How to choose a solar installer for your school: the checks that matter

What you are actually buying

A school solar contract is more than panels. A written quote should itemise the panels and inverter, the mounting system, scaffolding or access equipment, the electrical work, the grid application for the site, commissioning, monitoring and what happens when something fails. If any of those lines is missing, ask why. Our school solar cost guide shows what the main lines look like and why a published benchmark only goes so far: the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) puts the 2025/26 median installed cost of a 10 to 50 kW non-domestic system at about £1,262 per kW, and publishes no band above 50 kW, so a larger school array has to be priced from written quotes. Get more than one.

Check the public registers, not the badge

Logos on a website prove nothing. Look the company up on the issuing body’s own search page and check that the legal name and certificate number match the name on the quote.

• MCS. For solar up to 50 kW, Ofgem’s Smart Export Guarantee rules ask for MCS or equivalent certification of both the installation and the installer; from 50 kW to 5 MW only the installation needs certifying. Search the MCS installer directory and ask which MCS certificate covers the work you are commissioning.
• NICEIC. The electrical work should be done by a competent, approved electrical contractor. Use the NICEIC contractor search and ask who signs off the electrical installation.
• TrustMark and consumer codes. TrustMark and the Renewable Energy Consumer Code (RECC) have their own scopes, which can differ for a school or trust as a buyer. Read each scheme’s own description before you rely on a membership.

An installer that cannot be found, or whose name differs from the one on the quote, has not passed this step.

Ask for safeguarding evidence in writing

There are children on site. Under Keeping Children Safe in Education (2026 edition), in force since 1 September 2026, the school must satisfy itself that contractor staff have had the appropriate checks: contractors in regulated activity need an enhanced DBS check including the children’s barred list, and a contractor on whom no checks have been obtained should never work unsupervised (the contractor paragraphs are 368 to 373). Ask the installer to confirm in writing, before anyone starts on site, who will be on the roof and in the plant room, and what checks each person has had. Agree sign-in, escorted access in pupil areas and the holiday windows for disruptive work, keeping the May to June exam period clear.

What a good proposal looks like

• It starts from your data. A proper first proposal is built from 12 months of half-hourly meter data, including a holiday period, and your roof drawings. A quote written from your postcode alone is a sales estimate.
• It states its assumptions. Generation per kW, the share of output the school uses on site, the export rate and the electricity price should each be written down. Our school solar check prints its own assumptions in the same way, so you can compare.
• It can say no. A good proposal tells you if the roof, the supply or the numbers do not work. Our roof checklist covers age, asbestos, structure and planning before you pay for anything.
• It names who does what. The grid application, the structural check, the asbestos management survey and the commissioning each need a named owner.

Quotes, frameworks and the DfE PPA route

Schools and trusts spend public money, so check your own financial regulations or scheme of delegation for the thresholds that apply. The Department for Education’s Get help buying for schools service lists a solar photovoltaic framework for schools: it covers equipment only, installation only or both, includes project management, offers power purchase agreement and other funding options, and has pre-agreed terms. A framework can save tendering time; it does not replace your own checks above. Trusts rolling solar across several sites should also read our multi-academy trust procurement guide.

If the offer is a power purchase agreement (PPA) rather than a purchase, the rules changed on 15 July 2026: any PPA on the school estate must now use DfE’s PPA and land-lease templates. When we checked gov.uk on 28 October 2026 the templates had still not been published (DfE expects them in autumn 2026) and new approvals are paused until they are. A PPA offer that does not use the DfE template cannot be approved.

The contract and the site

Construction work on a school site brings duties under the Health and Safety Executive’s Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015: where more than one contractor is involved, the client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor. Ask the installer how it will meet those duties, who will manage subcontractors, and what the programme looks like around term dates.

Red flags

• “Free” solar with no written cost analysis. Our guide to free solar for schools explains what “free” does and does not mean.
• Pressure to sign on the day, or a deadline that depends on a grant you cannot find on gov.uk.
• No entry on the public register, or an entry under a different company name.
• Savings quoted as a guarantee, without the meter data and assumptions behind them.
• Reluctance to put DBS arrangements, site supervision and the programme in writing.
• Any PPA that does not use the DfE template after 15 July 2026.

Questions to ask every installer

1. Which MCS certificate and NICEIC registration cover this job, and what are their numbers?
2. Who will be on site, and what safeguarding checks has each person had?
3. Which half-hourly data and roof information is your proposal built from?
4. What yield, on-site share, export rate and electricity price have you assumed?
5. Who submits the grid application and who owns the structural and asbestos checks?
6. What does the warranty cover, who honours it and for how long?
7. How will the work fit around term dates and the exam period?

Sources

• Department for Education, Keeping children safe in education 2026 (contractors, paragraphs 368 to 373), gov.uk.
• Ofgem, Smart Export Guarantee: certification requirements by system size.
• Department for Education, Power purchase agreement pilot, gov.uk, checked 28 October 2026.
• Department for Education, Get help buying for schools: solar photovoltaic, checked 28 October 2026.
• Health and Safety Executive, Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.
• DESNZ, Solar PV cost data, 2025/26.