Solar Roof Tiles UK

Solar roof tiles are photovoltaic units that form part of the roof covering itself, rather than being mounted on brackets above an existing roof. The electricity they produce is ordinary solar electricity, the inverter is an ordinary inverter and the export payments are the same. What changes is the price, the certification route the product has to take, and the fact that a failure is now a roofing problem as well as an electrical one.

This page sticks to what can be checked against a primary source. That turns out to matter more here than on almost any other solar topic, because the single number people most want, the price of a solar tile roof, is not published by any UK authority. Everything below was verified against the Energy Saving Trust, MCS, HMRC, the Planning Portal, Ofgem or the Scottish Government on 12 August 2026.

What solar roof tiles actually are

A solar tile does two jobs at once: it keeps the weather out and it generates electricity. A conventional panel only does the second. It sits on a mounting system above your existing slates or tiles, which carry on doing the waterproofing exactly as before.

That single structural difference drives everything else on this page. Because a solar tile is part of the roof covering, fitting one means taking the existing covering off the area it occupies. You are buying a roofing job and a solar installation in one, which is why the products appeal most in two specific situations: a new build, or a roof that is due for replacement anyway.

The Energy Saving Trust makes the same point about cost drivers on its solar panels advice page, last updated 21 July 2026. It lists what the price of a solar installation depends on, and three of the five items are relevant here: "whether you choose panels or tiles", "whether you integrate the panels into the building", and "whether you need to renew the roof covering". It also notes you "can lower the cost of installation costs if you already have scaffolding up for roof repairs or if you're building a new house".

That is the honest case for solar tiles in one line. If the scaffolding is going up regardless and the covering is coming off regardless, the gap between tiles and panels narrows. If your roof is sound, you are paying to remove a working roof.

What solar roof tiles cost in the UK

No official UK source publishes a typical cost for a solar tile roof, and we are not going to invent one. This is worth being blunt about, because plenty of pages will quote you a confident figure or a neat multiplier such as "twice the price of panels". Those numbers are not traceable to the Energy Saving Trust, to MCS or to government statistics.

What is published is the benchmark for conventional panels. The Energy Saving Trust puts a typical domestic system at around 4.5 kWp costing about £7,600, using around 12 panels across 20 to 30 square metres of roof. The Trust names tiles as a factor that moves that figure, but it does not say by how much.

So the position is this. Solar tiles cost more than panels of equivalent output. That direction is not seriously disputed and follows from the work involved. The size of the gap is not something anyone can tell you from a webpage, because it depends on your roof area, your existing covering, the state of the battens and felt underneath, and how much of the roof the array covers.

There are two practical consequences:

• Get quotes for both on your actual roof. A panel quote and a tile quote for the same generation target, from installers who have seen the roof, is the only figure that means anything. There is also a middle option worth pricing: our guide to in-roof solar panels covers fitting standard modules flush into the roof, which gets you close to the tile look at panel prices. Our guide to solar panel costs covers what a panel quote should contain, and cost by system size gives the per-size benchmarks to measure against.
• Price the roof separately in your head. If you were going to re-roof within a few years, some of the cost is roofing spend you had already committed. If you were not, all of it is new.

Payback follows the same logic as any solar install, and a higher upfront cost for the same annual generation means a longer payback. The Energy Saving Trust's payback figures for conventional panels with export payments, based on fuel prices as of July 2026, run from 9 years in London to 11 or 12 years in Stirling. Those are the panel numbers. A tile system at a higher price and similar output pays back more slowly, and how much more slowly depends entirely on the gap in your two quotes.

The certification question that decides whether you get paid

This is the part almost no other guide covers, and it is the one with money attached. To claim export payments under the Smart Export Guarantee in practice, your installation needs to be MCS certified, which means the products themselves need to hold MCS product certification. For solar tiles, there are two possible routes and they are not interchangeable.

MCS publishes a separate product standard for integrated photovoltaics: MCS 017, The Bespoke Building Integrated Photovoltaics Standard, Issue 2.0, dated 1 August 2024. It defines a bespoke building integrated photovoltaic product as:

"A solar photovoltaic (PV) product that is tailored and manufactured for a specific project. For the purposes of this document, a BBIPV product is defined as being a PV unit that is manufactured in varying sizes and configurations solely for the purpose of being built into the fabric of a structure - such as PV glazing, PV facade units or PV shading units."

Note the words "tailored and manufactured for a specific project". That is the test, and most solar roof tiles sold to households fail it, because they are standardised products made in volume rather than made to measure for your house. MCS 017 says what happens then, in a note in its scope section:

"PV modules and tiles which do not meet the BBIPV product definition require certification under MCS 005. Where there is any doubt about the applicable Standard (MCS 005 or MCS 017) then clarification shall be sought from MCS."

MCS 005 is the same product standard that ordinary solar panels are certified under. So for the tiles a homeowner is most likely to be offered, the question "is this MCS certified?" has exactly the same answer as it does for panels, and the product should be findable on the MCS product list. If an installer tells you tiles sit outside MCS or that certification does not apply to them, that is not what the standard says.

One date is worth knowing if you are buying now. MCS 017 Issue 2.0 states that compliance with the update "is mandatory for products to be certified in accordance with MCS 017 from the date of implementation 01/08/2026". That deadline passed on 1 August 2026, so any bespoke integrated product certified from that date is being assessed against the current issue.

MCS 017 also requires manufacturers to demonstrate a process ensuring products "are designed and constructed to meet the requirements within the relevant national Building Regulations or standards applicable for the application that the product is intended", and to consider "the required fire classification along with imposed static and live loads". A product that is holding the rain out has to satisfy building requirements that a bracket-mounted panel simply does not.

Ask for the product's MCS certificate number and the standard it was certified under. Our guide to choosing an MCS-certified installer covers the rest of the paperwork that should come with any install.

Planning permission for solar roof tiles

Planning rules for solar are set separately in each UK nation, and solar tiles do not get you around the restrictions that catch panels. The most common misunderstanding here is that because tiles look like a roof, they escape the rules that apply to panels. They do not.

England

The Planning Portal sets out the limits for solar equipment mounted on a house. Two are worth reading with tiles in mind:

• "On a pitched roof, panels should not be installed above the highest part of the roof (excluding the chimney) and should project no more than 200mm from the roof slope or wall surface." A flush integrated tile clears this comfortably, which is one genuine planning advantage over a bracket-mounted array on a tilted frame.
• "The panels must not be installed on a building that is within the grounds of a listed building or on a site designated as a scheduled monument." There is no tile exemption here. If your property is in a conservation area or a World Heritage Site, panels "must not be fitted to a wall which fronts a highway".

Equipment must also be sited "so far as is practicable, to minimise the effect on the external appearance of the building and the amenity of the area", and removed when no longer needed. Listed buildings are the case where people most often assume tiles are the workaround, and it is precisely the case where the permitted development route is closed.

Scotland

Scotland handles solar under its own class of permitted development rights. Under Planning Circular 1/2024, paragraph 6.28, Class 6HA covers "the installation, alteration or replacement of solar photovoltaic or solar thermal equipment (often collectively referred to as solar panels) on a dwelling". Paragraph 6.29 sets the restrictions:

• "No part of the solar panel equipment may protrude more than 1m from the surface of the wall, roof plane, roof ridge or chimney."
• "Development is not permitted on a listed building or within the curtilage of a listed building."
• "In a conservation area, development is permitted provided the solar panels and equipment are mounted on a rear elevation or a side elevation if that side elevation does not front a road."

Again, nothing there turns on whether the product looks like a slate.

Wales and Northern Ireland

Both nations have their own rules, with different dimensional limits and different treatment of conservation areas and listed buildings. They are set out per nation in our guide to planning permission and permitted development for solar. Whichever nation you are in, check the position for a listed building or conservation area before you commit to a product, not after.

Building regulations apply, and the roof carries more weight

Building regulations normally apply to any roof-mounted solar installation, and an integrated product does not change that. The Planning Portal's building regulations page for solar panels is direct about it:

"If you wish to install a solar panel on your roof building regulations will normally apply. The ability of the existing roof to carry the load (weight) of the panel will need to be checked and proven. Some strengthening work may be needed. Building regulations also apply to other aspects of the work such as electrical installation."

With solar tiles there is a second question underneath the first. You are not just adding weight to a roof covering, you are replacing part of the covering, so the weathertightness of the finished roof is now part of what the installation has to deliver. Make sure you know, in writing and before work starts, who warrants the roof against water ingress and for how long, and whether that is the solar installer, the roofer or two different companies. A split responsibility is the thing to catch at quote stage.

The Planning Portal also advises contacting an installer "who belongs to the Competent Person Scheme". Our page on the solar panel installation process covers the sequence of a typical install and where sign-off happens.

VAT on solar roof tiles

The zero rate on energy-saving materials runs until 31 March 2027, and photovoltaic products installed in a building are within its scope. HMRC's VAT Notice 708/6 defines solar panels at section 2.11 as covering "all systems that are installed in, or on the site of, a building" including "photovoltaic (PV) panels with cabling, control panel and AC/DC inverter". The words "installed in" matter for an integrated product.

The notice states that "from 1 April 2027 onwards, supplies of installations of energy-saving materials will revert to the reduced rate of VAT of 5%". Not 20 per cent, as is often claimed. Our full guide to VAT on solar covers the supply-only trap and the deadline in detail.

One thing to raise with your installer rather than assume. The notice sets out at section 2.5 how single and mixed supplies are treated, and gives the example of an extension where the walls and roof space are insulated during construction: that is "one single standard-rated supply", because "the construction of the extension is the principal element of the supply, which is standard-rated". If solar tiles are being fitted as part of a wider roofing or building job, the VAT treatment of the package is a question for the contractor's accountant, not something to take for granted from the headline zero rate. Ask for the VAT position to be stated on the quote.

Getting paid for what you export

Solar tiles earn export payments on exactly the same basis as panels. Ofgem confirms the Smart Export Guarantee is open to solar photovoltaic installations "up to a capacity of 5MW", that "installations must be located in Great Britain and meet the applicable eligibility criteria", that "SEG Licensees determine the rate, contract length and other terms", that rates "must always be above zero", and that payments are "calculated by using export meter readings".

Two consequences worth holding onto:

• Rates are set by suppliers, not by government. The Energy Saving Trust says you "typically get around 12p for every unit that you don't use yourself", but the spread across suppliers is wide and it moves. Check the current rates on our Smart Export Guarantee rates page before building any figure into a payback sum.
• The scheme covers Great Britain. If you are in Northern Ireland, the Energy Saving Trust advises speaking to your supplier about what export tariff they offer.

The economics point the same way as for panels: a unit you use yourself is worth far more than a unit you sell. Under the Ofgem price cap for 1 July to 30 September 2026, a typical direct debit customer pays 26.11p per kWh with a 57.19p daily standing charge, giving a cap of £1,862 a year. Against roughly 12p for export, self-consumption is worth about double. That is the whole argument for battery storage, and it applies to a tile roof exactly as it does to panels.

So are solar roof tiles worth it?

They are worth it when the roof was coming off anyway, and hard to justify when it was not. That is the shape of the answer, and it does not need a fabricated price to be useful.

The case is strongest on a new build, or where the covering has reached the end of its life and scaffolding and stripping costs are already committed. It is weakest on a sound roof with plenty of life left, where you are paying a premium purely for appearance and removing a functioning covering to do it.

Appearance is a real benefit and it is fine to buy it deliberately. It is just not a generation benefit. The same kWp of tiles and panels on the same roof produces broadly the same electricity, so anything you pay above the panel price is buying looks and roof integration, not output. On lifespan, the Energy Saving Trust's guidance for solar generally is that panels "should last 25 years or more" while an inverter "you need to replace after around 12 years", which is covered in full in our guide to how long solar panels last. A mid-life inverter swap is a normal cost either way.

Before you decide, get both quotes, ask for the MCS product certificate and standard, and get the roof warranty responsibility in writing. If the tile quote comes back close to the panel quote, the decision is easy. If it comes back at a large multiple, you now know exactly what that multiple is buying.

Frequently asked questions

Figures on this page were verified against the Energy Saving Trust, MCS, HMRC, the Planning Portal, the Scottish Government and Ofgem on 12 August 2026. Grant, VAT and planning rules change, and export rates are set by individual suppliers and move frequently. Check the linked primary sources before making a decision.