- Sunshine on the best roofs
- 746 h/yr
- Yield (south-facing)
- 743 kWh/kWp
- 4 kWp system makes
- 2,972 kWh/yr
- Payback
- 10.2 years
How much sun Highland gets
Highland has the least sunshine of the 15 counties we cover — 746 hours a year on the best-placed roofs around Inverness. Solar still generates here; it just takes longer to pay back.
A 4 kWp system here makes about 828 kWh a year less than in Northumberland (22% 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 Highland, a 4 kWp system (around nine panels) would cost about £5,600 and save roughly £489 in its first year for a typical three-bed home on a 27p/kWh tariff, including £251 from exporting spare power at 12p/kWh. With energy prices rising 3% a year, that pays back in about 10.2 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 Highland
Your network operator here is Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (North of Scotland). Most home systems fit within G98: your installer notifies Scottish and Southern Electricity 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 12 real roofs around Inverness with Google's Solar API (imagery 2024, 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.
- Highland is a large, varied region and this figure comes from roofs around Inverness specifically — sunshine elsewhere in the region may differ.