News
UK Solar News
Policy changes, SEG rates, grants and industry news, curated for Herne Bay, Beltinge and Greenhill homeowners weighing up a DIY plug-in setup or an MCS-certified install.
Market data
DESNZ figures: 291,000 new UK solar installations in the 12 months to August 2026
Government data reported on 1 October puts UK solar at 23.2GW across 2,131,000 installations, with more than 195,000 domestic installations in the last 12 months and the South West, South East and East of England leading on capacity.
1 October 2026 · Solar Power Portal (DESNZ data)
Market data
MCS data: 207,619 UK solar installs so far in 2026, on track for 300,000
Solar Power Portal reports 207,619 MCS-certified installations recorded so far in 2026, already past the 203,697 mark that stood from 2011 until 2025, with the year on track for 300,000 if current rates hold.
16 September 2026 · Solar Power Portal
DIY solar
Octopus to sell plug-in solar kits from £450 after the 27 August rule change
Octopus Energy is rolling out plug-in kits of up to 800W, in one- or two-panel versions, with a headline saving of up to £150 and a payback of around five and a half years on the two-panel kit when paired with a smart export tariff.
2 September 2026 · Solar Power Portal
Export income
British Gas has quietly retired its 15.1p flat SEG rate, replacing it with a 12p tariff for most homes
British Gas's own SEG tariff page now lists Export Premium (12p per kWh, systems up to 15kW) and Export Extra (8p per kWh, systems over 15kW) as its current export tariffs. Export & Earn Plus, the flat 15.1p rate it was previously best known for, no longer appears as a live offer.
26 August 2026 · British Gas
Grid connection
Adding a battery to an existing solar install can trip a G98 system into G99 territory, and that changes the paperwork
Grid Guru's August 2026 newsletter spells out the threshold that catches a lot of retrofits: an AC-coupled battery with its own inverter can push a 3.68 kW single-phase system over the 16 A per phase G98 limit, which means a full G99 application, approved before installation, rather than the simple notify-after-fitting G98 route.
20 August 2026 · Grid Guru
Finance
Government's Warm Homes Loan Scheme closed its first lender window in July, but the money isn't reaching households yet
The Warm Homes Loan Scheme, published by government on 24 June 2026, is putting £300 million of grant capital behind private lenders to cut the cost of home retrofit finance, but the first lender application window closed 29 July 2026 and a second window is only "expected" later in the year, so nothing is available to a Herne Bay homeowner to apply for yet.
19 August 2026 · GOV.UK
DIY solar
Plug-in solar becomes fully legal UK-wide from 27 August 2026, closing the grey area DIY kits sat in
Statutory Instrument 2026/848, made 16 July 2026 and in force from 27 August 2026, amends the 1994 Plugs and Sockets Regulations to formally permit certified plug-in solar kits up to 800W, ending years of DIY solar operating in a legal grey zone rather than a genuine prohibition.
13 August 2026 · legislation.gov.uk
Grants
Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant rises to £9,000 for oil and LPG homes, relevant to Kingsdown and the villages off mains gas
From 21 July 2026 the Boiler Upgrade Scheme increased its heat pump grant from £7,500 to £9,000 for homes currently heated by oil or LPG, while the ECO4 scheme that has funded some solar installs closes at the end of December 2026 with no direct replacement yet live.
29 July 2026 · OVO (solar-and-heating.ovo.com)
MCS standards
MCS solar standard tightens again with MIS 3002 issue 6.0, worth asking any installer quoting a CT6 flat-roof job
MIS 3002 issue 6.0, available for reference from 18 March 2026, is the latest update to the MCS Solar PV Installation Standard, and every recent revision in this cycle has moved toward stricter documentation and mounting requirements, not fewer.
29 July 2026 · MCS (mcscertified.com)
Export income
SEG export rates now span 1p to 32p per kWh, worth checking before assuming your MCS install is still on a good deal
There are around thirty live Smart Export Guarantee tariffs on the market as of July 2026, and Octopus Outgoing, previously the cleanest no-battery-required flat rate, dropped from 15p to 12p per kWh on 1 March 2026, a 20% cut with no change on the homeowner's end.
29 July 2026 · EnergyPlus
VAT
0% VAT on solar and batteries ends 1 April 2027, and the deadline matters more for MCS installs than DIY kits
Solar panels and battery storage installed at a UK home currently carry 0% VAT under HMRC's relief, but that rate rises to 5% from 1 April 2027, adding roughly £250 to a typical £5,000 MCS-certified install in Herne Bay, Beltinge and Greenhill.
29 July 2026 · Sunsave
New solar news added regularly. Questions about how any of this affects your own roof? Ask us directly.