Solar Car Park Grants & Funding 2026

A solar carport carries a steel canopy over your car park, and that structure is roughly 45% of the project cost, which is why per-kWp pricing sits above rooftop solar. The good news is that several distinct funding routes stack on a single carport scheme, and most installers treat them as separate, unconnected topics. They are not. When you build solar and EV charging together over a car park, you can layer a charging grant, a tax allowance, an export tariff and, for public bodies, a capital grant, all on the same project. This guide walks through each route as it stands in 2026 and explains which sites each one suits.

Why funding matters more for carports than rooftop

Rooftop solar reuses an existing roof, so it skips the structural spend and pays back in 5 to 7 years. A solar carport has to build the canopy first, so payback on the panels alone is typically 8 to 10 years. That longer panel-only payback is exactly why the funding stack matters: the schemes below are what close the gap and turn a carport into a genuinely strong investment rather than a like-for-like comparison against a roof.

The key insight is that a carport does several jobs at once, so it qualifies for support aimed at several different policy goals: decarbonisation, EV-charging rollout and business investment. Few other assets sit in the middle of that many funding streams.

1. The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS)

The Workplace Charging Scheme funds the EV-charging element of a solar carport, the sockets themselves. It is the most directly relevant grant for any carport that includes charging, which in practice is almost all of them.

The scheme covers part of the purchase and installation cost of EV chargepoints, up to a per-socket cap across all of an applicant’s sites. It is voucher-based and must be claimed through an OZEV-authorised installer, so check that whoever you appoint holds that status before you commit. The scheme is open to businesses, charities and public-sector organisations across the UK. Check the gov.uk guidance for the current contribution rate, per-socket cap, socket limit and closing date, as these are revised from time to time.

One point of confusion worth clearing up: the separate EV Infrastructure Grant for SMEs has closed, so do not plan around it. The WCS is the live route for workplace charging. The full rules are in the Workplace Charging Scheme guidance.

Because the carport provides the structure, the cable routes and a behind-the-meter solar supply, combining the two is the cheapest way to deliver both, and daytime solar directly absorbs daytime charging demand. The WCS grant is the part that funds the sockets sitting under your canopy.

2. The 100% Annual Investment Allowance (AIA)

This is the single biggest financial lever on most carport schemes, and it is a tax allowance rather than a grant, which means almost every limited company can use it.

Because the PV plant is treated as plant and machinery, a business can deduct it from taxable profit in the year it is installed via the 100% Annual Investment Allowance. For a limited company that is worth up to a 25% effective tax saving in year one. The AIA shelters the first £1m of qualifying spend annually, and since most single-site carport arrays cost well under that ceiling, the PV element is written off in full in the first year.

The caveat to flag with your accountant: the structural steel canopy may be treated differently from the PV plant for capital allowances purposes. The split between qualifying plant and the structure is a question for your tax adviser, not your installer. The government’s capital allowances guidance sets out the framework, but get the split confirmed for your own accounts.

3. The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG)

The Smart Export Guarantee pays you for surplus generation, the electricity your carport produces but you do not use on site. Licensed electricity suppliers with 150,000 or more domestic customers must offer an SEG tariff, and the scheme applies to MCS-certified PV installations up to 5 MW.

Export tariffs in 2026 typically sit in the range of 4 to 15p per kWh, and they are set by each supplier, so it pays to shop around for the best rate rather than accepting your incumbent supplier’s offer.

SEG matters most at sites with low or no out-of-hours load. A weekday-only office or a weekend-only visitor attraction will export a significant share of its generation, so the export tariff has a real effect on the return. A 24/7 site such as a hospital, by contrast, self-consumes almost everything and exports little, so SEG is a minor factor there. Match the scheme to your occupancy pattern. The Smart Export Guarantee rules are set by Ofgem.

4. The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS)

If your car park belongs to a public-sector body, there is a capital grant route the private sector cannot access. The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme supports public-sector organisations in England, including NHS trusts, councils, schools and universities, with heat decarbonisation and energy-efficiency measures, delivered through Salix Finance. A solar carport can form part of a wider qualifying decarbonisation project.

Grant value varies by competition phase, but PSDS typically funds a substantial share of eligible project cost, which can transform the economics of a public-sector carport. The scheme runs in competitive phases rather than being permanently open, so the practical step is to check current phase availability before building a business case around it. It is most relevant to the NHS, council and education car park sub-verticals. See the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme collection for current phases.

5. Devolved EV and renewables support in Scotland and Wales

Sites in Scotland and Wales should look beyond the England-wide schemes. A range of OZEV-administered EV-infrastructure grants operates across the UK, but the devolved nations add their own support on top, and it can be more generous. Scotland, for example, has offered interest-free low-carbon transport loans through the Energy Saving Trust and schemes via Transport Scotland; Wales has its own routes too.

If your car park is in Scotland or Wales, check the devolved EV and renewables support alongside the Workplace Charging Scheme, because the combination can beat the England-only equivalent.

How the stack works in practice

The point of all this is that the routes combine on a single scheme. Take an illustrative workplace carport: the PV plant is written off in year one under the AIA, the EV sockets are part-funded by the Workplace Charging Scheme, weekday generation is self-consumed into the building at full retail rate, and the weekend surplus earns SEG income. A public-sector version of the same project might also sit inside a PSDS-supported estate decarbonisation programme. None of these cancels another out; they each address a different part of the cost.

That is why the right way to judge a carport is the blended return, savings plus charging value plus grant plus tax relief, rather than the panel-only payback in isolation.

Find the right stack for your site

Which routes apply depends on whether you are a business or a public body, where you are in the UK, and whether you are adding EV charging. Read the full cost and payback breakdown, see the detailed grants and funding page, run the numbers in our savings calculator, or look at the funding picture for NHS and council car parks specifically. When you want a site-specific assessment of which grants you qualify for, request a free feasibility.