Solar panels for schools: guides & comparisons
In-depth, no-nonsense guides on cost, grants and funding, payback, and the decisions that matter for solar panels for schools. Written by SEO Dons Editorial and checked against primary sources.
How to Choose a Solar Installer for Your School
The checks to make before a school signs with a solar installer: public registers, safeguarding evidence, a proposal built from your own meter data, procurement routes and red flags.
Read guide → FundingCIF 2026-27 Results and How CIF Bids Are Scored
The 2026-27 Condition Improvement Fund results, how DfE scores a bid out of 100, where solar can earn marks, who gets School Condition Allocation instead, and what replaces CIF.
Read guide → FundingCan a School Spend Devolved Formula Capital on Solar?
What devolved formula capital (DFC) is, how much a primary or secondary school receives in 2026-27, what DfE says it can be spent on, and how much solar it buys at the DESNZ median cost.
Read guide → FundingEducation Estates Strategy: What It Means for School Solar
The Department for Education’s Education Estates Strategy for schools: the £710m Renewal and Retrofit Programme, the planned DfE-approved solar PPA, CIF’s replacement by autumn 2028 and the roof-space estimate.
Read guide → RoofsIs Your School Roof Ready for Solar Panels? A Checklist
A school roof checklist before you buy solar: roof age and covering, asbestos survey, RAAC, flat-roof loading, planning, grid connection and contractor checks, with DfE sources.
Read guide → Getting startedPut in Charge of Solar for Your School? Start Here
A first-month checklist: the data to gather, who has to consent, the funding that is open and what to ask every installer.
Read guide → FundingCan a CIF Bid Pay for School Solar Panels?
Who can bid into the Condition Improvement Fund, what it prioritises, why solar-only bids fail and how to design solar into a roof bid.
Read guide → CostHow Long Do School Solar Panels Take to Pay Back?
Payback worked from DESNZ costs, PVGIS yields and grid prices for primary, secondary and boarding schools.
Read guide → Primary schoolsSingle-Phase Primary Schools: How Much Solar Can You Fit?
Many older primary schools run on a single-phase electrical supply that caps how much solar you can fit. Here's the ~13–17 kW per-phase limit explained, the difference between G98 and G99, and when a three-phase upgrade pays.
Read guide → Listed buildingsSolar on a Listed or Victorian School Building: What's Possible
Can you put solar on a listed or Victorian school building? A practical guide to Listed Building Consent, conservation areas, working with heritage teams, and managing asbestos (ACM) on pre-2000 school roofs.
Read guide → Battery storageThe Term-Time Problem: Does Your School Solar Need a Battery?
School solar over-generates during the holidays and weekends when the building is empty. Here's the term-time problem explained — self-consumption percentages, when a 50–150 kWh battery pays, and how the Smart Export Guarantee monetises the surplus.
Read guide → CurriculumTurning Your Solar Array into a Teaching Resource (KS2/KS3)
How to turn a school solar array into a genuine teaching resource — live-generation displays, curriculum links across Geography, Science and Design & Technology, and green-ambassador programmes for KS2 and KS3.
Read guide → MATSolar for Multi-Academy Trusts: A Procurement & Rollout Guide
A trust-level guide to procuring and rolling out solar across a multi-academy trust — the estate-wide business case, the funding routes still open, phased delivery, central monitoring and ESFA handbook compliance.
Read guide → Cost guideHow Much Do Solar Panels for a School Cost in 2026?
What solar panels for a school cost in 2026 — cost per kW, worked examples for primary, secondary and multi-academy trust projects, and realistic payback from a sourced cost basis.
Read guide → FundingCan a School Really Get Solar Panels for Free?
Free solar panels for schools sounds too good to be true. Here's the honest picture — how Great British Energy, the Condition Improvement Fund and a solar PPA can get panels on your roof at little or no upfront capital cost, and why Salix loans and PSDS no longer apply in England.
Read guide → FundingSalix vs PSDS vs CIF in 2026: Which Is Still Open?
A plain-English decision guide to Salix, PSDS and the Condition Improvement Fund for school solar in 2026: which is still open, and what each one actually pays for.
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