Can my school apply for Great British Energy solar panels?

There is no open application form. The Great British Energy Solar Partnership selects schools, prioritising areas of higher deprivation and spreading at least ten schools per English region. The exception is the July 2026 PPA pilot for 150 schools and colleges in Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands and the South East, which is the first strand designed to widen access ahead of a national rollout in 2027–2028.

Which schools has Great British Energy funded so far?

As of 16 July 2026 the Department for Education reports 245 schools and colleges with government-funded solar, with 100 more joining the Partnership backed by up to £40 million. The first 11 installations, announced in June 2025, were forecast to save £175,000 a year between them.

What if my school is not selected?

Model the project anyway. Around 80% of schools still have no solar, and the routes that do not depend on selection are your own capital, CIF for eligible academies alongside condition works, a commercial PPA using the DfE template, or a community energy group (there is no Salix loan for English schools and PSDS is closed). A school that has its half-hourly data and a roof survey ready is also the school that gets picked up fastest when the rollout reaches its region.

Does Great British Energy cover Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?

The schools programme is England-only; the devolved nations run their own public-estate energy schemes. See our pages for schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the equivalent routes.

Great British Energy solar for schools: how to get it

Who is selected, who is not, what the July 2026 no-upfront-cost pilot changes, and what to do in the meantime — with every figure taken from the Department for Education's own releases.

The honest answer first: there is no application form

The question we are asked most about Great British Energy is "how do we apply?", and the accurate answer is that, for the main programme, you do not. The Great British Energy Solar Partnership selects schools. The government's stated approach is to prioritise schools in areas of higher deprivation, to cluster the early waves in the North East, West Midlands and North West, and to place at least ten schools in every English region. A school cannot apply its way onto that list, and any adviser who tells you otherwise is selling something.

That is not the end of the story, because the programme has grown a second strand that is designed to widen access, and because the routes that do not depend on selection are open to every school today. This guide covers both.

Outside the selected schools in England, Great British Energy’s money for the other nations went to public bodies as loans, not to schools as grants: £2 million for Scottish public-sector solar loans (Salix), now closed to applications, and £4 million for solar on Welsh public buildings, to be spent by 30 November 2026 (Salix). Both windows are closed or past.

Where the programme stands — 16 July 2026

245 schools and colleges already have government-funded solar panels.
100 more are joining the Partnership, backed by up to £40 million.
150 schools and colleges across Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands and the South East will pilot a power-purchase-agreement model: a private partner installs and maintains the panels at no upfront cost, and the school buys the electricity at an agreed rate.
The pilot is intended to inform a national rollout in 2027–2028, with the stated ambition that every school and college in England can eventually access solar this way.
Measured savings so far: secondary schools with solar and LED lighting are saving £58,600 a year; primaries £21,000. One named example, LIFT Feversham School in Yorkshire, saved around £23,000 in its first year alongside other efficiency measures.
The Partnership overall is an investment of up to £255 million — across schools, colleges, NHS sites and military sites. It is not a schools-only fund, and the schools share is not published separately.

Source: gov.uk, 16 July 2026; earlier figures from gov.uk, 3 June 2025. For what the programme is and how it fits alongside the other funding routes, see the Great British Energy solar for schools page.

Route 1: the selected programme — how schools are chosen

Selection is done by government, working from the Department for Education's estate data and deprivation indices rather than from applications. The first wave, announced in March 2025 with around £80 million for around 200 English schools, was explicitly targeted at areas of deprivation, and the June 2025 release confirmed the first 11 installations were forecast to save £175,000 a year between them. Schools are not told in advance that they are under consideration; the first contact is typically an approach about a survey.

What you can do is make your school easy to select and fast to deliver. The schools that were installed first were the ones whose roof condition, structural capacity and electrical infrastructure were already documented. If your estates team can produce a current roof survey, a year of half-hourly electricity data and a single-line diagram of the main switchboard, you have removed the three things that most often delay a funded install. It is the same pack every other funding route needs, so it is worth assembling either way.

Route 2: the PPA pilot — the first strand you can actually put your hand up for

The July 2026 announcement matters because it changes the mechanism. Under a power purchase agreement the school does not receive capital at all; a private partner pays for, installs and maintains the array and the school buys the electricity it produces at a fixed rate below its grid tariff, for the life of the contract. The government is piloting this with 150 schools and colleges in three regions before a national rollout from 2027. The wider plan is in what the Education Estates Strategy means for school solar.

If your school is in Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands or the South East, ask your local authority or trust estates lead now whether they are engaged with the pilot; the Department has said the model is meant to be accessible rather than selected. If you are anywhere else in England, the practical position is that the same PPA structure is available from commercial providers and community energy groups today, and the school that has already run one will be the easiest for the national rollout to reach. Our funding routes beyond grants section explains the commercial and community versions.

What to do if you are not on the list

Around 80% of schools still have no solar. The latest programme announcement is still the one of 16 July 2026 (checked against gov.uk on 18 October 2026), and it does not say how schools are chosen or whether they can apply. The routes that do not depend on Great British Energy selection are:

Your own capital or reserves — there is no Salix loan for English schools and the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) is closed; the routes are compared on our school solar grants and funding page.
The Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) for eligible academies and sixth-form colleges — a competitive bid where solar sits inside a wider condition case.
A commercial PPA — the same no-upfront-cost structure as the pilot, available now.
A community energy group — share-funded arrays that sell you cheaper power; see community energy for schools.
Your own capital — the best return if you have it; the school solar cost guide shows the payback by school size.

Whichever route applies, register for the Smart Export Guarantee: it pays for the electricity a closed school exports across the summer holidays, and only an MCS-certified installation qualifies.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Great British Energy schools programme is England-only. The devolved nations run their own public-estate schemes; see our pages for schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the equivalent routes.

A note on who we are

This site is independent guidance published by SEO Dons Ltd. We are not an installer and we are not part of Great British Energy; we publish guidance and, when a school asks a question, we reply by email. That is also why we are blunt about selection: a school that is told it can "apply" and cannot has lost a term it could have spent on a route that was open.