The 7 Best Solar Batteries in 2023

✔ The best solar battery for capacity is the Tesla Powerwall 2

✔ The best solar battery for warranty is the Moixa Smart Battery

✔ Check out our full ranking below

Making the switch to solar? That’s great – solar energy is one of our best tools in the move away from fossil fuels, and solar panel costs have fallen dramatically in recent years.

To help you chose a battery, our team of four researchers spent 28 hours analysing seven factors in 27 of the best batteries currently available.

You can also compare prices for solar-plus-storage with our help. Fill in a few simple details in this short form about your home and our expert installers will get in touch with free quotes.

The best solar batteries overall

Best for usable capacity: Tesla Powerwall 2

Tesla is best known for its electric cars – and with that, comes excellent knowledge on making batteries. Its Powerwall 2 is the perfect example, achieving the rare feat of a 100% usable capacity.

That means you can use all 13.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) of the Powerwall 2’s available power, which in situations where you need to use the entire battery’s charge, can be extremely useful.

The majority of solar batteries have usable capacities lower than their actual capacity, so you can only use say, 90% of a battery’s available power.

Powerwall 2 is whisper quiet too – and with sleek aesthetics, it looks every part of the futuristic tech we’ve come to expect from Tesla.

If you need extra power, you can stack multiple Powerwalls together, but with a healthy capacity of 13.5 kWh, most homes should function just fine with a single unit.

Tesla also supplies solar panels, making it easier for homeowners to buy a solar-plus-storage system in one place.

The pros & cons of the Powerwall 2

What are the downsides of the Powerwall 2?

Unfortunately, the Powerwall 2 is a bit on the pricey side, costing around £7,450 per unit. This excludes installation, which could increase the total cost by £500–£2,000.

This rises by a further £1,480 for the Tesla Gateway if you want the Powerwall to function as a backup energy source, in case of a power cut.

Definitely consider getting the Gateway if you want to get the most out of your Powerwall 2, because it unlocks a lot of the product’s smart features. This includes the ability to monitor remaining power and whether you’re charging your battery with solar panels or with grid electricity.

Want to learn more about storage batteries? Head to the link for more information!

Best for value for money: Alpha Smile5 ESS 10.1

Solar batteries are rarely cheap, but if you want great value for money then look no further than the Smile5 ESS 10.1 from Alpha. It costs £5,758, which is still higher than the typical solar battery price of £4,500, but it has an impressive usable capacity of 9.1 kWh.

That puts the Smile5 ESS 10.1 up there with some of the best mid-to-high range batteries on the market, but without the price hike. For context, the Encharge 10T has a 10 kWh usable capacity, and costs a comparatively eye-watering £8,374.

The lower price tag doesn’t come at the cost of durability either, as the Smile5 ESS 10.1 boasts 10,000 cycles (going from a full charge to empty = one cycle). That’ll mean your battery comfortably lasts well over a decade without much impact to its efficiency.

The pros & cons of the Smile 5 ESS 10.1

What are the downsides of the Smile5 ESS 10.1?

Despite being good value for money, the Smile5 has a few limitations when it comes to warranties. You’ll need to make sure the Smile5 is connected to the internet throughout its 10-year warranty period, otherwise the warranty will plummet to just three years.

If your internet connection drops for 20 minutes or more, you’ll need to inform Alpha as soon as possible.

This is a unique downside among the batteries we’ve reviewed, so if purchasing a Smile5 ESS 10.1, make sure you connect it to the internet (and keep it connected). Otherwise, you could find yourself having to pay full price for a replacement if it malfunctions after three years.

The included inverter also only comes with a five-year warranty, so that’ll need replacing too if you run into issues after this period.

Best for warranty: Moixa Smart Battery

Almost all solar batteries come with a 10-year warranty, and the Moixa Smart Battery is no different. What separates it from the pack is the Gridshare initiative, which will give you an unlimited warranty if you join.

Gridshare helps Moixa customers trade excess power stored in its Smart Batteries to the grid. If you join the Gridshare Cashback Scheme, you’ll also get £50 a year for the first three years.

After this, you’ll be entitled to a share in the profits of your electricity exported to the grid, with Moixa paying you 50% for the electricity your Smart Battery generates.

Even though the profits aren’t that high, and you could probably make more with the Smart Export Guarantee, the unlimited warranty is a big bonus.

The pros & cons of the Smart Battery

What are the downsides of the Smart Battery?

Opting into Gridshare means you’ll lose out on selling excess electricity to the grid for three years through the SEG, with Moixa sharing the profits with the National Grid instead.

The Smart Battery’s 85% depth of discharge is also lower than any battery on this list, putting it last for usable capacity.

Best for range of features: Enphase Encharge 10T

The Enphase Encharge 10T is at the cutting-edge of solar batteries, offering a plethora of features that places it firmly on top for impressive technology. The Encharge functions as an all-in-one solution for a home’s entire energy system, meaning it manages more than just solar panels.

It does this with its smart switch feature, which automatically switches between solar, grid, battery, or generator power, depending on what you need.

The Encharge works seamlessly in power outages too, with automatic grid-failure detection, which immediately turns on the battery during power cuts. It’s designed to break connection with the grid immediately in these situations, so there’s no danger of power feeding back into the grid and putting engineers at potential risk.

You’ll also get a beautifully designed app you can use to read how much power you’ve stored, how much electricity you’re currently consuming, and whether you’re using solar power or the grid to charge your battery.

Want to know how solar batteries are installed? Go to our step by step guide.

The pros & cons of the Enphase Encharge 10T

What are the downsides of the Enphase Encharge 10T?

Despite all these features, the Enphase Encharge 10T only has 4,000 cycles. To be clear, that's still a lot of cycles to get through, and if you average 250 full cycles a year, your Encharge could last 16 years.

It’s still lower than many other premium batteries though, and you’d expect cycle parity, considering the high upfront cost of the Encharge 10T.

Best for limited space: Huawei Luna 2000-10

Solar batteries can be bulky, make no mistake, but if space is an issue then the Huawei Luna 2000-10 is a smart choice.

The unit is just 150 mm thick, meaning you can easily install it in a garage with limited space, or even in an under-stair cupboard — and still have room to spare. The Luna 2000-10 is waterproof too, so you can discreetly install it outside, if you prefer.

The battery can be mounted on the wall or installed standing, giving you flexibility for where you want to place it.

We’ve covered the 2000-10 model here, but really, the Luna 2000 is a stackable battery module that comes in 5 kW units — the 2000-10 is the middle-ground option of 10 kW.

You can increase the capacity of a single Luna 2000 tower up to 15 kWh, or connect two complete towers to reach 30 kWh.

The pros & cons of the Huawei Luna 2000-10

What are the downsides of the Huawei Luna 2000-10?

Huawei has made it so you can only use its batteries with the company’s inverters, which means you’ll need to buy your inverter from them if you want to use the Luna 2000-10.

Battery degradation is also a little faster than we’d like to see in a unit you’re spending over £5,000 on — expect it to reach 60% of its original capacity after 10 years.

The Tesla Powerwall 2 will operate at around 70% of its original capacity after the same time period.

Best for operating temperature: Puredrive PureStorage

Solar batteries start to work less effectively once they either exceed or fall below certain temperatures, with some models struggling to work efficiently above 30°C.

That’s a temperature the UK has already seen far too often in recent years, as the damaging effects of climate change become more common. And some parts of the home, such as the garage (a popular place to install solar batteries), often become even hotter than the outside world.

PureStorage from Puredrive is the solar battery to go for if you want to future-proof your home storage against significant temperature fluctuations. It can operate efficiently between -20°C and 60°C.

These are temperatures that’ll realistically never be hit in the UK, but it doesn’t hurt to have a guarantee.

The pros & cons of the Puredrive PureStorage

What are the downsides of Puredrive PureStorage?

Puredrive’s PureStorage battery is a tall beast and, measuring at 1,460 mm, comfortably towers above most of the batteries on this list.

This could make it complicated to store the PureStorage battery in places with limited space, so factor this into your purchasing decision.

Best for scalability: Powervault P4

Want effortless control over your battery system’s capacity? Get a battery that’s easily scalable — the Powervault P4. You can easily install new battery modules if your power needs increase, and the Powervault P4 can be increased from 8 kWh all the way up to 24 kWh.

With this level of flexibility, you can confidently purchase a futureproof system whilst minimising the risk of oversizing, a common challenge that can impact the ROI of solar battery systems.

The Powervault P4 is also a very smart system – the smartSTOR™ capacity management system makes proactive decisions about whether to prioritise capturing off-peak grid energy or free renewable energy, based on weather forecasts and your live tariff data. This clever technology allows you to save even more money on your energy bills and make use of your battery even when the sun isn’t shining.

The pros & cons of the Powervault P4

What are the downsides of the Powervault P4?

The Powervault P4 could be a larger battery than many domestic customers would need, but luckily Powervault do also make a smaller unit, the PV compact, with a smaller footprint, the same clever technology and a modular capacity range of 3 – 8kWh. (Prices start at £4,450).

How did we choose the best solar batteries?

Our team of four researchers spent 28 hours investigating the storage battery market to find the 27 best batteries currently available.

We analysed the core attributes of all these batteries, then decided to focus on the seven most important factors: The usable capacity, value for money, warranty, range of features, size, operating temperature, and how well a battery worked during a power cut.

Usable capacity

The usable capacity of a storage battery is not how much electricity it can store, but how much of a battery’s total capacity you can actually use.

A battery’s capacity can be misleading, as you shouldn’t typically use a battery’s entire capacity, otherwise you run the risk of damaging it. Only a handful of solar batteries have 100% usable capacity — most range between 90% and 95%.

When shopping for a solar battery, you should always look out for the battery’s usable capacity and factor that into how much electricity your home needs.

Value for money

Getting a solar battery isn’t cheap, with even the smallest units costing more than £1,500. However, you can still find some great options that’ll shrink your break-even point below the typical 26.3 years for a solar-plus-storage setup.

Warranty

When you’ve installed your solar battery, you’ll want it to last for the longest time possible. Every battery comes with a guaranteed number of ‘cycles’, with one ‘cycle’ being one complete discharge and one complete recharge.

Not that you’ll ever use your battery in that way – instead, you’re likely to use about 50% and then charge it back up to 100%, which would count as half a cycle. Every solar battery also comes with a product warranty, which is usually 10 years.

Features

A good solar battery is more than just plugging it in and letting it do its thing — you should look for features that get the very best out of it.

For example, there are monitoring apps you can install on your phone to see essential metrics, such as remaining charge, whether the battery is charging from the grid or your solar panel setup, and what excess electricity you’re exporting to the grid.

Another feature to keep an eye out for is automatic power cut backup, which is where your battery will immediately start powering your home when the grid cuts out.

Battery size

Space can be limited in a home, so make sure you don’t buy a battery and find out you can’t install it where you wanted to.

Some manufacturers are better at condensing power into smaller units than others, but this can increase the total cost. This is because smaller batteries with similar power levels to larger units require more complicated cooling mechanisms, to stop them from overheating.

Size isn’t everything, however, as some batteries can only be wall mounted – and what might seem small at first, can take up more room than you’d expect because it’s off the floor.

Operating temperature

It’s important to look at a battery’s operating temperature, as you don’t want to find yourself in either a cold snap or a heat wave and have a battery that stops working.

Most solar batteries have an operating range between 0°C and 40°C, but some can keep working comfortably between -20°C and 60°C.

Power cut effectiveness

Many storage batteries won’t immediately start working in the event of a power cut, for safety reasons. This is to prevent electricity from being fed back into the grid and endangering the safety of any engineers working to restore power.

However, you can find some batteries that do automatically kick in the second the power goes down, without feeding electricity back into the grid. These are usually more expensive, but you can also find models that allow you to add this feature retroactively.

Depth of discharge

Depth of discharge (DoD) wasn’t part of the seven key factors, but it still deserves a mention. In principle it’s the same thing as a battery’s usable capacity, but the terms are often mentioned together without explanation.

Continually using a battery’s full capacity before recharging it will gradually damage it. A battery’s depth of discharge dictates how much of the battery’s capacity should be used before recharging it.

For example, if you have a 10 kWh solar battery with an 80% DoD, you should only use it for 8 kWh of energy before allowing it to recharge. Most modern lithium-ion batteries come with a DoD of 90% or more.

Next steps

The solar battery market is constantly expanding, and more companies are looking to cash in on the increased demand.

With a solar battery and a solar panel system, you'll typically save £642 on your energy bills. The upfront cost is high, however, putting the technology out of reach of thousands of UK households who would benefit.

If you're ready to compare prices for solar-plus-storage, we can help. Enter a few details about your home in the form and we’ll put you in touch with our expert installers. They’ll get back to you with bespoke quotes for you to compare.

The best solar batteries: FAQs