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Commercial Solar Finance UK · Independent
5-day finance review · UK-wide · IndependentUK Commercial Solar Finance · Est. Independent Advisory

The right capital structure for commercial solar — before the install.

Independent UK advisory on capital purchase, green loans, operating and finance leases, and Power Purchase Agreements for commercial solar PV. We model after-tax economics across every structure, then recommend what wins on your numbers — not on lender margin.

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50%

First Year Allowance on commercial solar PV — extended to 31 March 2026.

3–5y

Typical post-tax payback for capital-funded commercial solar in 2026.

6

Finance structures modelled side-by-side on every project — no defaults, no commissions.

£0

Manufacturer commissions — we don't take them, on principle.

Editorial principles

FCA-aware advisory UK-only practice Independent — no commissions Six structures, every project 5 working days to model Editorial accountability
Finance Structures

Six ways to fund commercial solar — each with a clear best-fit case.

No single finance structure wins for every business. The right one depends on your tax position, capital constraints, balance sheet preferences, and how long you'll occupy the building. Here's the honest comparison.

F01 Indefinite — system life of 25–30 years

Capital Purchase

Pay cash, own the asset, claim the full tax relief — the simplest structure and almost always the most economic over 25 years.

Read in detail
F02 7–15 years; commonly 10 years

Green Loans

Borrow against the project, retain ownership, smooth the cash impact — green loans typically charge 6–9% APR for solar specifically.

Read in detail
F03 5–10 years; commonly 7 years

Operating Lease

The leasing company owns the system; you pay a fixed annual rent. Off-balance-sheet, fully expensable, but you don't get the FYA.

Read in detail
F04 5–10 years; commonly 7 years

Finance Lease

Functionally similar to a loan — you pay over time, the asset hits your balance sheet, and you keep the tax benefits, but with leasing-company structure.

Read in detail
F05 15–25 years; commonly 20 years

Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)

A third party owns and operates the system on your roof; you buy the electricity at a fixed rate. Zero capital, zero responsibility, lower savings ceiling.

Read in detail
F06 3–7 years; commonly 5 years

Asset Finance

Catch-all category for hire purchase, equipment finance, and similar structures aimed at SME-scale solar projects below £250k.

Read in detail
Tax & Incentives

The reliefs that change the economics.

UK commercial solar in 2026 sits in an unusually generous tax window. The 50% First Year Allowance, AIA where available, and PSDS public-sector grants together can shift project economics by 30%+.

All incentives

50% First Year Allowance

50% FYA

Lets a profit-making company write off half the capital cost of new commercial solar against corporation tax in year one.

Annual Investment Allowance

AIA

100% deduction in year one on the first £1m of qualifying capital spend per accounting period.

Smart Export Guarantee

SEG

Mandatory scheme requiring large electricity suppliers to pay for surplus solar generation exported to the grid.

Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme

PSDS

Capital grant scheme for public-sector estates funding solar PV alongside heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency.
Sector finance angles

Different sectors demand different structures.

A profitable manufacturer using capital purchase. A multi-academy trust accessing 78% PSDS grant funding. A multi-let property portfolio using PPA to navigate landlord-tenant split. The structure follows the situation.

S01

Manufacturing

Daytime-heavy electricity profiles, large industrial roofs, and strong demand for capital efficiency make manufacturing the highest-economic-return sector for commercial solar.

 S02

Warehousing & Logistics

Vast roof areas and flat 24/7 demand profiles with strong cold-storage and EV-charging integration potential.

 S03

Agriculture

Farm building rooftops, ground-mount potential, and high agricultural electricity demand for grain drying, milking parlours, and refrigeration.

 S04

Schools & Academies

PSDS funding routinely covers 75–100% of capital cost, making solar a near-zero-investment way to cut school energy bills and build environmental curriculum value.

 S05

NHS Trusts

PSDS-eligible 24/7 estates with substantial roof area and continuous electricity demand make NHS sites strong candidates for grant-funded solar plus battery.

 S06

Local Authorities

Council estates of operational buildings, leisure centres, and depots are PSDS-eligible and often ready for portfolio-scale solar deployment.

 S07

Retail

Daytime customer-hours demand profiles align well with solar generation, especially for grocery and DIY retail with refrigeration and high-base lighting loads.

 S08

Hospitality

Hotels and venues have visible roofs, daytime conference demand, and growing customer pressure for verified sustainability credentials.

 S09

Property Portfolios

Multi-let commercial property owners face the landlord-tenant split — strategic financing structures unlock value where direct capital cannot.
Regional finance

Regional funding routes that compound on the standard reliefs.

Combined authorities, regional development funds, and city-scale programmes (MEEF in London, City Leap in Bristol, Project LEO in Oxfordshire) add to the standard FYA / AIA / PSDS stack. Where you operate matters.

London

Greater London

Mayor's Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF)

Manchester

Greater Manchester

GMCA Net Zero portfolio funding

Birmingham

West Midlands

WMCA Energy Capital

Leeds

West Yorkshire

WYCA Net Zero Capital Programme

Bristol

South West

Bristol City Leap

Edinburgh

Scotland

Scottish Enterprise Decarbonisation Programme

Glasgow

Scotland

Glasgow City Region Innovation Accelerator

Oxford

South East

Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire)

Cambridge

East of England

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) decarbonisation

Reading

South East

Thames Valley Berkshire LEP

Milton Keynes

South East

South East Midlands Combined Authority programmes

Sheffield

South Yorkshire

SYMCA Net Zero capital programme
How we work

Five steps from enquiry to financed project.

  1. Position assessment

    Tax position, capex constraints, balance sheet preferences, occupation horizon, electricity demand profile. The variables that decide the right structure are about your business, not the system.

  2. Technical sizing

    Site survey, structural review, DNO position, half-hourly demand modelling. The optimal system size is the one that maximises self-consumption value, not nameplate capacity.

  3. Multi-structure financial model

    We model capital purchase, green loan, asset finance, operating lease, finance lease, and PPA — same project, same numbers, side by side. After-tax IRR, simple payback, 25-year cumulative cash flow, and qualitative trade-offs for each.

  4. Lender / counterparty selection

    For debt-funded projects, we run a competitive process across our panel of green-debt lenders. For PPA, we screen providers on covenant, track record, and contract quality before recommending engagement.

  5. Procurement and delivery

    Independent technical supervision through procurement, construction, commissioning, and capital allowance claim documentation. We don't sell the system — we make sure the one you buy delivers what was modelled.

Recent project work

From the case studies — real projects, real structures.

Anonymised case studies from advisory engagements. Each shows the structuring decision and the after-tax outcome.

Manufacturing · Yorkshire

£245k food production system, customer-ESG-led

1MWp on East Anglia frozen food site. £500k cash + £300k retailer-affiliated lender. Year-1 saving £245k plus £350k+ supplier-scoring uplift over the contract.

Read the case →

NHS Trust · East Midlands

2.4MWp PSDS-funded across 8 sites

Multi-site Trust portfolio bid. PSDS Phase 3 grant covered 75% (£1.44m); Salix loan covered the residual at zero interest. Year-1 saving £478k.

Read the case →

Office property · London

Multi-let landlord-funded with green-rent

240kWp solving a 3-year-old multi-let landlord-tenant split. Landlord-funded with green-rent uplift on 3 tenants + £35k tenant fit-out contribution. EPC D→C.

Read the case →
All 13 case studies →
Common questions

The questions we hear most often.

What's the most economic way to finance commercial solar in 2026?
For profitable, corporation-tax-paying companies with available capital, capital purchase delivers the lowest total cost of ownership over 25 years and the strongest IRR. Where capital isn't available, a green loan is typically the next-best route — the borrower retains all tax benefits including the 50% First Year Allowance, and total cost over 25 years is roughly £60k–£90k higher than capital purchase on a £200k system. PPAs deliver immediate cash flow benefit but have substantially lower lifetime returns.
How does the 50% First Year Allowance work?
If your company pays UK corporation tax and installs new commercial solar PV before 31 March 2026, you can deduct 50% of the qualifying capital cost from your taxable profits in year one. On a £200,000 system, that's £100,000 deducted in year one — worth £25,000 in tax saved at the 25% main rate. The remaining 50% goes into the special-rate pool for ongoing 6% writing-down allowances. Always confirm with your accountant — the FYA interacts with the AIA and other reliefs.
When does PSDS funding cover the full cost of school solar?
PSDS Phase 3 has funded 75%–100% of qualifying spend on school decarbonisation projects, particularly when bundled with heat pumps and fabric efficiency. Solar-only school applications rarely score well — PSDS prioritises projects with the lowest cost-per-tonne-of-CO2-saved, and integrated decarbonisation packages score better than single-measure proposals.
Can my business get solar with no upfront capital?
Yes — through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), where a third-party developer installs and owns the system on your roof and you buy the electricity at a fixed discounted rate. Zero capital, zero O&M responsibility. The trade-off is lifetime saving: PPAs typically deliver 30%–50% less total saving over 25 years than a capital-purchased equivalent system, because the developer captures the difference as their return on capital.
Is solar finance regulated by the FCA?
Most commercial solar finance falls outside FCA regulation because the borrowers are limited companies rather than consumers. Some structures and lenders are FCA-regulated for other purposes; a few B2B finance products fall within scope. We are independent of any lender or manufacturer and source competitive quotes across the market — the structure that wins on after-tax economics is the one we recommend, regardless of who is offering it.
What size system should we install?
The right size matches your half-hourly electricity demand profile to maximise self-consumption. For most commercial sites, that means sizing to roughly 70%–90% of peak summer midday demand — enough to absorb most generation directly, with modest export at the shoulders of summer days. We model the optimal size against your actual half-hourly data, not headline annual consumption. Battery storage tips the calculation toward larger systems where the storage case stacks alongside it.
All FAQs
Why independent advisory

Four reasons the structure recommendation matters as much as the structure itself.

Most UK businesses approach commercial solar finance through an installer or a single lender. Both are commercially aligned with one specific finance route. Our practice exists to recommend the structure that wins on your specific numbers — including recommending you don't proceed where economics don't support it.

No commissions, anywhere

Fixed advisory fees. We turn down 12–15% of enquiries because economics don't stack. A commission-funded model can't do that without losing the income.

All seven structures, every project

Capital purchase, green loan, finance lease, operating lease, PPA, asset finance, battery storage. Side-by-side after-tax modelling on the same numbers.

UK tax allowance depth

50% FYA, AIA, special-rate pool, PSDS, SEG. Dedicated content on each. None of our competitors has this. The single biggest source of project IRR — modelled in detail.

Five working days to model

From enquiry to indicative side-by-side comparison. Half-hourly demand modelling included on projects above 100 kWp.

Scope of practice

UK-wide. Six finance structures. No commissions.

We work with profitable trading companies, public-sector estates, charities, and property owners across the UK. Project values from £85k SME systems to £2m+ industrial portfolios. Independent of every manufacturer, every installer, every lender — and structurally, that's how the conflict-of-interest stays out of the recommendation.

Geography

UK-wide — 50 city pages

Regional funding routes mapped per city; combined-authority programmes verified per project.

Finance structures

All six modelled, every time

Capital purchase, green loan, finance lease, operating lease, PPA, asset finance — side by side.

Sector coverage

14 sectors detailed

Manufacturing, warehousing, agriculture, schools, NHS, councils, retail, hospitality, property, and 5 more.

Tax-allowance depth

4 dedicated incentive pages

50% FYA, AIA, PSDS, SEG — the tax stack that nobody else explains in detail.

Five working days from enquiry to indicative model.

Postcode, annual electricity consumption, building tenure, and your accounting year-end — that's enough to build the first-pass case across all six finance structures.

Request a finance review