PSDS vs Great British Energy: NHS Solar Funding in 2026

For a trust estates team plotting a rooftop programme, NHS solar funding used to mean one scheme. It now means a different one. This comparison sets out how the two national routes differ, what has closed, what is open, and what a trust should do about it, with every date and figure linked to its source.

NHS solar funding has moved from PSDS to Great British Energy

The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) is run by Salix Finance for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Phase 4 took applications from 9 October to 25 November 2024 and is closed to new applications. The gov.uk scheme page says grants are still being awarded and lists funding for the financial years 2025/26 to 2027/28; it announces no further round. The Salix report of 8 December 2025 describes Phase 4 as the closing round: 383 applications, of which 245 were approved, covering 207 public sector organisations, and more than £816 million allocated.

Great British Energy's solar programme has funded NHS solar in rounds, and none is open to applications now. Its first round, announced on 21 March 2025, put £100 million into 132 projects at 78 NHS trusts in England, covering around 200 sites, with solar panels and battery storage to be delivered in 2025/26 (NHS England). Government has since extended it: an announcement of 1 October 2025 refers to over 70 further NHS sites and more than 270 NHS sites in total, within a scheme worth up to £255 million across NHS, school and military sites (gov.uk, 1 October 2025). For 2026/27 a further £25 million was offered to eligible NHS trusts through an NHS England application process that closed on 22 June 2026, with projects to be finished by 31 March 2027 (HEFMA). We could not find a published list of 2026/27 awards at the time of writing, so ask your regional Greener NHS lead for the current position.

How PSDS worked: a competitive capital grant

PSDS was an application-led, competitive scheme: a trust assembled an evidence pack and bid into a shared envelope. Salix's figures show the competition: 383 applications asked for more than £1 billion, and 245 were approved. The scheme was built mainly around low-carbon heat and building fabric, with on-site renewables such as solar PV eligible alongside them. Its Phase 4 window has closed, and awards already made continue to deliver. The funding page has the dates and sources.

How the Great British Energy programme works: a targeted solar programme

The Great British Energy solar programme is aimed squarely at solar and battery storage on NHS estate, delivered with NHS England. Rather than a trust assembling a long evidence pack for a heat-led grant, an NHS England process invited eligible trusts to put forward deliverable projects: in the first round they had to be deliverable within the 2025/26 financial year, and in 2026/27 they had to be finished by 31 March 2027. That makes install-readiness the thing that counts: current half-hourly data, a surveyed roof, a clear connection route and a named procurement route.

It is worth being clear about what a publicly funded programme still demands on the ground. Whichever route pays for the panels, a hospital install is a hospital install. Electrical design on healthcare premises is expected to be reviewed against HTM 06-01 (electrical services supply and distribution), and trusts normally involve their Authorising Engineer (Electrical), the AE(E), in reviewing and authorising new generation connected to the hospital distribution system. Work on a live hospital site is expected to follow HTM 03-01 infection-control practice: contractor induction by the Estates and infection-prevention teams, segregated construction zones, and maintained negative-pressure areas where they apply. Wards, theatres and ITU normally keep running during roof work; the usual operational touchpoint is the final grid connection, which is planned with Estates and theatre management as a scheduled window. Generation above 16 A per phase (about 3.68 kW on a single phase) needs a G99 application and DNO approval before connection; smaller systems use the G98 connect-and-notify route (ENA EREC G98/G99).

Side by side

• Status: PSDS Phase 4 is closed to new applications; the Great British Energy 2026/27 window closed on 22 June 2026, with the programme extended beyond its first round.
• Scheme type: PSDS was a competitive capital grant across the public sector; the Great British Energy route is a solar and battery programme for NHS trusts in England.
• Delivered by: PSDS by Salix Finance for DESNZ; the Great British Energy programme by Great British Energy with NHS England.
• What it demands: PSDS demanded an auditable evidence pack inside a short window; the current route demands install-readiness and a delivery date.

How to position your trust

The preparation is largely the same for either route, so no trust needs to bet on one. Twelve months of half-hourly data covering winter heating and summer cooling peaks, roof drawings, a system sizing and a costed feasibility, and Green Plan alignment make a site a clean, deliverable candidate for whatever window comes next. Do the feasibility once and it serves every route.

Alongside the national schemes, trust capital and a power purchase agreement keep a programme moving between windows. We could not confirm that any Salix loan route is currently open to NHS trusts in England, so ask Salix whether one is open to your trust before you put one in a business case. NHS trusts are generally not corporation tax payers, so tax reliefs such as the Annual Investment Allowance rarely help a trust directly; the value sits in grants and public funding, not tax shielding.

The practical conclusion is not to choose PSDS or Great British Energy in the abstract, but to get the estate ready and let the strongest available route fund it; the application-timing article sets out what a short window demands. The funding page tracks the current position, and the NHS trusts page covers governance and delivery. To talk through your own site, send an enquiry.

Hotels face many of the same round-the-clock demands as healthcare estates, a point the Solar Panels for Hotels site explores from the hospitality side.