Find more funding
There are many other organisations who may be offering funding that will help you, and our handy funding search tool brings them all together.
New Pilot Aims to Make Solar Energy More Accessible for Rural Households
New Highlands pilot will connect rural households with trusted installers and test a group purchasing model for solar panels and battery storage.
A new pilot project in the Highlands hopes to make it easier for rural households to install solar panels and battery storage, helping more people benefit from low-carbon technologies and potentially reduce their energy bills.
Scottish social enterprise Changeworks is developing the new service, which will launch in the Scottish Highlands in 2027. The initiative will connect householders with trusted, pre-vetted installers, making it simpler to obtain competitive quotes and navigate the process of improving home energy efficiency.
The pilot will bring together Changeworks’ expertise in home energy improvement and customer support with Novoville’s digital platform, Shared Works. The service will help residents register their interest, join local purchasing groups and coordinate installations, creating a more straightforward customer journey from start to finish.
Josiah Lockhart, Chief Executive of Changeworks, said:
“For many people, understanding what improvements they can make to their home is only the first step. The challenge is knowing who to trust and how to turn that advice into action.
“This project gives us an exciting opportunity to create a service that makes that journey simpler and more reassuring. By combining Changeworks’ retrofit and community engagement expertise with Shared Works’ digital technology, we want to give householders greater confidence and make high-quality low-carbon improvements more accessible, particularly in rural communities.”
The project is designed to tackle some of the unique challenges faced by rural communities, where access to specialist installers can be limited and the cost of installing low-carbon technologies can be higher due to geography and logistics. By grouping demand from households in the same area, the pilot will test whether collective purchasing can make solar and battery installations more affordable and accessible.
Initially, households in northwest Scotland will be invited to take part. The project will be co-designed and evaluated with the Highland Energy Community Partnership, helping ensure the service meets the needs of local communities. Beyond supporting households to adopt renewable energy technologies, the pilot will assess customer experiences, installer engagement, financial savings and carbon reduction benefits. The findings will help determine whether the approach could be expanded to other rural and island areas and applied to additional low-carbon technologies in the future.
The initiative comes as communities across rural and island Scotland continue to explore ways of reducing energy costs, improving energy security and supporting the transition to a net zero future.
