FAQs
These are the practical questions people in Scotland ask about solar, from winter output and coastal weather to tenements and VAT. Each answer is short and links back to the evidence elsewhere on the site.
Last checked Independent guide from SEO-DONS LTD
Several topics have full pages of their own. For the numbers behind your roof, start with yield by place; for money, costs and funding; for permission, planning and tenements and flats. Technical words are explained in the glossary.
These answers are general. Your council decides planning and building warrant questions, the schemes decide their own eligibility, and only a survey by an MCS-certified installer can confirm what your roof can carry.
They work, but output is small in the darkest weeks. On PVGIS figures, a best-angle system in Edinburgh makes most of its 908 kWh per kW between April and September. Expect little in December and plan around the summer.
Snow cover stops output until it slides or melts off, usually within a day or two on a pitched roof. Frost does no harm to properly installed panels. Never climb onto a roof to clear them.
Salt spray can corrode fixings over time. Ask any installer near the coast which panels and mounting parts are rated for coastal sites, and check the manufacturer's warranty conditions for distance from the sea.
Panels and their mounting are designed for wind loads, and an MCS installer has to design for the site. Exposed hillside and island homes should ask how the fixings were chosen for local wind speeds.
The Energy Saving Trust says 25 years or more for the panels, with the inverter usually replaced after around 12 years. Plan for one inverter replacement.
As large as the best roof space allows, within budget. Ten 400-watt panels make 4 kW, which in Aberdeen at a south-facing 35° would generate about 3,572 kWh a year on PVGIS figures.
For systems up to 4 kW, £1,944 per kW on average in 2025/26, from the government's MCS-based cost data. Larger systems from 4 to 10 kW averaged £1,662 per kW.
Installed solar and batteries in homes are zero-rated until 31 March 2027, the same as elsewhere in Great Britain. From 1 April 2027 the rate becomes 5%.
Not standard solar PV, for applicants sent a link after 6 June 2024. It offers advice at no charge, and loans for hybrid PV-T panels and solar water heating.
About 198,000, or 8% of dwellings, had solar panels for electricity, hot water or both in 2024, according to the Scottish House Condition Survey.
Possibly, but not alone. Under the Tenements (Scotland) Act the roof is shared property for upkeep, and panels are an improvement, so every owner should agree in writing. 32.4% of Scottish households live in tenements or flats.
Plug-in solar devices up to 800 watts became legal across Great Britain on 27 August 2026. Check your title deeds and building rules before fixing anything outside.
Scotland's net-zero target year is 2045, now tracked through five-year carbon budgets set under a 2024 Act. Solar on homes is one of many contributions.
Glasgow gets more rain than the east (1,370 mm a year at Bishopton), and PVGIS gives about 855 kWh per kW at the best angle. That is lower than Edinburgh but still useful for a south-facing roof.
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