Grants and funding for solar panels for caravan parks

There is no single grant that writes a cheque for a caravan park's solar system, and any installer who tells you otherwise is overselling. What there is, and it is genuinely valuable, is a stack of tax reliefs, an export-income scheme and EV-charging funding that together change the economics of a park install. The trick is combining them correctly for your business structure and project profile. Here is how each one works and how they fit together.

100% Annual Investment Allowance: the big one

The Annual Investment Allowance is the most important funding mechanism for almost every holiday park. It lets a UK business offset the full cost of qualifying plant and machinery, which includes solar PV, inverters, mounting and battery storage, against taxable profit, up to £1m per year. For a limited-company park paying corporation tax, that is worth up to 25% effective tax relief in year one. A sole-trader or partnership park gets comparable relief against income tax. The tax side is set out in more detail in capital allowances for caravan park solar, including business rates and VAT.

One detail matters: solar is classed as a special-rate asset, so it does not qualify for the headline "full expensing" regime you may have read about. It uses the AIA instead, and the AIA cap of £1m comfortably covers virtually every single-park install. Only multi-park groups deploying more than £1m of solar in one tax year hit the cap, and the balance above it then qualifies for the 50% First Year Allowance. Find the official detail on capital allowances on GOV.UK.

Smart Export Guarantee: income on what you do not use

The Smart Export Guarantee requires the larger licensed electricity suppliers to pay you for power you export to the grid. For an eligible generator up to 5 MW you can sign up to an export tariff. Rates are set by each supplier and change often: in early October 2026 the better open fixed rates were around 12-13p per kWh and small suppliers paid 3-6p, so compare live offers.

The SEG matters more for a holiday park than for a 24/7 business, and this is the part competitors miss. Your occupancy is concentrated April to October, so in the quiet winter months you generate power you cannot use on site. That surplus exports under the SEG and earns income on energy that would otherwise be wasted. The tariff is supplier-set, so it pays to shop around, and the live offers should be compared when the system is commissioned.

Workplace Charging Scheme: funding guest and staff EV charging

Guest EV charging is becoming expected on holiday parks, and the OZEV Workplace Charging Scheme helps fund the chargepoints. It covers up to 75% of the cost, capped at £500 per socket (raised from £350 on 1 April 2026), with a maximum of 40 sockets per applicant across all sites; the scheme closes on 31 March 2027. You must use an authorised installer and approved chargepoints.

This pairs naturally with on-site solar. Daytime guest charging absorbs solar generation at near-100% self-consumption, and battery storage lets you charge cars from stored solar in the evening peak. OZEV has indicated the scheme runs to 31 March 2027 as its final year, so apply early. The application is normally handled by the authorised installer as part of the project.

Plant and machinery 50% First Year Allowance

This applies only above the £1m AIA cap, so it is mainly relevant to multi-park groups deploying large amounts of solar in a single tax year. Solar as a special-rate asset qualifies for a 50% deduction in year one on the spend above the cap, with the remaining 50% claimed through writing-down allowances at 6% a year. For most single-park operators the AIA covers the whole project and this never comes into play.

Green Tourism: not a grant, but a certification worth knowing about

The Green Tourism scheme is not funding, but on-site solar can count as evidence in an application, so check its current criteria. Fees are set by the scheme; check its current price list. Green Tourism is a certification scheme, not a grant; on-site solar can count as evidence in an application, so check the scheme's current criteria. Devolved equivalents exist in Scotland and Wales.

How the schemes stack

For a typical single-park install, the combination is straightforward: claim 100% AIA on the full system cost (panels, inverters, mounting and battery), sign up to a Smart Export Guarantee tariff for the off-season surplus, and use the Workplace Charging Scheme to fund any EV chargepoints. There is no double-claiming problem here because the AIA is a tax relief, the SEG is income, and the WCS is a capital grant on a separate item (the chargers).

What about the 0% VAT relief?

You may have seen that solar attracts 0% VAT. That relief currently applies to residential and charity buildings only (until 31 March 2027), and it does not apply to a commercial park operation. This is flagged because it is a common and costly misunderstanding when owners budget. A residential park-home section on a mixed site may be treated differently, so it is worth checking exactly where the line falls for your particular setup.

Application timelines and what to provide

The AIA is claimed through your normal corporation-tax or self-assessment return, so there is no separate application, just keep the invoices and the specification. The SEG is set up with your chosen supplier once the system is commissioned and meets the eligibility conditions on the Ofgem SEG page. The Workplace Charging Scheme application is submitted before installation through the OZEV portal and is usually approved within a few weeks. The paperwork for all three is normally prepared as part of the project, and a straight answer on which apply is better than promising funding that does not exist.