generate. We will tailor design the system to suit your actual energy usage and, reassuringly, our Alpha battery is modular, so can be increased at a later date if you need to do so.

Will my investment pay-back be quicker if I have more panels installed? You’ll certainly generate more electricity with more panels, but this needs to be considered against the increased installation cost. Our survey process will help find the optimal balance for you.
Is it worth waiting for better solar technology? Solar technology has been refined over the decades and solar panel efficiency is now very high. With the cost of living having increased recently, installing solar now could have a positive impact on your electricity bills. Our proposal will detail the specification of the materials we’ll use, and the payback period for you.
Will I generate more electricity on a hot day? It’s the amount of sunlight the panels are exposed to rather than the temperature that generates the electricity. That means you can generate electricity all year round. It’s worth noting that due to daylight hours being shorter in autumn and winter, generation during those months is likely to be lower.
Will I need to continually clean my panels? It is true that dirtier solar panels won’t be as efficient as clean ones, but in the UK the natural rainfall generally keeps them operating well (less so if they’re less than 15 degrees or flat). There’s nothing wrong with an annual sponge clean, just with water though.
Will my solar panels work with other renewable technologies? Solar panels can be used to help power air source heat pumps, electric vehicle chargers and solar hot water systems, but it’s always worth checking the specific make and model of those technologies in detail to confirm this before installing them.