Question reference: S6W-12385
- Date lodged: 21 November 2022
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 December 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote the inclusion of solar panels on new (a) homes, (b) commercial premises and (c) public sector buildings.
Answer
The Scottish Government supports the installation of solar panels on new buildings.
The Scottish Government provides funding to homeowners, including new-builds and self-builders, through the Home Energy Scotland loan scheme.
Building regulations are not prescriptive in the technologies they require a new buildings to install. However, they do set overall emissions targets which new buildings must meet. These targets are set, in most cases, by a ‘notional building’ specification for domestic and non-domestic properties which includes PV, recognising the benefit this provides in offsetting energy demand. Following a recent review, these standards will be improved from 1 February 2023. They maintain the previous approach but include a large element of solar PV in target setting. Additionally, the new standards also identify the portion of generation which can be used at the building and exclude the benefit from power exported to the electricity grid.