- Sunshine on the best roofs
- 876 h/yr
- Yield (south-facing)
- 872 kWh/kWp
- 4 kWp system makes
- 3,488 kWh/yr
- Payback
- 9.1 years
How much sun Edinburgh gets
Edinburgh ranks 12th of the 15 counties we cover for sunshine, between Greater Manchester and Cumbria.
A 4 kWp system here makes about 312 kWh a year less than in Northumberland (8% less). Using more of what you generate yourself — rather than exporting it — matters more than it does further south.
What a 4 kWp system is worth here
On a south-facing roof in Edinburgh, a 4 kWp system (around nine panels) would cost about £5,600 and save roughly £557 in its first year for a typical three-bed home on a 27p/kWh tariff, including £308 from exporting spare power at 12p/kWh. With energy prices rising 3% a year, that pays back in about 9.1 years.
Install costs use the calculator's national range: there's no reliable published breakdown of solar install prices by county.
Connecting to the grid in Edinburgh
Your network operator here is SP Energy Networks (Central and Southern Scotland). Most home systems fit within G98: your installer notifies SP Energy Networks within 28 days of switching on. Larger systems (above 16 A per phase, about 3.68 kW on a single-phase supply) need a G99 application approved before installation — allow extra weeks for that.
Grants and schemes in Scotland
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) applies in Scotland: larger suppliers must offer an export tariff for MCS-certified installs, at a rate each supplier sets.
Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan
Scotland's own scheme replaces the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (which doesn't apply here): a grant towards a heat pump, with extra for rural homes, and interest-free loans that can cover solar panels and batteries.
Confirm with: Home Energy Scotland — check current grant levels and loan limits before relying on them.
- 0% VAT on solar panels, batteries and heat pumps until 31 March 2027 — install prices in the calculator already assume it.
Scheme notes last checked 2026-09-23.
Where these numbers come from
We sampled 9 real roofs around Edinburgh with Google's Solar API (imagery 2021–2025, sampled 2026-09-23) and took the sunshine on the second-best-placed roof — a well-oriented, unshaded roof, without letting one odd reading set the figure. The yield scales the calculator's national 950 kWh/kWp by how that compares with the middle of the first 15 counties we sampled. Your own roof's direction, pitch and shading will move it either way.