Salix Decarbonisation Loan Bid Timeline Week-by-Week — 14-Week Template for FE Colleges
Week-by-week 14-week Salix Decarbonisation Loan bid timeline for FE corporations — from HHD data pull (week 0) to signed loan offer (week 14).
Most FE corporations underestimate the calendar work involved in a successful Salix Decarbonisation Loan bid. The application form itself is tractable in a fortnight; the real timeline is the evidence pipeline behind it — the half-hourly demand data, the structural sign-off, the DNO conversation, the governor approval window. Pull any one of these out of sequence and the bid slips a quarter.
This is the 14-week template we use with FE Sustainability Leads, ordered backwards from the moment the loan offer needs signing. Adjust by ±2 weeks for college-specific governance cycles.
The fast answer
A clean Salix bid for an FE college solar project runs 14 working weeks from kick-off to signed loan offer, assuming no committee misses. The critical-path items are the half-hourly demand (HHD) pull (week 0), the structural roof survey (week 4), the G99 pre-application to the DNO (week 5), the governor Finance & Resources Committee sign-off (week 11), and the Salix portal submission window (week 12). Everything else can flex by a fortnight; these five cannot.
Week-by-week breakdown
Week 0 — Trigger and data pull
- Sustainability Lead pulls 12 months of half-hourly demand (HHD) data from the supplier or MOP for every meter point in scope
- Confirm corporation is in scope (ONS-reclassified FE corporation, since November 2022 — see Salix vs PSDS Phase 4 — which route?)
- Decide whether this is a single-site or multi-site bid (Salix accepts bundled multi-site bids if all sites share a corporation)
Weeks 1-2 — Internal scoping
- Sustainability Lead + Estates Director walk every candidate roof: pitch, orientation, structural age, last refurbishment date
- Pre-2000 buildings get logged for asbestos and structural survey prioritisation
- Director of Finance gets a one-page heads-up: indicative project size, draw schedule, payback range
Week 3 — Specialist appointment
- Appoint an MCS-certified commercial solar installer with FE track record. The corporation usually goes through the CCS RM6011 framework here to avoid a full OJEU process
- Installer prepares an indicative system design, generation model, and 25-year cashflow
Week 4 — Structural surveys (critical path)
- Independent structural engineer surveys every candidate roof
- Loadings calculated for proposed array weight (typically 12-18 kg/m² for ballasted, 8-12 kg/m² for penetration-fixed)
- This is the gating step: without sign-off, no installer will quote firmly and no underwriter will commit
Week 5 — DNO pre-application (critical path)
- G99 pre-application to the District Network Operator covering the full proposed export capacity
- Lead time is typically 4-8 weeks for a response. This is why it must start by week 5 — see G99 DNO application timeline
- If the DNO comes back with grid reinforcement costs, those must be built into the Salix bid before submission
Week 6 — Firm quote and generation model
- Installer issues firm quote (not indicative) with payment schedule
- Independent generation model from a third party (PVSyst, Solcast, or installer’s modelled output validated by an MCS designer)
- Director of Finance reviews the cashflow and confirms the draw schedule fits the corporation’s working capital position
Week 7 — Bid document drafting
- Sustainability Lead drafts the Salix bid narrative: project description, decarbonisation metric (kgCO2e/£), payback, alignment with the corporation’s AoC Climate Action Plan
- Carbon savings calculated per Salix’s published carbon factors (currently 0.207 kgCO2e/kWh for grid electricity displaced)
Week 8 — Internal QA
- SLT review of bid draft
- Estates Director signs off the technical evidence pack (structural survey, G99 response, firm quote)
- Director of Finance signs off the financial annex (draw schedule, repayment profile, balance sheet impact)
Weeks 9-10 — Governance pipeline
- Finance & Resources Committee paper drafted and circulated 10 working days before the meeting
- Committee meeting itself: decision logged in minutes
- If the loan exceeds the corporation’s standing financial instructions threshold (typically £500k), it also needs full Board approval
Week 11 — Governor sign-off (critical path)
- Either Finance & Resources or full Board (per delegation thresholds) approves the borrowing
- Signed minute issued — Salix needs sight of this before they will release the loan offer
Week 12 — Salix portal submission (critical path)
- Bid uploaded to the Salix Energy Efficiency Loans portal with all annexes:
- Firm installer quote
- Generation model
- Structural survey
- G99 pre-application response
- Half-hourly demand baseline (12 months)
- Governor approval minute
- Carbon savings calculation worksheet
- 25-year cashflow with discount rate stated
Week 13 — Salix review
- Salix typically responds in 2-4 weeks with either a loan offer or a clarification request
- Clarifications most commonly relate to the displaced-carbon calculation (Salix wants methodology, not just the answer) or the draw schedule (they prefer milestone-based against installation completion)
Week 14 — Loan offer signed
- Director of Finance signs the loan offer
- Drawdown schedule confirmed in writing
- Project moves from funding workstream to delivery workstream
What slips this timeline most often
In our experience supporting FE corporations through Salix bids, the timeline slips in four predictable places:
| Slip cause | Typical delay | How to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Structural survey unavailable | 3-4 weeks | Book the survey in week 1, not week 4 — they get diary-locked fast |
| DNO G99 response delay | 4-8 weeks beyond the 5-week assumption | Submit a “minded to apply” indicative request alongside week-0 data, not formally but to flag intent |
| F&R Committee misses a sitting | 6-8 weeks (next quarterly meeting) | Map the Salix bid backwards from the F&R calendar at week 0, not week 9 |
| Salix clarification request | 2-3 weeks per round | Pre-empt by including a methodology annex on carbon savings (most common clarification) |
When the 14-week timeline doesn’t apply
For multi-site bundled bids covering more than three campuses, add 3-4 weeks for the additional structural surveys and the consolidation of multiple G99 responses into one bid narrative. For bids over £1.5m capital, add 2 weeks for the additional financial scrutiny Salix runs on larger schemes. For projects that bundle solar with battery storage, add 2 weeks for the additional independent generation/dispatch modelling and the DNO conversation on export limiting.
If you’re choosing between Salix and PSDS Phase 4, the PSDS timeline is longer (typically 20+ weeks because the bid window is fixed rather than rolling) — see the PSDS Phase 4 bid checklist and the PSDS Phase 4 page for the parallel timeline.
Related guides
- Salix Decarbonisation Loan for colleges — eligibility, terms, sector benchmarks
- PSDS Phase 4 for FE colleges — bid scoring, capital thresholds, deadlines
- Salix vs PSDS Phase 4 — which route? — decision framework
- G99 DNO application timeline — the critical-path grid step
- Year-one implementation checklist for FE solar — what happens after the loan offer is signed