Welsh business grants for energy: Business Wales, the Green Business Loan and what's open in 2026

Welsh business energy funding: key facts

Welsh business energy grants and loans open in 2026

Most "Welsh business grants" searches are about any kind of funding. This page sticks to energy: cutting bills, generating your own power and replacing fossil fuel heating. Here's everything we could confirm on primary sources on 30 October 2026.

The Development Bank of Wales Green Business Loan Scheme

The Development Bank of Wales is owned by the Welsh Ministers. Its Green Business Loan Scheme is the biggest energy funding route for Welsh firms. It's a loan, not a grant, but on better terms than the bank's normal lending. These are the terms in its key information document, checked on 30 October 2026.

The discount in practice

The Development Bank's own examples: a loan that would normally be priced at 9% for an energy-efficiency project gets 3.5% off, so you pay 5.5%. A loan normally priced at 7% for a renewable heat project gets 5% off, which would be 2%, so it's raised to the 3% floor.

What it pays for

• Renewables: solar PV, and ground, air and water source heat pumps (also solar thermal, biomass, wind and micro-hydro in the bank's examples).
• Building fabric: insulation, double or triple glazing, and LED lighting.
• Heating, ventilation and air conditioning: replacement, controls, building management systems, heat recovery.
• Key equipment: monitoring and controls, motors, variable speed drives, compressors, commercial fridges and kitchens.
• Water use and waste reduction.

The list isn't exhaustive. Batteries and EV chargers aren't named, so ask the bank at greenbusiness@developmentbank.wales before you plan around them.

Who can get a Green Business Loan?

What isn't eligible

• Private sector landlords, and the gambling, tobacco and other environmentally or ethically controversial sectors.
• New installations that use fossil fuels, including gas heating and gas connections.
• Businesses where a significant share of the energy generated is for sale to the grid, other businesses or homes. Size solar for your own use.
• Projects done only to meet legal requirements, such as building regulations.
• Projects you've already started, and costs already covered by another grant.

Depending on which subsidy route the bank uses, it may need an independent energy audit by an accredited assessor that supports the project. That's where the energy audit grant comes in.

Business Wales energy support: free advice and the energy audit grant

Business Wales is the Welsh Government's business support service. It describes its specialist advice as "fully funded" for people starting, running and growing businesses in Wales. For energy, it offers:

• Resource Efficiency Advisors. A fully funded review of your energy use, with a report of key actions and next steps. Good if you don't yet know what to do.
• The energy audit grant. For SMEs that want a deeper review: a grant of 50% of the cost of a detailed energy audit and project action plan by an accredited independent expert, up to £10,000 (on £20,000 of total costs).
• The Green Growth Pledge. A commitment to practical actions such as energy and water efficiency, with a marketing toolkit. Business Wales says over 2,150 businesses have had sustainability support from it.

Call the Business Wales helpline on 03000 6 03000, 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. Calls in Welsh are welcome. For what an audit covers and which measures usually follow, see our business energy audit guide.

Heat pump and EV charger grants for Welsh businesses

Boiler Upgrade Scheme: £7,500

Unlike Scotland, Wales is covered. GOV.UK says the scheme "is open to people in England and Wales", for a home or "a building used for your business". The Boiler Upgrade Scheme isn't just for homes. It pays £7,500 towards an air or ground source heat pump in a small non-domestic building, for systems up to 45kWth (70kWth with more than one heat pump). Until March 2027, a building heated by oil or LPG with no mains gas connection can get an extra £1,500, so £9,000 in total. The scheme now runs to 2030. You must own the building and be replacing fossil fuel heating such as oil, gas, electric or LPG. The Green Business Loan, with its 5% low carbon heat discount, can fund the rest, as long as it isn't paying for the same costs as the grant. See commercial heat pumps.

Workplace Charging Scheme

The scheme runs in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Workplace Charging Scheme pays up to £500 per socket (it went up from £350 on 1 April 2026), capped at 75% of costs, for up to 40 sockets across all your sites. That's up to £20,000. Funding runs until 31 March 2027, its final year. See the Workplace Charging Scheme guide.

Solar for Welsh businesses and farms: what pays for it

There's no open Welsh Government grant for business solar right now. A Welsh business or farm can still fund it:

• Green Business Loan: solar PV is eligible, at the discounted rate. Size it for your own use, because businesses selling a significant share of their power aren't eligible.
• Tax: Solar panels are special-rate plant for tax. The Annual Investment Allowance (£1 million a year) can write off the cost in year one. Above that, companies can claim the 50% first-year allowance. See solar panel capital allowances.
• Business rates: in Wales, renewables plant and machinery is excepted from rating from 1 April 2024 until 1 April 2035, so panels shouldn't push up your rates bill.
• Export payments: The Smart Export Guarantee pays for solar you export, on systems up to 5MW in Great Britain. Suppliers set their own rates; the law only says the rate must be above zero, so shop around.

Farms

Farm businesses can apply for the Green Business Loan if they meet the criteria, and the Development Bank features a farm among its case studies. A dedicated Sustainable Agriculture Loan Scheme is in development for launch later in 2026. Barn and shed roofs are covered in farm solar panels, and dual-use ground-mounted arrays in agrivoltaics.

Community energy

Ynni Cymru's 2026 to 2027 round, which SMEs could join, is closed. The Welsh Government Energy Service supports public bodies and community groups, not private firms. Community-owned projects can also look at the GBE Community Fund from the government's Great British Energy (gbe.gov.uk, nothing to do with us): its current funding window closes on 12 November 2026.

More: commercial solar panels and commercial solar panel grants.

How to apply, step by step

1. Not sure what to do? Call Business Wales on 03000 6 03000 for a free Resource Efficiency Advisor review, or ask about the 50% energy audit grant.
2. Get a full supplier quote. The Development Bank wants a quote on headed paper showing the equipment, current and forecast energy use, energy cost and carbon emissions, the price (with or without VAT) and the installation address.
3. Apply online at developmentbank.wales/green. You'll need three months of bank statements, filed accounts and the bank's project information template. Up to £150,000 you also complete a 12-month cash flow; between £150,001 and £350,000 the bank may ask for a two-year integrated forecast instead, and above £350,000 it always does.
4. Get your indicative rate, then technical and financial due diligence.
5. Offer letter, then start the project. Don't start before you apply.
6. Draw down against the supplier invoice. Staged payments can be agreed if your installer needs a deposit.

Questions on the loan: greenbusiness@developmentbank.wales or 0800 587 4140.

How we help (and what we don't do)

We don't lend, give grants, carry out energy audits or apply for you. Business Wales and the Development Bank of Wales do that. We do the step they ask you to bring: once you know what you want to install, we pass your enquiry to one suitable installer that does commercial work, for a survey and a full quote with the savings figures the loan application needs.

Have premises in Scotland too? See Business Energy Scotland and the SME Loan. Large energy user? See the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme. Every UK route is on the business energy grants hub.