Home Energy Scotland and solar panels: what changed, and what is left

What Home Energy Scotland is

Home Energy Scotland, usually shortened to HES, is an advice service covering heating, insulation, renewables and running costs in the home. It is funded by the Scottish Government, and households can use it at no charge (Home Energy Scotland). It does not install anything and it does not sell panels.

HES also handles applications for the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan, the scheme that helps some homeowners pay for heating and efficiency work. Those two roles are easy to confuse. The advice is open to any household in Scotland. The money is narrower: it depends on the measure, the property and the person applying, and HES sets the rules in its published terms (HES terms and conditions). Plenty of people get good value from the advice even when no funding applies to them.

HES is separate from this website. Scotland Solar Panels is an independent guide published by SEO-DONS LTD. It has no tie to HES, to any council or to the Scottish Government, and it cannot make an application on your behalf.

The 2024 change to solar funding

For several years the HES Grant and Loan could help pay for solar PV panels and home batteries. That stopped in mid-2024. The terms published that June say applicants who were sent an application link after 6 June 2024 cannot get grant or loan funding for solar PV or for energy storage systems (HES terms, June 2024).

Note what the date refers to. It is the date HES sent the link, not the date the panels went on the roof. People who already had a link before the cut-off could carry on under the earlier rules. Anyone starting now is under the current ones.

The practical result is blunt. If you want ordinary rooftop panels in Scotland and you can afford to pay for them, no grant will help. That is true of HES, and there is no general national scheme to fall back on. A doorstep seller who says otherwise is describing something most households cannot get. The routes that can still include panels are narrow, tied to income, benefits or area, and the guide to solar panel grants in Scotland lays them out side by side.

Batteries went at the same moment. A battery bought with new panels, or added later to an existing system, falls outside HES funding for anyone sent a link after the cut-off. The battery guide covers sizes and prices for Scottish households paying their own way.

What is still on offer for solar

Two solar technologies remain on the HES list. Both come as loans only, with no grant attached (Home Energy Scotland):

• Hybrid PV-T panels. A PV-T panel makes electricity and heats water from the same surface. HES lists it as hybrid solar PV and water heating, and only true PV-T systems count on that line. Ordinary PV panels do not.
• Solar water heating. Often called solar thermal, these panels warm water directly and make no electricity at all.

Each can get a loan of up to £5,000. Eligibility follows the HES Grant and Loan terms: you must own the home, it must be in Scotland, and it must be your only or main residence. Read the current terms before you commit, because HES can change them (HES terms and conditions).

A loan is still debt. Ask HES how repayments are taken, what happens if you sell the house, and whether you need a quote in hand before you apply. Get the answers in writing and keep them with your paperwork.

Outside HES, two other routes can include solar, and both are tightly targeted. Warmer Homes Scotland is a Scottish Government scheme, and the measures it lists include a home renewables system (Warmer Homes Scotland). To qualify, the home must be your main home, it must have a poor energy rating, its floor area must be no more than 230 m², and someone in the household must meet a qualifying condition, such as receiving a passport benefit like Universal Credit or Council Tax Reduction. Area Based Schemes are run by councils in places with high fuel poverty and are mostly about solid wall insulation. The Scottish Government gave councils £64m for them in 2025/26, and each council decides which streets and homes qualify (gov.scot).

What the scheme figures show

The Scottish Government's Heat in Buildings progress report for 2026 counts the measures each scheme paid for, year by year. Its tables show how fast solar left HES once the cut-off applied, and where public money for panels still goes (Heat in Buildings progress report 2026).

Three points stand out. HES solar fell from 3,368 to 371 across two years, the drop you would expect once new applicants were shut out. The report does not explain the measures still recorded in the latest year, though applications that began before the cut-off are the likely source. Warmer Homes Scotland moved the other way, rising from 313 to 1,369 as solar and storage became a bigger part of what that targeted scheme delivers. Council Area Based Schemes, meanwhile, have shrunk as a route to panels.

Set those rows beside the wider market. Official cost data for 2025/26 analysed 28,369 Scottish solar PV installations (DESNZ). The HES and Warmer Homes Scotland rows for the same year come to a small fraction of that, by our arithmetic, so most new Scottish systems are now paid for by the household itself. Around 8% of Scottish homes had panels in 2024, roughly 198,000 of them (Scottish House Condition Survey 2024). The cost guide shows what Scottish households paid per kW in the latest official figures.

Where heat pumps fit in

HES funding has not stopped. It has moved towards heating. The HES Grant and Loan offers a grant of up to £7,500 towards a heat pump, an optional loan of up to £7,500 on top that charges no interest, and an extra £1,500 for qualifying rural and island homes (Home Energy Scotland). Eligibility is set by HES: you must own the home and live in it as your only or main residence, and the heat pump must supply all of the home's heating and hot water (HES terms and conditions). Landlords are not listed as eligible on the HES funding page. None of this money pays for solar PV.

Scotland has no Boiler Upgrade Scheme either. That scheme is open to homes in England and Wales only (GOV.UK), so HES is the route that matters here. If you are weighing panels and a heat pump together, the guide to solar with a heat pump follows the two through a Scottish year, month by month.

Getting useful advice from HES

HES advice works best when you bring facts about your home. Before you get in touch through the HES website, gather these:

• A recent electricity bill that shows your yearly use in kWh.
• The home's energy performance certificate, if it has one.
• Which way the main roof faces, and anything that shades it, such as trees, a chimney or a taller building next door.
• Whether you own the roof outright, share it in a tenement, or rent.
• Any quotes you already hold, with the system size in kW.

Then ask the questions HES is well placed to answer. Does any scheme apply to your household, given your income, benefits and home? Would PV-T or solar water heating suit a home like yours, and is the £5,000 loan worth taking on? Would insulation or a heating change do more for your home first? The website also has a funding finder and a home energy check you can use without speaking to anyone.

Keep two limits in mind. General advice cannot replace the checks made by the firm that quotes, such as a look at the roof structure and the electrics. For that stage, the guide to choosing an installer explains MCS certification, consumer codes and how to compare written quotes. And if anyone contacts you claiming to be from Home Energy Scotland and offering panels at no cost, be wary. HES does not fund solar PV for new applicants, and its advisers are not there to sell you a system.