Private households solar loan and grant statistics: EIR release

Information requested

The total number of loans and grants awarded per year by the Scottish government to private households to install solar PV from January 2017 to 20 May 2021.

The total amount of loans and grants that the Scottish government has paid per year to private households to install solar PV from January 2017 to 20 May 2021.

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I enclose the information you have requested.

Your request asked for the number and value of loans and grants paid to private households from January 2017 to 20 May 2021 to install solar PV.

During this specified period, Scottish Government funding for households to install solar PV was provided through the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Loan and Cashback Scheme.

The HES Loan and Cashback Scheme followed a consumer-led model where the funding is applied for by the applicant directly, who in turn is responsible for sourcing an installer and paying funding to them once works are complete. For the HES Loan and Cashback Scheme, applicants had 6 months to drawdown funding. This means that funding offers would often be paid out in the months following the date that the offer was agreed.

Over this specified period, grant funding was not available for solar PV for private households. Therefore, the number and value of grants awarded within the scope of your request will be nil.

The number and value of loans awarded to private households for solar PV is contained within the following table, split into financial years:

Home Energy Scotland Funding Awarded for Solar PV ‐ Loan Funding
	FY 2017 ‐ 2018	FY 2018 ‐ 2019	FY 2019 ‐ 2020	FY 2020 ‐ 2021	FY 2021 ‐ 2022*
Total Number of Agreed Loan Funding Offers	54	309	191	278	84
Total Loan Value of Agreed Funding Offers	£135,060	£1,445,241	£921,126	£1,335,015	£404,287
Total Number of Loans Paid Out	31	184	264	143	30
Total Value of Loans Paid Out	£87,360	£783,847	£1,269,000	£687,840	£144,925
*up to and including 20 May 2021.

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The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.