North Wales solar panel grants: what's really on offer

The one scheme that can include solar

Warm Homes Nest, in a few lines

Nest is the Welsh Government's scheme for households in or at risk of fuel poverty. It offers free advice to anyone in Wales, and home improvement packages, at no cost, to eligible owners and private tenants. Its annual report for 2024 to 2025 lists the kinds of work it funds: heating systems, boilers, insulation, solar panels and heat pumps.

There are two ways in. The benefit route is for homes where someone receives a means-tested benefit and the home has an energy rating of E, F or G. The health route is for homes rated D or lower where someone lives with a qualifying health condition and household income is below set thresholds. The Nest team assesses the home and decides what to fit, using its network of Wales-based installers; you don't choose an installer or ask for solar on its own.

More detail: who Nest is for and the crisis route for homes with no heating or hot water.

Off the gas grid

Oil and LPG homes, and a date to know

North Wales has far more homes off the gas grid than Wales as a whole, especially in the west. On the Isle of Anglesey 21.6% of households heat with oil only and another 8.7% with tank or bottled gas; in Gwynedd the figures are 16.9% and 6.4%. Across Wales they are 7.8% and 2.0%.

That matters for heat pumps more than for solar. Under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, an off-gas-grid home replacing oil or LPG can get £9,000 towards an air-to-water or ground source heat pump until March 2027; most other eligible homes get £7,500. Nest's report also notes support for off-grid households, whose traditional heating is typically more expensive to run.

See oil and LPG homes and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in Wales. The rules on where a heat pump can go changed in Wales on 1 June 2026: heat pump planning rules.

If you're paying

Without a grant, what solar is worth

For most households solar is paid for privately, so the useful question isn't which grant but what the system will do. A kWp of panels facing south near Llangefni makes around 995 kWh a year by PVGIS's estimate, and around 883 near Caernarfon, where PVGIS's model of the surrounding terrain takes more off. Your roof's direction, pitch and shading change the figure; an MCS installer's survey and written estimate are what to rely on.

Think of the cost as buying part of your home's electricity in advance, for many years. Its value comes mostly from the electricity you use as it's generated, and partly from export payments. See solar yield in North Wales.

Before you say yes

Offers that borrow a scheme's name

Grant offers that don't match the schemes above are common. The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints against advertisers that presented ECO4 offers as if run by GOV.UK, with crown imagery. ECO4 ends on 31 December 2026 with no successor supplier scheme, so treat any new ECO4 offer with caution. Since April 2025, consumer law has banned outright any false claim of approval by a public body and the use of "free" for anything you pay for.

In Wales, genuine low-income support comes through Nest, which you can contact yourself. If someone calls claiming to be from a Welsh Government scheme, end the call and contact the scheme directly using details you find on gov.wales. See spotting fake offers.

What genuine looks like

Signs a scheme contact is real

• You can find the scheme yourself on gov.wales or GOV.UK, and contact it directly.
• Eligibility is checked against published rules: benefits, health, income, EPC rating.
• The scheme's own team assesses the home and arranges the installers.
• No one asks for a fee to "secure" funding or pushes you to sign a loan.

For renting, see renters and landlords; for your home's rating, EPC ratings in Wales; for what's changing, the timeline to 2028; and for planning, solar planning in Wales.