Grants and funding for solar panels for dealerships

There is no single headline grant that pays for solar on a car dealership, but there is a stack of tax reliefs and funding routes that, used together, cut the real cost of a project sharply. The biggest lever is tax relief, the next is funding for the EV charging that pairs so well with solar on a forecourt, and the third is the export income you earn for power you do not use on site. Below is how each one works, how they combine, and the deadlines worth watching.

Tax relief does most of the heavy lifting

For a limited company, the 100% Annual Investment Allowance is usually the single most valuable benefit. It lets you write off the first £1m of qualifying plant and machinery in the year you spend it, and most single-site dealership installs fall comfortably inside that cap. At current corporation tax rates that is an effective saving of up to 25% of the system cost in year one. One important detail people get wrong: solar is a special-rate asset, so it does not qualify for the headline full-expensing scheme. You claim it through the AIA, or, on spend above the £1m cap, through the 50% First-Year Allowance. Multi-site dealer groups rolling solar across an estate often exceed the cap and split the claim across AIA and the 50% FYA. Work this through with your accountant before contracts are signed so the timing of the spend lands in the right accounting period. See the official capital allowances guidance for the current rules.

The Workplace Charging Scheme can fund staff and fleet EV chargers

EV charging is increasingly a consideration for franchised dealerships. Check whether your franchise agreement or the manufacturer's retailer standards set any requirements for renewables, EV-charger provision or signage; if they do, agree panel and charger positions with the manufacturer before design. Chargers love solar because daytime charging self-consumes generation at full value. The Workplace Charging Scheme, run by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, covers up to 75% of the cost of buying and installing chargepoints. For installations completed on or after 1 April 2026 the grant is up to £500 per socket, capped at 40 sockets across all sites. The catch is timing: the scheme has been extended for a final year and closes on 31 March 2027, so any dealership planning charger investment should apply well before then. Eligibility matters too: for a business the chargepoints can only be used by its staff and fleet, and parking solely for customers is ineligible, so customer-only charging on a forecourt is not covered (check whether demonstrator vehicles count as fleet). Applications are made on the online portal, and an authorised installer claims the grant after installation. The solar and the chargepoints can be planned as one project, because the combined business case can beat either project on its own.

Getting paid for what you export

The Smart Export Guarantee requires larger licensed suppliers to pay you for surplus electricity sent back to the grid. Tariffs are set by suppliers and differ widely, so compare current tariffs, including smart and time-of-use options. For a dealership that self-consumes most of its generation through showroom, workshop and charging load, export is a smaller part of the case than it is for a seasonal or weekend-heavy site. It still matters at quiet times, and you need a smart meter recording half-hourly export to claim it. To qualify, the installation must meet Ofgem's eligibility rules (certification requirements can depend on system size), and eligible generators are up to 5 MW.

How the routes stack

The reliefs are designed to work together rather than compete. A typical dealership project claims the AIA on the full installed cost, the Workplace Charging Scheme grant on any eligible staff and fleet EV chargers within it, and then earns SEG income on exported power year after year. If your group is a large undertaking (250 or more UK employees, or turnover above £44m with a balance sheet above £38m) you are also caught by the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme, whose Phase 4 qualification date is 31 December 2026 and whose compliance notification is due by 5 December 2027. On-site solar is one of the most credible recommendations an ESOS audit can produce, so the same project that saves you money also helps you meet a separate legal obligation.

Timelines, paperwork and common pitfalls

Tax relief is claimed through your normal corporation tax return, so the main thing to manage is the timing of the spend. The Workplace Charging Scheme runs through an online application and an authorised installer, and the application must be filed before the March 2027 closure. The slowest item on any larger project is not a grant at all, it is the G99 grid connection, which can take many months on a constrained network, so the application is normally submitted alongside the structural survey to start the clock immediately. The most common mistakes to avoid are assuming solar can claim full expensing (full expensing does not apply to solar), missing the WCS deadline, and sizing a system for export income when self-consumption is where the value actually sits. The right combination of reliefs depends on the specific project, so check which ones apply to your business and which do not, ideally with your accountant.