Can a Shopping Centre Get a Grant for Solar Panels?

Funding solar panels for shopping centres in 2026

A privately owned shopping centre is unlikely to get a grant for solar panels. What a landlord or asset manager can use is tax relief, an export payment, a narrow EV-charging grant, and finance routes that can fund a scheme with little or no capital outlay. This guide sets out each one as it stands for 2026, and how it applies to a multi-let retail asset where the question of who funds the install and who benefits from the saving has to be answered before anything goes on the roof. What applies depends on your scheme, ownership structure and tariff. For the full picture of a scheme, see the guide to solar panels for shopping centres.

The defining feature of shopping-centre funding is that the array serves the landlord-controlled common-area load, so the reliefs and the finance have to be matched to how the owner capitalises or recovers the investment against the service charge. That is a commercial question as much as a technical one, and it is the part of shopping-centre solar most often left unaddressed.

Capital allowances: the foundation of the case

For a landlord paying corporation tax, the main financial lever is usually tax relief, not a grant. Solar PV is a special-rate plant-and-machinery asset. The Annual Investment Allowance (£1m) usually gives 100 percent relief in year one for a business under the limit. The saving is at the company's own corporation tax rate, so it depends on that rate and on the qualifying spend.

Because solar is a special-rate asset it sits outside full expensing, so full expensing does not apply to it. Qualifying expenditure above the £1m AIA limit can instead claim the 50 percent First-Year Allowance. How the spend splits between the two depends on the size of the scheme and on any phasing across a portfolio. The official rules are on the GOV.UK capital allowances page, and because the treatment depends on how your spend sits against the limit and on your accounting period, confirm the position with your accountant.

Smart Export Guarantee for surplus generation

Any electricity the scheme exports rather than self-consumes can be paid through the Smart Export Guarantee. Suppliers that are SEG licensees must offer an export tariff above 0p to eligible generators up to 5 MW. Suppliers set the rates and terms, and they vary, so compare tariffs and check what each one asks of an installation.

For a shopping centre the SEG is the smaller part of the case. An array sized to the predictable common-area load can use much of what it generates on site, and self-consumed units displacing full retail import are usually worth more than exported ones, so export is best treated as a useful top-up rather than the core of the business case.

Workplace Charging Scheme for paired EV charging

Where the array serves staff or fleet EV charging, the Workplace Charging Scheme can contribute toward the chargepoint cost. Parking must be designated to the applicant, off-road and not solely for customers, so a shopping centre's customer car park probably fails. Check the parking eligibility rules; staff or fleet bays are the likelier fit.

Daytime charging for staff or fleet can use solar generation on site, which is worth more than exporting it. The scheme pays up to 75% of purchase and installation cost, up to £500 per socket (£350 before 1 April 2026), for a maximum of 40 sockets per applicant, and it closes on 31 March 2027. The applicant must own the site or have landlord consent, and use an authorised installer. Confirm the current official position before any application goes in.

Other schemes that may apply

Two further schemes are worth checking depending on the tenant mix and the owner’s profile. Climate Change Agreements offer a Climate Change Levy discount to eligible energy-intensive operations in exchange for meeting energy-efficiency targets, so check whether any occupier qualifies. The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme is not a grant but a compliance regime: large undertakings (250 or more UK employees, or turnover above 50m euro with a balance sheet above 43m euro) must complete mandatory energy audits, with the Phase 4 compliance notification due by 5 December 2027. Many larger institutional landlords are in scope, and on-site solar is one of the most credible recommendations such an audit can identify.

Landlord finance routes: who funds, who benefits

For most multi-let assets the practical funding question is not which grant but which finance route, and how the cost and the saving are split between landlord and tenant. There are three main routes.

Capital purchase keeps the system on the owner’s balance sheet and captures the full benefit of the capital allowances above. It suits an owner with capital available and a long hold horizon.

Power purchase agreement (PPA) delivers the array with no upfront capital. The owner pays per kWh consumed to the party that funds the system, so compare the PPA price per kWh with your current tariff and check the contract term. This suits owners who would rather not tie up capital.

Asset finance or an operating lease spreads the cost over a fixed term, which suits a portfolio owner wanting a predictable monthly cost per scheme across several assets. Compare the term and total cost against buying outright.

Across all three, the landlord-tenant structuring is what turns a stalled proposal into a scheme that proceeds. Metering, service-charge recovery and any green-lease clauses need settling first so the cost and the saving land in the right place. A landlord can self-consume common-area generation directly and reduce the service charge, share surplus with tenants through a green-lease rent share, or fund the install and recover it through the service charge. Where the roofs are leased to tenants, a roof-rights clause or lease addendum can reserve the landlord’s right to the roof for generation. Modelling both tenant-funded and landlord-funded routes makes it clear who pays and who benefits.

Map the right combination for your scheme

The right funding for a shopping centre is usually tax relief on the qualifying spend, the SEG on any surplus, a finance route that fits the owner's balance sheet and the lease structure, and, only where staff or fleet bays qualify, the Workplace Charging Scheme. For how costs are worked out see the cost guide, read the full funding routes page, and model the saving on the savings calculator. To see how the reliefs and finance apply across a shopping centre and retail park in practice, read the sector page, then get a quote; mapping the right combination for your scheme should start from your common-area meter data. We reply by email.