Renewable Energy Tenders and Contracts

Solar dominates: rooftop PV on schools and council buildings, ground-mounted solar farms on ex-landfill and brownfield sites, and rooftop programmes funded through power purchase agreements rather than upfront capital. Wind shows up less often at council level and mostly through the Crown Estate's offshore seabed leasing rounds. Single turbine feasibility studies for parish or academy sites also come up occasionally.

Stotles brings together renewable energy tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Solar and heat projects for public estates are often called off from frameworks, so some opportunities reach only installers already on them.

Renewable energy tenders are scored on design and yield, technical approach, programme, grid connection and planning management, and whole-life cost. Buyers often run feasibility work first and then let installation, so early engagement and a track record on similar sites help.

Renewable installers are expected to hold MCS certification for small-scale systems and to meet grid connection and electrical safety requirements, and construction work brings duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar projects at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

ESPO lists a Renewable Energy Solutions framework in its pipeline, alongside broader energy frameworks such as Kent County Council's flexible gas and electricity agreement, which carries a lot for renewable energy innovation solutions. Most renewable energy work outside these still goes to the open market rather than a dedicated framework.

Solar is often bought through power purchase agreements, where the supplier funds the installation, or bundled into housing retrofit and electrical frameworks such as NEPO's retrofit and decarbonisation works and ESPO's Renewable Energy Solutions. Councils, housing associations, NHS trusts, schools, colleges and universities buy solar installation and maintenance.

Read net zero and decarbonisation plans, capital programmes and preliminary market engagement notices, which show renewable energy work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

The main codes are 09330000 (Solar energy), 31121340 (Wind farm) and 31121320 (Wind turbines).