Weekly Solar Insights: UK Electricity Goes VAT-Free on Wednesday, Germany's EEG 2027 Clears Its First Reading, and Italy's 50% Deduction Has 13 Weeks Left (Week of 28 September 2026)

October 9, 2026

Good morning, and welcome back to Solar Insights. This is one of those weeks where the calendar does most of the talking. A tax change lands on Wednesday, a German reform bill took its first real step through parliament last Thursday, and an Italian deadline is now close enough to count in weeks rather than months.

Here is what changed, what it means for your own roof, and the one thing worth doing in each country. No jargon, no hard sell.

United Kingdom: electricity goes VAT-free on Wednesday

The headline first. From 1 October 2026 until 31 March 2027, VAT on domestic electricity drops from 5% to 0%.^[1] That is this Wednesday.

At the same time, Ofgem's new price cap kicks in. The cap rises 4%, taking a typical dual-fuel bill from £1,663 to £1,723 a year.^[2] That sounds like bad news until you unpick it: almost all of the increase sits on the gas side, where bills go up around 8%. The VAT cut is worth roughly £45 a year to a typical household, and it is doing the work of holding the electricity half of your bill broadly flat.

The practical upshot for anyone with solar, or thinking about it:

If your home runs mostly on electricity - heat pump, no gas, or electric heating - you are in the good group this quarter. Households that do not use gas see an increase of less than 1%.^[3]
The VAT cut applies to fixed tariffs too. Your supplier should apply it automatically. You do not need to switch or call anyone.
It is a one-year measure. The zero rate currently runs to 31 March 2027. Plan around your bill, not around the tax break.

There is a subtler point here that matters for solar maths. When the price you pay for imported electricity falls, the value of every kilowatt-hour you avoid importing falls with it. A 5% cut is small, but it is a useful reminder that the self-consumption side of your solar savings tracks your unit rate, and your unit rate moves every three months.

Export payments are where the real spread is. As of September 2026 the best flat export rate open to anyone without conditions is around 12p per kWh from Scottish Power, while So Energy's So Bright Export pays 20p per kWh flat^[4]. The genuinely high numbers - 25p and above - almost all come with strings attached: you usually have to buy your electricity from the same supplier, and the very top rates are locked to systems that supplier installed.

Worth doing this week: check which export tariff you are on. If you signed up when your panels went in and have not looked since, there is a fair chance you are leaving money on the table. And compare the pair - export rate and import rate - not the headline alone.

Germany: EEG 2027 had its first reading on 24 September

The big structural change for German homeowners took a real step forward. The government's EEG 2027 draft went to the Bundestag as document 21/7867 on 7 September, and the first reading took place on Thursday 24 September 2026^[5]. Cabinet had approved the draft back on 29 July.^[6]

What the bill actually does, in plain terms: for new small PV systems from 2027, the fixed feed-in tariff goes away. In its place comes mandatory direct marketing (Direktvermarktung) - your surplus is sold on the market rather than bought at a guaranteed rate - cushioned by a transitional payment limited to 36 months.

Two things to keep straight, because they get muddled constantly:

Nothing changes for systems already running, or for systems commissioned in 2026. If your panels go live this year, your 20-year fixed rate is locked in at today's numbers.
The current numbers are still decent. Since the 1 August step-down, a rooftop system up to 10 kW that exports only its surplus gets 7.70 cents per kWh, and 12.22 cents per kWh for full export^[7]. That was a 1% reduction, not a cliff.

There is also a rule already in force that is easy to miss. Under the Solarspitzengesetz, new systems fitted with a smart meter stop earning the feed-in payment during quarter-hours when the exchange price is negative, with the forgone amount recouped by extending the support period beyond 20 years. It affects a small share of hours, but it is another nudge toward using your own power rather than exporting it.

One honest caveat: a first reading is not a law. The bill still has committee stages ahead of it, and details can shift.

Worth doing this week: if you have been circling a decision all year, this is the quarter where "2026 versus 2027" stops being abstract. A system commissioned before 31 December 2026 keeps today's rules for two decades. That is not a reason to rush a bad installation - a poorly planned system is a worse outcome than a slightly smaller tariff. But it is a reason not to let a good quote sit in your inbox until spring, because installer diaries fill up when a deadline becomes visible to everyone at once.

Italy: 13 weeks left on the 50% deduction

Italy's position is the simplest of the three and the most time-sensitive. The 2026 Budget Law confirmed the Bonus Ristrutturazione at 50% until 31 December 2026, with a spending ceiling of €96,000 for a first home.^[8] From 2027 the enhanced rate drops back to 36%.

The catch most people miss is the residence condition. The 50% rate applies to work on your prima casa - the property where you are registered as resident. On other properties the rate is 36% now, and stays there.

Separately, the export side of the picture has quietly changed shape. Scambio sul Posto is closed to new systems, and from 1 January 2026 the GSE automatically switches any system without a chosen dispatch user onto Ritiro Dedicato^[9]. The economics are worth understanding before you sign anything: Ritiro Dedicato pays in the region of €0.047 per kWh for exported power, while a kilowatt-hour you use yourself is worth whatever you would otherwise have paid your supplier - typically several times more. In Italy more than anywhere, self-consumption is now the whole game.

Worth doing this week: if you want the 50% rate, the expense has to be incurred in 2026. Payment timing, not quote timing, is what counts. Talk to your installer about their schedule now - December gets busy for exactly this reason, every single year.

What it all adds up to

Three different governments, three different mechanisms, one consistent direction of travel: guaranteed export payments are shrinking, and the value of using your own electricity is rising.

That changes what a good solar system looks like. It is less about maximising the kilowatt-hours you generate and more about matching generation to when you actually use power. Which is where batteries, timers, EV charging schedules and a slightly honest look at your own daily routine start to matter more than which panel brand is on the quote.

None of which tells you whether the numbers work for your house. National averages are a starting point and nothing more. Your roof angle, the tree next door, your actual bill, whether anyone is home at midday - those are what decide it.

Our free Solar Roof Planner is built for exactly that. You type in your address, trace your roof on a satellite image, and get an honest estimate of how many panels fit, what they would generate across a year, what you would save, roughly how long payback would take, and whether a battery makes sense for you. No sign-up, no sales call, nobody phoning you next Tuesday.

Then come back to the news with your own numbers in hand. It reads very differently that way.

See you next week.