Does SSE still sell solar panels?

Not to households in Great Britain. SSE was one of the “big six” energy suppliers, trading as Southern Electric, Scottish Hydro and SWALEC before it became plain SSE in 2010. In the early years of the Feed-in Tariff it ran a free “rent-a-roof” solar scheme and paid FiT to customers who’d had panels fitted by other firms.

That all changed when SSE left the household market. Here’s the timeline.

So if you search for “SSE solar panels” hoping for a price, there isn’t one. The nearest thing is OVO’s solar offer, which we’ve reviewed separately, or a quote from a local installer. We cover both further down.

Which SSE do you need?

Most of the confusion comes from the name. Several different companies use the SSE name or used to, and they do different jobs. Find your situation in the table.

SSEN stands for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks. It owns the cables and substations in two areas: central southern England, including Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, and the north of Scotland. It doesn’t sell electricity or solar panels, and you deal with it whoever your energy supplier is.

SSE solar panels contact number and email

Calls to 03 numbers cost the same as calls to 01 and 02 numbers and are included in most mobile and landline allowances. 0800 numbers are free. None of these is a premium-rate line, so be wary of any website that gives you an 09 or 084 number for SSE.

SSE solar panel readings: how to send them

If you get Feed-in Tariff payments, you’re paid on the readings from your generation meter. That’s the small meter fitted with your solar panels, usually next to the inverter or the fuse box. It counts every unit your panels produce. It isn’t your electricity meter and it usually isn’t smart, so you read it yourself.

For former SSE accounts now with OVO, this is how it works:

• When: four times a year, at the end of March, June, September and December.
• How: OVO emails a reminder at the start of each of those months with a link to submit your reading online. Use that link, or contact the FiT team if you haven’t had one.
• What to send: the total kWh figure on the generation meter, ignoring any numbers after a decimal point. If you also have an export meter, send that reading on the same day.
• If you miss one: you won’t be paid that quarter, but nothing is lost. The next reading you send covers the gap and the missed amount is added to your next payment.
• Photo: take a clear picture of the meter showing the reading and the serial number. It settles any dispute quickly.

SSE’s old help page says to use its online FiT meter read form only when you’ve been asked for a reading, or to email fitreads@sse.com or call 0345 071 7827. If your reminders now come from OVO, follow OVO’s link.

Every couple of years your FiT payer must also check the meter in person or ask for a dated photo. That’s a rule of the scheme, not a sign anything is wrong. If your readings have dropped sharply, see solar panels not working and solar panel monitoring.

SSE solar panel payments, FIT ID and systems over 4kW

When you’re paid

OVO works out FiT payments each quarter and pays about eight weeks after the quarter-end reading. So a reading sent at the end of March is paid around the end of May. Payments go straight to your bank account. They can’t be taken as a credit on your energy bill. One former SSE customer on OVO’s forum noted that SSE used to pay near the start of each quarter and OVO pays nearer the end, so the timing may have shifted when your account moved.

What you’re paid

Your FiT rates are set by Ofgem and go up each April with inflation. They’re the same whichever company pays you, so nothing was lost in the move from SSE to OVO. You get two payments:

• A generation payment for every unit your panels produce, whether you use it or not.
• An export payment. Unless you have an export meter, this is “deemed”, which means you’re paid as if you export half of what you generate.

Your FIT ID

Your FIT ID is the reference for your solar installation. It starts with the letters FIT followed by eight digits, and it’s printed on your FiT statements and on the original confirmation letter. You’ll need it whenever you call, send readings by email or fill in a change of ownership form. If you can’t find it, the FiT team can look it up from your address and the name on the account.

SSE solar panels over 4kW

“Over 4kW” matters in two separate ways, and people often mix them up:

• For the Feed-in Tariff, systems up to 4kW were paid the highest rate. Systems above 4kW and up to 10kW were in a lower band. Your band was fixed when the system was registered and can’t change.
• For the network, the limit that matters is 3.68kW, and it applies to the inverter, not the panels. Above that, your installer has to apply to SSEN before fitting. See registration below.

If you’re thinking of adding panels to a FiT system, speak to the FiT team first. Extra panels don’t earn FiT, and they usually have to be metered separately so your existing payments aren’t affected. Adding a battery is simpler (adding a battery to existing solar).

SSE solar panel registration: telling SSEN

“Registering solar panels with SSE” nearly always means registering them with SSEN, the network company. Every solar system that connects to the grid has to be reported to the local network operator, so it knows what’s feeding into its cables. If you live in SSEN’s area, that’s who gets the form. Your installer does this for you. It’s part of the job and you shouldn’t be charged extra for it.

There are two routes, and which one applies depends on the size of your inverter.

Three points are worth knowing:

• The limit is on the inverter, not the panels. A 4kW or even 5kW set of panels on a 3.68kW inverter still counts as a notify-only job. That’s why so many home systems are built that way.
• Batteries often tip you into G99. A battery with its own inverter adds to the total. SSEN’s fast track covers most home solar and battery systems up to 7.36kW of inverter capacity, sometimes with the export capped at 3.68kW.
• An export cap isn’t a disaster. If SSEN limits what you can send to the grid, you can still generate and use more than that in the house or store it in a battery.

We found no application fee listed on SSEN’s pages for either route. If the local network needs upgrading for a large system, SSEN will quote for that separately, but it’s rare for an ordinary house.

Registering to be paid for exports

Registering with the network doesn’t get you paid. For that, you apply to an energy supplier for a Smart Export Guarantee tariff. You’ll need your MCS certificate, a smart meter and proof you own the system. You can’t newly register for the Feed-in Tariff. It closed on 31 March 2019. You can pick any supplier’s export tariff, whoever supplies your electricity (E.ON’s export tariffs are one example).

Plug-in solar kits have their own, simpler rules since August 2026 (plug-in solar panels UK).

SSE smart meters and solar panels

Smart meters work with solar panels. A smart meter records the electricity you take from the grid and the electricity you send back, in separate registers, every half hour. That’s what makes export payments possible.

• If SSE fitted your smart meter, it’s now managed by whoever supplies your electricity. Older first-generation meters have largely been moved onto the national smart network. If yours has lost its smart functions, your supplier can update or replace it for free.
• Your FiT generation meter stays. A smart meter doesn’t replace it, and your generation payments still depend on it.
• You can swap your export payment. If you’re on the FiT with deemed exports, you can keep your generation payments and move the export part to a Smart Export Guarantee tariff. That can pay more if you export well over half of what you generate, for example if you’re out all day. You can’t have both export payments at once, so ask the FiT team before switching.
• Old meters running backwards. If you still have an old dial meter that turns backwards when the sun’s out, tell your supplier. It has to be replaced.

More in solar panels and smart meters.

SSE solar panels: change of ownership

FiT payments belong to whoever owns the solar panels, and they don’t move across by themselves when a house is sold. If you’ve bought or inherited a home with panels that were registered with SSE, you need to tell the FiT team, which now means OVO.

1. Check the panels are owned outright. Ask the seller or your solicitor for the MCS certificate and a FiT statement. If the panels were fitted free under a rent-a-roof deal, the FiT belongs to the company that owns them (see below).
2. The seller sends a final reading on the day they move out, so they’re paid up to that date.
3. You complete OVO’s FiT Change of Ownership form online. Customers report being asked for proof of identity, proof you bought the property, Land Registry proof of ownership and evidence the panels are there, such as a photo.
4. You give your own bank details and take an opening reading with a dated photo.
5. Keep sending readings each quarter while you wait, and keep copies of everything.

If you’ve inherited the system, OVO has a separate FiT inheritance form. And if you take the panels with you when you move, they lose the Feed-in Tariff for good. Panels that are removed and refitted at another address can only go onto a Smart Export Guarantee tariff. Full guide: moving house with solar panels.

SSE solar wait times

These are the published or reported waits for the jobs people most often ask about.

The change of ownership is the slow one. Start it as soon as you have your completion documents, and chase by email so there’s a record (how long does solar installation take?).

SSE free solar panels and rent-a-roof

In November 2010, SSE launched a free solar scheme. It fitted about ten panels, 2.35kW, on a typical three-bedroom home at no charge. The household used the electricity for free, worth about £130 a year at the time, and SSE kept the Feed-in Tariff payments for 25 years.

If your home has panels from that scheme, or you’re buying one that does:

• You don’t own the panels and you won’t receive FiT payments. You do get to use the electricity they generate.
• There will be a lease over the roof, usually for 25 years, registered against the property. A scheme that started in 2010 or 2011 runs to about 2035 or 2036.
• Mortgage lenders look at these leases closely. Your solicitor should check it meets lenders’ standard requirements before you exchange.
• Roof repairs need the owner’s agreement, because the panels have to come off and go back on (solar panel removal and refitting).

We couldn’t confirm which company manages SSE’s rent-a-roof systems today. The lease in your property deeds names the owner, and that’s the place to start. SSE doesn’t offer free solar panels now, and neither does OVO in the usual sense. Help that is truly free is limited to lower-income households through government schemes (free solar panels, grants for solar panels).

SSE Airtricity solar panels

SSE Airtricity is SSE’s energy supplier on the island of Ireland, and it’s the one part of the group that does sell home solar. The offer is for the Republic of Ireland, and the panels are fitted by its partner, Activ8 Solar Energies.

These figures are from Irish comparison sites and Activ8’s announcements, so check them with SSE Airtricity before you rely on them. The higher export rate only applies if the panels are fitted through the Activ8 offer. You can’t get it by switching supplier.

In Northern Ireland, SSE Airtricity supplies homes with electricity and gas, but we found no home solar offer there. It does run a funded solar scheme for businesses across the island with Activ8. Northern Ireland also has no Smart Export Guarantee and a different network operator, NIE Networks, so the registration steps on this page don’t apply.

SSE solar panel installation: your options now

If you were an SSE customer and want solar panels, you have two realistic routes.

Our full write-up is in the OVO solar panels review. The other big suppliers sell solar too: Octopus, E.ON, British Gas, EDF, ScottishPower and So Energy. They’re compared in solar panel companies UK.

What solar panels cost in 2026

Prices include fitting, scaffolding and 0% VAT, which runs until 31 March 2027. A typical 4kW system saves about £730 a year at October 2026 electricity prices and pays for itself in roughly nine years. See solar panel cost, solar panel payback, 4kW solar system and are solar panels worth it?

If you live in SSEN’s southern area, we have local guides for Swindon, Basingstoke, Southampton, Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Poole and Chipping Norton, and one for Scotland.

Already have SSE-era panels?

Systems from the SSE years are now 7 to 16 years old. The panels will usually outlast the Feed-in Tariff, but the inverter often needs replacing once in that time, at a cost of £800–£1,500. The most worthwhile upgrade for most FiT households is a battery, because it lets you use more of your own power without touching your FiT payments.

• Inverter replacement cost and how long inverters last
• Solar panel maintenance and cleaning
• What size solar battery?
• Reviews of the panel brands common on older systems: Suntech and Sharp

SSE solar panels: frequently asked questions

Going Solar UK is an introduction service, not an installer, and has no connection with SSE, SSEN, OVO or SSE Airtricity. Contact details were checked in October 2026 against Ofgem’s list of Feed-in Tariff licensees for April 2026 to March 2027, OVO’s Feed-in Tariff help page, SSE’s help pages and SSEN’s micro-generation pages. We could not confirm whether the 0345 numbers and the fitreads@sse.com address on SSE’s older pages are still in use, or who now manages SSE’s rent-a-roof systems. Change of ownership waits are as reported by customers on OVO’s forum and are not official figures. SSE Airtricity figures are from Irish comparison sites and Activ8, September 2026. OVO guide prices are from our own review and may have changed. UK prices are typical 2026 estimates. Contact routes change, so check your latest statement first.