Solar panels with a battery: what it costs in 2026

The short answer

A typical 4.5kWp solar panel system costs about £7,600 and a 5kWh battery about £4,600, so the pair comes to roughly £12,200, according to the Energy Saving Trust. Batteries on their own range from about £1,500 to £10,000 depending on size and type. Both are zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027, after which 5% VAT applies.

What solar panels with a battery typically cost

There is no single price, because it depends on the size of the panels, the size of the battery and how hard your home is to work on. These are the most reliable published figures we found when we checked in October 2026:

Energy suppliers that also install solar publish their own starting prices. Which? found one supplier selling solar panels with a battery from £7,518, and another selling batteries from £3,995. These are “from” prices for the smallest option, so a quote for your home may be higher. For prices for panels alone at other sizes, see our guide to solar panel costs by system size.

What pushes the price up or down

• Battery size. Capacity is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). The Energy Saving Trust says a typical home battery might be 10kWh, and Which? says most new batteries range from about 5kWh to 15kWh. Bigger batteries cost more.
• Usable capacity. Which? points out that the usable capacity is usually less than the stated capacity, because some energy is lost and most batteries are not designed to empty fully. Compare quotes on usable kWh.
• How the battery is connected. A DC battery connects directly to the panels and does not need another inverter. An AC battery connects after the generation meter and needs its own converter. Which?, citing the Energy Saving Trust, says AC systems cost more. Adding a battery to existing panels may mean a new inverter.
• Your roof and your home. The Energy Saving Trust says difficult roof access, or needing to renew the roof covering, adds to the panel cost. It can be cheaper if scaffolding is already up for roof repairs.

Is it cheaper to fit them together?

Usually, yes. The Energy Saving Trust says you should be able to save money by fitting a battery at the same time as solar panels, because the installers are already on site and can connect everything as one job. One large energy supplier shows the difference clearly: Which? found it sells batteries from £2,910 on their own, or from £1,680 when bought with solar panels. That is a saving of about £1,230 on its starting price.

VAT is the same either way at the moment. HMRC says batteries installed in homes have been zero-rated since 1 February 2024, and Which? confirms this applies whether or not they are fitted with new panels. The zero rate for solar panels and batteries runs until 31 March 2027, and from 1 April 2027 it goes back to 5%. On our £12,200 example, 5% VAT would add about £610. Our guide to the end of 0% VAT on solar explains the timing.

Worked example: what a battery adds

To see what you get for the extra money, we worked through one household. They use 3,800kWh of electricity a year (Ofgem’s figure for a high-use home), are out during the day, and are fitting a 4.5kWp system.

• Solar output: about 3,780kWh a year. Government figures give a median solar load factor of 9.6% for 2023/24, which works out at about 840kWh for each kWp of panels (9.6% of the 8,760 hours in a year).
• Share used at home: taken from the MCS self-consumption tables for a home that is out all day using 3,500kWh to 3,999kWh a year. We treated a 5kWh battery as having 4.1kWh to 5kWh usable, and a 10kWh battery as 9.1kWh to 10kWh.
• Electricity price: 26.32p per kWh, Ofgem’s price cap rate for Direct Debit from 1 October to 31 December 2026.
• Export payment: 6p per kWh, the best rate Which? found in April 2026 that anyone can get without conditions.

For example, with the 5kWh battery the home uses 51% of 3,780kWh, which is 1,928kWh. At 26.32p that saves about £507. The other 1,852kWh is exported at 6p, earning about £111.

So the 5kWh battery adds about £268 a year. At £4,600, it would take about 17 years to pay for itself on solar savings alone. If you can get 15p per kWh for exports, the battery adds only about £150 a year, because exporting is already worth more, and its payback stretches to about 31 years. A home that is in all day gets almost the same gain from the battery (30% rising to 65%), so the answer barely changes.

The 10kWh battery adds a further £146 or so on top of the 5kWh one. Each extra kWh of storage is worth less than the one before, which is why Which? says there is no point buying a battery bigger than your panels can fill. We have ignored energy lost in charging and discharging, and any change in prices, so treat these as estimates.

Why the battery price matters so much

The Energy Saving Trust puts a battery’s typical lifespan at about 10 to 12 years, and Which? says batteries often come with a 10-year warranty. A battery that takes 17 years or more to pay back will usually need replacing first. Solar panels, by contrast, should last 25 years or more.

Price changes this a lot. At the £1,680 starting price above, the same £150 to £268 a year would pay the battery back in about 6 to 11 years. That is why it pays to get several quotes and compare the battery price on its own line. The Energy Saving Trust is clear that battery savings can be significant but won’t always be enough on their own to justify the cost.

A battery can earn more than our example shows if you use a time-of-use tariff, charging it when electricity is cheap and using it when prices are high. Which? found some export tariffs for homes with solar and a battery paid 20p to 25p per kWh in April 2026, but these came with conditions, such as having the system installed by that supplier. Our guide to whether battery storage is worth it covers this in more detail.

Help with the cost

There is no dedicated government grant for solar panels. The Energy Saving Trust says the Warm Homes Plan will bring fully funded support for people on low incomes, and low and zero-interest loans for homeowners regardless of income. Which? says these loans were announced in January 2026, but it is not yet known when they will be available. Some suppliers also offer 0% finance on their own packages.

What to do next

Find your yearly electricity use on your annual statement, then try your numbers in our solar savings calculator. When you are ready, compare solar battery quotes from an installer who covers your area, or get free solar panel quotes if you want to price panels on their own too. Ask for the battery’s usable capacity and price on a separate line so you can compare like with like. Getting quotes before 31 March 2027 means you pay 0% VAT rather than 5%. It’s free and there’s no obligation.