UK Home Battery Installations Nearly Doubled 2024 Record but Grid Paid Wind Farms £379 Million to Curtail Output

More than 40,000 homes and small businesses in the UK installed battery systems in 2025, nearly doubling the record set the previous year, @NewScientist reported. Installations of home solar and battery systems by Octopus Energy doubled from February to March after the Iran war began disrupting energy supplies and stayed above pre-war levels even after Britain’s energy regulator announced it would raise the state cap on energy prices.

Home battery installations in the US rose 75 percent in 2025.

In Germany, one in six homeowners now has a battery, for a total of more than 2 million units. On variable tariffs in Britain, electricity costs as little as 5 pence per kilowatt-hour in the early afternoon or at night and 40 pence per kilowatt-hour during the 4 to 7 pm peak. Peak prices reached nearly 50 pence per kilowatt-hour during the current heatwave because of air conditioning and fan use.

UK homeowners currently pay an average of £9,400 for a battery system. Octopus plans a plug-in battery the size of a shoebox that will cost less than £300, store 2 kilowatt-hours, and run a fridge for one to two days. The company expects approval for consumer use in 2027 and a lifespan of at least 12 years.

Last year the UK paid wind farms £379 million to shut down when the grid could not absorb surplus energy. A recent study found that producing a lithium-ion battery emits 150 to 200 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour of capacity. “That could be the game changer… that I think suddenly opens it up to a lot more people,” Iain Staffell of Imperial College London said.