The cheapest start at around £1,500, but can be as much as £10,000 – though on average, you'll typically pay around £5,000 for a standard battery system.
The price of installing a solar battery falls by around £2,000-£3,000 if it's installed at the same time as solar panels. The price of the inverter is already folded into the total amount of a solar panel system installation, and adding a battery doesn't involve much additional labour cost either.
How much does solar battery storage cost in the UK?
It also touches on the cost of solar battery storage in the UK, which, according to Solar Guide, ranges from £1,200 to £6,000. Expensive? Perhaps it's a stretch, but shaving off a few pounds from your energy bill, might just be worth it!
Think of it like this: solar batteries aren't too different from the batteries in smaller gadgets like your smartphone or MP3 player. They're just, well, bigger! Utilised in lithium-ion batteries, the most common type of battery for solar storage. The cost of lithium is influenced by its growing demand and limited supply. Prices can be volatile.
Capacity is the main factor that dictates how much a storage battery costs. It works out at around £900-£1,000 per kWh of electricity a battery can store. The more solar panels you have, and the higher your energy usage, the larger your battery's capacity will need to be.
Starting from February 1, 2024, the UK government has extended the 0% VAT policy to include retrofitted residential solar batteries. This exemption now applies to all residential battery storage systems, whether they are installed as new, retrofitted, or in conjunction with a solar panel system.
You don't have to pay any VAT on solar batteries. In February 2024, the government added standalone solar batteries to its list of energy-saving materials that qualify for a 0% VAT rate until the end of March 2027. After that point, the government plans to raise this rate to 5% for all solar installations.