If an installer told you it was “SEAI approved”, that phrase does not exist in SEAI's scheme. What exists is a register, and SEAI states its limits in plain words on its own website: “SEAI does not approve, guarantee, or warranty a company or their works.” Registration confirms tax and insurance compliance plus a written commitment to the scheme's standards. It is not a verdict on quality, and it is not a warranty you can claim on.
You must use a company from the SEAI registered list to get the grant. That is a hard condition. But being on the list tells you the company is tax compliant, insured and signed up to the rules. It does not tell you SEAI has inspected its work, vetted its workmanship or stands behind it, because SEAI says it does neither.
What Registration Actually Certifies
SEAI's registration page sets out the basis for being on the list. Companies and installers are registered “to ensure tax and insurance compliance and on the basis of their commitment to installing the works in accordance with the SEAI Domestic Technical Standards and Specification (DTSS) and adherence to the programme(s) Code of Practice and Quality Assurance and Disciplinary Procedures (QADP)”.
Two of those are documents SEAI has actually checked: tax clearance and insurance. The rest is a commitment the company makes about work it has not done yet.
The scheme's own Terms and Conditions, which you accept when you take the grant, go further still. Clause 27 states that no “undertaking, guarantee, assurance or other warranty, express or implied, is given by SEAI, or any of its agents or servants, in respect of the cost, quality, efficiency and /or benefit of any work, equipment, materials, product, service or installation provided under the Scheme”. That is the legal version of the same point, and it is the document a homeowner actually signs up to.
| What people assume | What SEAI registration actually means |
|---|---|
| SEAI checked their workmanship | SEAI checked tax clearance and insurance, and took a commitment to its standards |
| SEAI approves the company | SEAI states it “does not approve, guarantee, or warranty a company or their works” |
| SEAI will fix a bad install | Your contract is with the company. SEAI may inspect, and can deregister a company, but it is not your warranty provider |
| The list ranks or rates companies | It is a register. Registration is provisional for 6 months from a company’s first install, with a minimum of 5 installations a year after that |
Registration is not nothing. To join, a company must supply a Declaration of Insurance, hold tax clearance, have at least one in-house SEAI registered installer who is an owner, director or direct employee, and show a Quality Management System covering an organisation chart, document control, a complaints process and quality control. It then completes a monthly onboarding training session, and SEAI says the process can take up to 5 weeks. That is a real administrative bar. It is just not the one most people picture when they read the word approved.
The First Thing the List Does Not Show You: Who Is Actually on Your Roof
The scheme has two kinds of registered professionals, and only one of them is searchable.
A registered company is the entity that signs the contract with you. SEAI is explicit that it is the company name that appears on its public search tool and on the grant application portal.
A registered installer is the person who physically installs the system and signs the Declaration of Works. SEAI calls this “the only person who is allowed to declare that the solar PV installation meets the scheme requirements”. That person needs a recognised solar PV qualification, the 6N306 and 6N307 course certificates, and must be a Registered Electrical Contractor with Safe Electric Ireland before SEAI will process the registration.
Then, in its guidance to installers signing up, SEAI adds this: “You will not be searchable by a homeowner or selectable by a homeowner.”
You can search the company, confirm it is registered, and still have no public way to check the person who climbs onto your roof and signs the form your grant depends on. Those qualifications are real and specific. They are just not in any database you can search.
This is worth one question at quote stage: who is the registered installer who will sign my Declaration of Works, and are they your direct employee or a subcontractor? A registered company must have at least one registered installer in-house, who must be an owner, director or direct employee.
The Second Thing the List Does Not Show You: How New They Are
This part is written plainly in SEAI's registration terms and almost never mentioned.
Solar PV Scheme registration is provisional for 6 months from a company's first install. It is subject to achieving a satisfactory inspections pass rate, and to a minimum of 5 installations per year after that. SEAI states that failing to meet those requirements may result in deregistration from the scheme.
What the search tool gives you is the company name. A company in its first provisional months and a company with years of passed inspections behind it are both, correctly, SEAI registered.
That cuts both ways, and it is not a reason to avoid newer companies. It is a reason to stop treating the list as a filter that has already done your homework. The minimum-five-installs rule also means a company can sit on the list while doing very little solar work, which is worth knowing when an installer tells you solar is its speciality.
Why Installers Say “Approved” Anyway
Plenty of Irish installers use the phrase, and it is usually marketing shorthand rather than an attempt to mislead. “Approved” sounds like a seal of quality. “Registered” sounds like paperwork, which is closer to what it is.
The same confusion runs through solar equipment. The scheme terms require that installations meet the Code of Practice for the Solar PV Scheme, and allow SEAI to revoke funds over “incorrect products as per the Code of Practice”, so the product rules sit in that Code. That is the detail behind our guide to choosing panels in Ireland. SEAI does run a genuine approved-product list, but for EV chargers, not panels.
If an installer uses the word approved, it is not a red flag on its own. If an installer tells you SEAI guarantees its workmanship, that is a red flag, because SEAI says the opposite.
What to Check Instead
SEAI's own grant guidance tells you to shop around for the best quote, check references and talk to previous customers, and get a written contract detailing the works, prices, time, payment terms and warranties. That is SEAI telling you, on the grant page itself, that selecting from its list is step one of your diligence rather than all of it.
- Confirm the company is on the list on two dates: the day you sign and the day work starts. Clause 23 of the scheme terms requires the company to be active on the SEAI Registered Companies list both at the time of application and when the works are being carried out, so a registration that lapses in between puts your grant at risk.
- Ask who the registered installer is and whether they are in-house or subcontracted.
- Ask how long the company has been installing and roughly how many systems it fits a year. The answer tells you what the list cannot.
- Check Safe Electric separately. The electrical registration and the SEAI scheme registration are two different things, and your installer needs both.
- Talk to two previous customers, ideally with systems more than a year old. The full set of checks is in our nine-point installer vetting guide.
Where the Grant Rules Bite
Using a registered company is not optional if you want the money. The Solar Electricity Grant pays €700 per kWp up to 2 kWp, then €200 for every additional kWp up to 4 kWp, capped at €1,800. A 5 kWh or larger battery adds a flat €600, bringing the maximum to €2,400. Your home needs an MPRN, must have been built and occupied before 2025, and must not have had previous solar PV funding at that MPRN. Once you have grant approval you have 8 months to complete the works and submit the paperwork.
Two procedural traps catch people out before the panels ever go up.
The grant is only payable for the company named in your Letter of Offer. Changing company means cancelling the application and creating a new one, and that can only be done if works have not started. SEAI also applies the grant amounts in effect when you create the new application, not the ones from your original. If rates step down in between, switching installer can cost you real money on top of the delay.
And SEAI may inspect. It says it sometimes carries out inspections, and if reworks are needed your contractor has to return, which pushes out your payment. Our guide to what an SEAI inspection involves covers what that looks like in practice. SEAI can also deregister a company that misses those requirements. If your company stops trading mid-project, that is a separate problem with its own fallout.
We only pass your details to companies on the SEAI registered list, so the grant is available on every quote you compare. An installer phones you first to go through your roof and your usage, and the written quote follows a survey. The form takes about a minute.
Get a Solar Quote →Frequently Asked Questions
No. There is an SEAI registered companies list, which is what you must choose from to get the grant, but SEAI does not describe anyone on it as approved. Its own wording is that “SEAI does not approve, guarantee, or warranty a company or their works”. Registration confirms tax and insurance compliance and a commitment to the scheme's technical standards and Code of Practice.
Not before. To register, a company supplies insurance and tax documentation, must have at least one in-house SEAI registered installer, and must show a Quality Management System covering an organisation chart, document control, a complaints process and quality control. Quality checks come afterwards: registration is provisional for 6 months from the first install, subject to a satisfactory inspections pass rate and a minimum of 5 installations per year thereafter, and failing those may lead to deregistration.
Not on the SEAI search tool. SEAI states that it is the company name that appears on its public search, and tells registered installers directly that they will not be searchable or selectable by a homeowner. The registered installer is the only person allowed to declare that the installation meets the scheme requirements and to sign the Declaration of Works, so ask the company who that person will be and whether they are a direct employee. You can separately check an electrical contractor on the Safe Electric register.
No. Your contract is with the solar PV company, and SEAI states it does not guarantee or warranty a company or their works. SEAI sometimes inspects completed installs, and where reworks are required the contractor has to return, which delays grant payment. SEAI can also deregister a company from the scheme. But the remedy for a faulty installation runs through your contract and your consumer rights against the business that sold it to you, not through SEAI.
Not automatically, but it costs you the application. The grant is only payable for the company named in your Letter of Offer, so changing company means cancelling and creating a new application, and that is only possible if works have not started. SEAI applies the grant amounts in effect at the time of the new application rather than the original, so if rates change in between you get the newer rate.
Published: 15 October 2026. Author: Neil Russell. Every claim on this page was checked against seai.ie live sources on 15 October 2026.