UK Home Battery Installations Nearly Doubled in 2025 amid Higher Energy Prices

More than 40,000 homes and small businesses in the UK installed battery systems in 2025, nearly doubling the record set in 2024, @NewScientist reported. Battery storage is the world’s fastest-growing power technology, according to the International Energy Agency.

Octopus Energy said installations of its home solar and battery systems doubled from February to March after the Iran war began disrupting energy supplies.

The company reported that installations remained above pre-war levels after Britain’s energy regulator announced it would raise the state cap on energy prices. In the US, home battery installations rose 75 per cent in 2025. In Germany, one in six homeowners now has a home battery, for a national total of more than 2 million units.

Homeowners can charge batteries when electricity costs as little as 5 pence per kilowatt-hour in the early afternoon or at night on variable tariffs in Britain. They can then use or sell the stored power when demand peaks between 4 pm and 7 pm, when prices reach 40 pence per kilowatt-hour. During the current heatwave, peak prices climbed to nearly 50 pence.

UK homeowners currently spend an average of £9,400 on a battery system. Octopus Energy plans to offer a plug-in battery the size of a shoebox that stores 2 kilowatt-hours and costs less than £300. The unit would power a fridge for one to two days and is expected to receive approval for consumer use in 2027.

Phil Steele at Octopus said customers would recover the cost in two to three years. The company expects its home batteries to last at least 12 years. Last year the UK paid wind farms £379 million to curtail output when the grid could not absorb surplus renewable energy.