Renewable energy lead generation: rent it, or own it.
Renewable energy firms generate leads in two ways. They rent them from lead sellers, directories and paid ads, paying for each one. Or they own them, through their own website, Google profile, SEO and referrals, paying for the asset rather than the enquiry. Most need some of both, and the mix should shift over time.
We don't sell leads. We sell websites, SEO and Google Business Profile work to installers, so weigh our view with that in mind. This guide is for owners of installation firms.
- £6 to £75the published prices per lead we've found for home solar, heat pumps and boilers
- 31 Dec 2026when ECO closes, which shows why scheme leads alone are risky
By James and Stephanie at Tandy & Co. Written and checked on 3 November 2026.
Rented
- Lead sellersPer lead
- DirectoriesPer job or month
- Paid adsPer click
Stops when you stop paying.
Owned
- Your websitePaid once
- Google profileYours to keep
- Past customersNo fee
Slower to start, and rankings can move either way.
Heating websites we've built
Google reviews
What our clients say about us.
We have 3 Google reviews so far. These two are from heating businesses, about a website and a Google profile. We don't sell leads, so no review can speak to that. The third is from a solar client, so we've left it off this page.
Rated 5 out of 5 on Google
“Excellent service and very meticulous service! Can’t recommend highly enough and the expertise and knowledge in building my website how I wanted it and even better than expected and the details and constant communication well done and many thanks your a star . Much appreciated, many thanks again 100%”
Rated 5 out of 5 on Google
“Amazing service from James can't recommend him enough... Really helped me setting up my business page. Goes above and beyond to make sure you're happy. Lovely guy as well. 10/10 service”
Every route, compared
Renewable energy lead generation: how do firms generate leads?
Renewable energy lead generation gives an installer these routes, from the ones you own to the ones you rent. We've marked which we sell, because you should know that when you read our advice.
| Route | How you pay | How soon | Do we sell it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own websiteOwned | Once, then hosting | Live quickly, found slowly | Yes, £600 |
| Google Business ProfileOwned | Free to list, or pay for help | Depends on your area and reviews | Yes, from £147 a month, or £297 setup |
| SEOOwned | Monthly, with no fee per enquiry | Months rather than weeks | Yes, £495 a month |
| Referrals and past customersOwned | No fee | Slow, and grows with each job | No, it's yours to do |
| Lead sellersRented | Per lead or appointment | One seller says within 24 hours3 | No |
| DirectoriesRented | Monthly, per job, or credits | Fairly quick | No |
| Paid adsRented | Per click | Days, once set up | No. See our marketing guide |
| PR and trade pressBorrowed | Your time, or a retainer | Slow, and rarely direct | No. See our PR guide |
"How soon" is our judgement unless a source is shown, not a measured figure. Your area and competition will change it.
Build what you own
A marketing plan for leads you own, in order.
If you can only do one thing a quarter, this is the order we'd pick. Each step makes the next one work harder. Here's where our services fit, with prices copied from our service pages.
1
Claim your Google Business Profile
Google says businesses with complete, accurate info are more likely to show up locally.10 Setup is £297, an overhaul £247, and management £147 a month. See our Google Business Profile service.
2
Build a website that sells the job
A page per service and per town, with your certificates and reviews up front. It's £600 with no VAT, and we design your homepage free first. See renewable energy web design, or the solar, heating and EV charger versions.
3
Ask for a review after every job
Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking.10 It's free, and it's the step most easily forgotten.
4
Add SEO when you can give it months
It's £495 a month, with no contract. 6 + 6 Guarantee: miss the enquiry total we agree for your first 6 months, and we work free until we hit it, for up to 6 more months. See how it works.
5
Ask for referrals
Past customers know you've done the job well, and it costs nothing to ask. Make it easy with a thank-you, a card and a page on your site they can send to a friend.
Our proof
Our proof is thin outside solar, and we'd rather say so.
We're a small, new firm. We have SEO numbers from one solar client, and those belong on our solar pages. Our heat pump and heating sites have only just gone live, so there are no enquiry counts to show. We've no results to show for EV chargers or insulation.
Real client · London, Herts, Beds and Essex
NuRenewables Heating: live on 31 October 2026.
Kirk Ferguson's new website has a page for each service, and an instant heat pump estimate. It's a good example of what we build, but it's too early to say what it brings in.
The honest bit: if you need proven numbers in your trade today, we may not have them. You can see your homepage design for free before deciding anything.
See all our resultsWhat it costs
What we charge for websites and SEO.
- Website
- £600 one-off, or £50 a month for 12 months. No VAT, no interest.
- SEO
- £495 a month. No contract, no per-lead fees, no VAT.
- Google Business Profile
- £297 to set one up, £247 to overhaul yours, £147 a month to keep it fresh.
How it works
From first message to a live website.
Today
Answer a few questions
Your business, what you install, and where you want work.
Within 24 hours
We design your homepage
You see it before you pay a penny.
You decide
Only pay if you want it
If you don't love it, you owe nothing.
7 working days
Your site goes live
Every word written for you.
Who does the work
Two people, and no account managers.
James has done SEO for over ten years.
Stephanie has 13+ years in the energy industry and leads our design and branding.
We take one installer per trade in the town where they're based. More about us
Is it right for you?
It suits installers who want their own enquiries.
It's right for you if you can take on more work, and you're happy to build something that pays back over months.
It's not right for you if you need installs in the diary this week. Ads are quicker, and we'll say so.
Solar lead generation
Solar lead generation is the clearest case of rent or own.
Sellers in the solar market publish both lead and appointment prices, so it's an easy place to see the choice. They come in three main forms: shared, exclusive or a booked appointment. A 2026 price study read sellers' own sites on 3 September 2026 and found them charging from £8 to £130.7
What it means
Solar lead generation is the marketing that gets a homeowner or business to ask about solar. A seller runs it and passes the name on. Or solar installers run it themselves through their own site and Google profile.
What sellers charge
The same study lists one seller at £8 to £15 a lead plus a weekly retainer, and another from £25 standard and £130 for a booked appointment.7 Our solar leads guide has the full comparison.
Business rooftops are their own market
A project on a warehouse isn't a roof on a semi. Different decision makers and a longer sale change what a qualified enquiry looks like. See our commercial solar leads guide.
Your own source
For solar lead generation you own, a solar website and solar SEO go after the same customers the sellers do. We publish solar results on our results page, and they're solar numbers, so we don't apply them to other trades.
What the words mean
What sellers mean by their words.
Whatever the label, renewable energy leads are the contact details of someone who asked about low carbon energy solutions. The label says little. These are the words that change what you're paying for.
| Word | What to check |
|---|---|
| Shared | Sold to more than one firm. Sellers we read say up to 3, or up to 4. Ask how many.3, 4 |
| Exclusive | Sold once, by that seller. One seller's heat pump leads are exclusive for 30 days only, so ask for how long. A homeowner can still ring round.3 |
| Qualified | Someone checked some details, usually by phone. It doesn't mean anyone surveyed the home. Ask what's checked. |
| Booked appointment | A time in your diary. Ask who else is booked, and what you pay for a no-show. |
| Grant or scheme lead | Depends on rules you don't control. Ask how the ads describe the grant, and what happens if the customer doesn't qualify. |
| Able to pay | The customer pays their own way. Ask whether finance is involved, because that can bring its own permissions.4 |
The risk in scheme leads
Government schemes move your leads, and you can't control them.
Scheme work can fill a diary, then stop on a date someone else chose. Companies that rest on one scheme carry that risk, whichever technology they install. A marketing channel you own is your insurance.
What's happening, 3 November 2026
What this means for your marketing
Don't build your website around a grant's name. Write about the job and the customer's problem, and keep the grant on a page you can change in a morning.
Check your sellers too. On the pages we read, some still describe closed or older schemes, so ask what homeowners are being told before you pay.2, 5
Behind the purchase
Where bought leads come from.
Companies buying leads should know how they're made. A solar seller and a heat pump seller work in much the same way, and the source decides who you're really calling.
The seller's own websites
Advice and quote sites collect the enquiry, and several sellers run sites of their own aimed at homeowners.2
Paid ads and social
A seller pays for the click, then adds a margin. Ask what the advert promised, because that's what the customer expects you to deliver.
A check by phone
Several sellers describe phoning each person before delivery. Ask what that call covers.2, 4
Directories
The customer chooses from a list. A 2026 price study found one platform's credit packs show no figure in pounds, so work out the real cost first.7
The catch: the customer found the seller's marketing, not you. When the sale is over, you've built nothing of your own, and next month you pay again.
Know your buyer
Homes and businesses need different marketing.
Any enquiry is only useful if your sales process suits the person behind it. Decide which you want most, and ask any seller which they're selling you.
Homeowners
The first call matters most. Ask why they enquired: lower bills, a broken boiler, a grant or environmental reasons. Each one leads to a different conversation, and a different page on your website.
Businesses
Expect more people in the decision and a longer sale. A finance director wants payback figures, and a firm may have a sustainability target to report on. A website needs to answer those questions without a call.
Which route for you
Which route suits your firm right now?
It depends on how full your diary is and how long you can wait. Companies at different stages need different things. Here's how we'd think about it, including the times when buying is the right call.
Renting makes sense when
- The diary is empty this month. SEO won't fix that in time, and leads might.
- You're testing a new area. A small trial shows if the work's there before you commit.
- You've just added a service. Buy a few to learn how the sale goes.
Owning makes sense when
- You've got months to give it. The work builds up, and nothing resets when you stop.
- Your bill keeps rising. Compare it with the cost of the website and SEO above.
- Customers can't check you. Even a referred customer may look you up first.
Do the sums
Compare routes on cost per install, not cost per lead.
A cheap one nobody answers costs more than a dear one that books a survey. Log every enquiry with its source and cost for a few months, and your own numbers will tell you what to keep. This table shows what the build costs in leads.
| Our price | Leads at £6 | Leads at £15 | Leads at £45 |
|---|---|---|---|
| £600 website, once | About 82 | About 33 | About 11 |
| £495 SEO, each month | 82 | 33 | 11 |
| £147 Google profile, each month | 24 | 9 | 3 |
Prices are sellers' published figures, from our trade guides.1, 2, 4 This isn't a forecast: a lead and an enquiry aren't worth the same, and SEO can take months to pay.
Track it
Log every enquiry, or you'll never know what works.
Without a record, the loudest source wins the argument. A spreadsheet is fine to start. A CRM helps once you're handling more than a few a week. After a few months, you'll have your own cost per install for each route.
| Source | Cost | Called in | Survey? | Won? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bought, exclusive | £45 | 4 min | Yes | Yes |
| Your website | No fee | 10 min | Yes | Waiting |
| Directory | £12 | 2 hrs | No | No |
| Referral | No fee | 1 hr | Yes | Yes |
Before you buy
Six questions that work for every trade.
The trade guides have fuller lists. These are the ones that matter wherever you buy.
- How many firms get each one? And for how long is any exclusive promise good?
- What's the full price, with VAT? Include retainers and minimum orders.
- What can I send back? What counts as bad, and how long do I have?
- What do the ads tell people? Ask to see one, especially if a grant is mentioned.
- Did the customer agree to hear from my company? See the rules below.
- Can I run a small trial? Then work out your cost per install.
Start with your trade
Lead generation by trade: five guides.
The same question has a different answer in each trade, because the schemes, buyers and sellers differ. Solar, boiler and heat pump leads have the most searches in this table. Companies working across trades can read more than one. Each guide compares the sellers we could read, then shows how to win your own.
| Trade | Searches a month | What shapes it |
|---|---|---|
| Solar leads | 250, and 150 for solar lead generation | Published prices run from £8 to £15 plus a retainer at one seller, to £25 to £45 at others.1 |
| Heat pump leads | 200 | The Boiler Upgrade Scheme and MCS. Published prices run from £15 to £75.2, 3 |
| Boiler leads | 250 | Finance, and Gas Safe registration. Published prices start from £6 and £22.4 |
| ECO4 and insulation leads | 100 | The scheme closes on 31 December 2026, with no supplier obligation after it.5, 6 |
| Commercial solar leads | 30 | Several decision makers, and one seller says deals can take 6 to 12 months. Published prices start from £150 an enquiry.12 |
UK estimates from Ahrefs, 3 November 2026. They're modelled, so treat them as relative. "Renewable energy leads" shows about 20.9
Related services
What else we can do for you.
Questions
Renewable energy leads, answered.
Something else? Ask us. You'll get a straight answer from James or Stephanie, usually the same day.
Ask us on WhatsAppAre you a renewable energy lead generation company?
No. We don't sell leads, and we don't run ads or PR. We sell websites, SEO and Google Business Profile work, so the enquiries come straight to you. We take on one installer per trade in each area. That means the town where you're based. It doesn't cover everywhere you're willing to travel.
What's the best way for a renewable energy company to get leads?
There's no single best route, and it turns on how soon you need work. Bought leads are fastest. Your own website and Google profile cost less over time, if you can wait. Most firms need some of each at first.
How much do renewable energy leads cost?
For home jobs, the published prices we've found run from £6 for boilers to £75 for ground source heat pumps. Business rooftops start from £150 an enquiry. Most sellers publish nothing. Ask for a quote in writing, and judge it on cost per install.
Are renewable energy leads worth buying?
They can be, if your cost per install stays well below what a job leaves you. They work best as a top-up, not your only source.
What happens to my leads when a scheme ends?
Scheme leads stop, as ECO shows. Enquiries from your own site can carry on, since customers still need the work. They may just pay differently.
Sources
- Our solar leads guide, with sellers' published prices.
- Our heat pump leads guide, sellers read 2 November 2026.
- UK sellers' own pages behind our heat pump leads guide, read 2 November 2026.
- Our boiler leads guide, sellers read 3 November 2026.
- GOV.UK, "Energy Company Obligation", read 3 November 2026. gov.uk
- DESNZ, "Extending the ECO4 end date: government response", 23 January 2026, read 3 November 2026. gov.uk
- "Solar and heat pump leads: what UK platforms charge in 2026", a published price study, prices read 3 September 2026, page read 3 November 2026. Its publisher says it may earn affiliate commissions.
- Ofgem, Boiler Upgrade Scheme, read 3 November 2026. ofgem.gov.uk
- Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, UK, 3 November 2026. Modelled estimates, so treat them as relative.
- Google Business Profile Help, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google", read 3 November 2026. support.google.com
- ICO, "Using marketing lists", guide to PECR, read 3 November 2026. ico.org.uk
- Our commercial solar leads guide, sellers read 3 November 2026.
Sellers' pages are described as written on the day they were read, and we can't vouch for their claims. If something here is out of date, email james@tandyandco.co.uk and we'll correct it.
Your own enquiries
Stop renting leads. See your own website first.
Tell us about your business and we'll design your homepage free, within 24 hours. No card details, nothing to sign. If you like it, the full website is £600 with no VAT, including the first year's hosting (then £20 a month with us, or host it elsewhere). It's live within 7 working days of you approving the design and sending your photos. We reply personally, seven days a week, 6am to midnight.
- Phone07446 708528
- Stephaniestephanie@tandyandco.co.uk