Solar panels and battery cost in the UK: 2026 package prices

What suppliers publish for solar panels and a battery

These are prices suppliers state on their own pages, read on 7 October 2026. Most are “from” prices for a standard installation, and the panels, inverters and batteries in each package differ, so they are a floor to compare against, not a quote.

Two comparisons come straight out of the table. Octopus’s Optimised package (Enphase microinverters, 15-year battery warranty) costs £1,272 more than its Smart package (a Fox ESS hybrid inverter, 12-year warranty) for the same four panels and about 5 kWh of storage, which is 16% more. Good Energy’s Powerwall 3 adds £7,520 to its 10-panel price, which is £479 less than Octopus’s £7,999 for the same battery installed on its own. Neither gap is large, which is the first reason to get more than one set of battery storage quotes for the same system.

What the official statistics say solar panels cost

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes the installed price of every MCS-certified solar installation. In 2025/26 it analysed a record 264,742 of them, 27% more than the year before. The cost includes the panels, installation and connection and VAT where it applied, and excludes any battery fitted alongside. These are the 2025/26 figures:

Nearly nine in ten domestic installations in 2025/26 were retrofits to existing homes, and a retrofit costs more per kW than a new build. After inflation, DESNZ says the median cost per kW fell 7% for installations up to 4 kW and 9% for 4 to 10 kW compared with 2024/25. Multiplying the retrofit mean by system size gives a rough benchmark total for panels alone: about £6,300 for 3 kW, £8,300 for 5 kW and £9,900 for 6 kW (DESNZ finds the cost per kW is lower for larger installations). Prices also vary by region: the all-installation mean was £1,899 per kW in London and £1,646 per kW in Wales.

What the same statistics say the battery adds

DESNZ’s battery statistics cover batteries registered with MCS in existing homes, with the solar excluded from the cost. The 2025/26 medians were £1,300 per kWh under 6 kWh, £890 per kWh for 6 to 11 kWh and £630 per kWh for 11 kWh or more. At those medians a 5 kWh battery is a benchmark £6,500 and a 10 kWh battery £8,900. The solar battery cost guide explains the bands and what the average installation in each actually cost.

Adding the two official benchmarks gives a deliberately blunt number:

Those sums sit above every supplier package in the first table, and above the top of Heatable’s £10,000 to £14,000 bracket for 4 kWp with a battery. The reason is what they measure: every MCS installation, including premium equipment, awkward roofs, scaffolding, backup hardware and small installers’ margins, with batteries that were fitted alone and with solar mixed together. They are the price of an average job, where the packages above are the price of a standard one. A quote between the two is ordinary; a quote above the official sum for your size deserves itemising.

What the combination saves, and how long each part takes to repay

Price only means something against savings. This site’s model runs a London home using 3,000 kWh a year, with the solar output from PVGIS, against a home with neither panels nor a battery on a flat tariff. The panels are exported at 12p per kWh (Outgoing Octopus) when not used, and the battery is on Octopus Flux where one is fitted. Rates are Octopus’s 26 September 2026 rates.

Three things stand out. First, the panels do the heavy lifting: in Good Energy’s package they account for £753 of the £1,331 a year, and they repay in 8.5 years on their own. Second, the battery’s own payback is longer: the Powerwall 3 adds about £578 a year for £7,520, which is about 13 years. Third, entry-level prices with four panels or fewer are the worst value, because the fixed cost of the installation is spread over very little generation: 14 to 29 years in the model. The model leaves out inverter replacement, finance interest, changes in tariffs and any extra export tariff a supplier bundles in (Good Energy lists 12p per kWh with Silver and a 25p per kWh rate for 12 months with Gold), so treat the paybacks as a way to compare packages, not a promise. The calculator lets you run your own usage and array.

Export income is only part of that saving, and the rates differ by tariff: 12p flat on Outgoing Octopus, 16p in the evening peak on Prime and 4.1p on the Smart Export Guarantee tariff, all set out in Octopus export tariffs compared.

Buying together versus adding the battery later

The suppliers’ own prices point the same way every time. E.ON Next lists a battery from £1,900 when it goes in with its panels and from £3,995 on its own, which is £2,095 or 52% less to fit together. In this site’s model a 5 kWh battery adds about £174 a year to a 4 kWp roof on Flux, so E.ON’s £1,900 with-panels price repays in about 11 years, against about 23 years at its £3,995 stand-alone price. Octopus prices an extra 13.5 kWh Tesla Expansion Pack at £3,773 when it is fitted with a new Powerwall 3 and £5,909 later, 57% more. A new combined system needs one hybrid inverter (or a battery with the inverter built in) instead of a second inverter for a retrofit, and one visit and one network notification. The reverse also matters: if you already have panels, the cost of adding a battery to existing solar is the retrofit price, and there is no reason to replace working panels to buy “together”.

That does not mean every home should fit both at once. A battery earns on the tariff as much as on the panels, so check that you can join the tariff your payback figure assumes. Octopus Flux, for example, needs both solar and a battery and an MCS certificate; its current Octopus Flux rates are on their own page. For the combined system explained, see solar panels and a battery together.

VAT, finance and grants

• VAT. Installed solar panels and installed batteries are zero-rated until 31 March 2027, and 5% after, under HMRC VAT Notice 708/6. A supply-only price is not comparable with an installed one.
• Finance. E.ON Next advertises up to three years interest-free (0% APR) on its solar panels; Good Energy shows 9.9% APR representative; Octopus offers a fixed-term loan alongside a £500 non-refundable deposit. The interest on a longer loan can add more than £1,000 to a battery, as the worked example on the grants and funding page shows.
• Grants and loans. In eligible English homes the Warm Homes Local Grant can fund solar panels and, where there is solar, a battery, and the Warm Homes Loan Scheme sets caps of £15,000 each for solar and for a battery. Both are explained, with their eligibility rules, on the grants page.

In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The price figures on this page come from UK sources; no nation has its own published price list, so a quote in Glasgow, Cardiff or Belfast should be judged on the same price per usable kWh. The Smart Export Guarantee applies in Great Britain but not in Northern Ireland, where export is supplier-set (Power NI pays 11.88p a kWh until 30 September 2027). Home Energy Scotland no longer funds solar panels or batteries for new applicants, which is why solar and battery costs in Scotland are planned around tariffs rather than grants, and Northern Ireland’s separate connection rules are in the Northern Ireland battery guide.

How to read a package quote

A package price is only comparable once the specification is. Ask each installer to state, in writing: the number and wattage of the panels and the system size in kWp, the inverter type and its power in kW, the battery’s usable kWh, whether backup is included, the warranty length and conditions for panels, inverter and battery, the MCS certificate and who registers it, the tariff the payback assumes and whether your home qualifies, and the price including VAT and any deposit. The comparison checklist lists the rest. Dividing a quote by its kWp and its usable kWh and holding the results against the official figures above is the quickest test of whether it is ordinary.