What solar costs in 2026, and what drives the price

The headline numbers

Three standard system sizes, taken straight from the OVO regional partner pricing matrix. Your final quote comes from your local partner after your design, so it can land under these figures or over them, but this is the shape of it.

Generation at the UK average of 998 kWh per kWp. Excludes non-standard scaffolding, roof repairs and unusual electrical work. Prices from the OVO regional partner pricing matrix.

Look at the cost per kWp column rather than the headline. It nearly halves as the system grows, from £2,374 down to £1,268. Nothing about the panels changes. What changes is how many of them are carrying the same fixed costs.

Where the money actually goes

• Labour. £2,051 on every job, identical across all three system sizes.
• Scaffolding. Typically £300 to £1,000 or more on a solar job, around 13% of the total install cost on average, and it goes up whether the roof gets 6 panels or 14.
• Inverter, isolators, cable runs and the consumer unit work. Broadly the same job at any size.
• The DNO application and MCS certification. Same paperwork either way.
• The panels themselves. This is the only part that genuinely scales with system size.

National cost data breaks a typical installation into roughly 45% hardware, 30% labour and 25% logistics including scaffolding and transport. Only that first slice moves much when you add panels, which is the whole reason the per kWp figure falls so hard.

How that compares with the rest of the market

MCS registered installation data for early 2026 puts the average domestic system at around £8,677 installed, roughly £1,686 per kW, with other cuts of the same data showing about £1,590 per kW nationally and a 2025/26 median of £1,780 per kW. Treat the national market as a £1,550 to £1,800 per kW band. A 14 panel system at £1,268 per kWp sits below it.

Regional pricing across the wider market is genuinely uneven: South East installations ran 10 to 15% above the North East on like for like systems in March 2026 MCS data. Our partners work to one national price list, so a 14 panel system is £7,990 in Aberdeen and £7,990 in Plymouth. What changes with your postcode is what the roof gives back, which the coverage page sets out region by region alongside the local OVO expert who covers you.

The battery, and what it does to the sums

Storage adds about £2,444 for roughly 5.2 kWh of usable capacity, around £470 per usable kWh, fitted and commissioned. That price is flat across all three system sizes, so it weighs far more heavily on a small install than a large one.

The part people miss is the tariff. A battery lifts your OVO export rate from 15p to 20p per kWh. On a system exporting 3,500 kWh a year, that uplift alone is worth about £175 a year before you count a single penny of stored energy saving. Our export rate guide has the conditions in full.

The VAT clock is real

Domestic solar and battery storage in residential property in Great Britain currently attract 0% VAT. That relief has run since May 2023 and is scheduled to end on 31 March 2027, after which the rate is due to return to 5%. Every price on this page is what you would actually pay today. After the deadline, the same job carries 5% on top.

What is included, and what is not

Your regional partner confirms all of this on your free remote design, before you commit to anything.

If your roof will take more than the six panel system, read why filling the roof first time costs less before you decide on size. It is the single decision with the biggest effect on what you pay per unit.

OVO SEG Install Exclusive pays 20p per kWh where OVO installs both solar and battery, or 15p per kWh for solar only. The exclusive rates require you to take your electricity supply from OVO and are subject to system size limits. OVO's standard SEG rate of 4p per kWh is open to customers of any supplier. Rates correct at July 2026 and subject to change.