Common Wealth Urges 'Solar Bonds' to Halve UK Panel Loan Rates
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- Common Wealth is urging the UK government to offer a universal entitlement to rooftop solar panels, funded by "solar bonds" — retail investment products modelled on national savings investments or premium bonds, paying savers 4-5% interest.
- Households taking out the loans would pay roughly half the current market rate of about 9-10%, saving an estimated £250 a year on energy bills, with the 25-year loan repaid through an addition to the standing charge and attached to the property.
- Donal Brown, lead author at the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford, said default rates on standing-charge repayments are "incredibly low," making the loan transfer to new owners a secure repayment mechanism without means testing.
- Solar Energy UK director Gemma Grimes welcomed the green bonds proposal as a way to accelerate the "rooftop revolution" alongside the government's warm homes plan.
- Energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said the government is already introducing zero and low-interest loans for solar panels, batteries and heat pumps that save families around £550 a year, noting almost 150,000 installations in the first six months of 2026 — roughly one every 74 seconds.
Why it matters: With the energy price cap forecast to rise roughly 4% from October to £1,729 a year and rooftop installations costing £5,000-£10,000 upfront, the proposal turns solar from a cash purchase into a 25-year, property-attached loan — paid for by retail savers earning 4-5% on government-backed bonds.
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