UK Solar Price Observatory
What UK households actually paid per kW of solar, from official government data. Updated when DESNZ publishes. Free to quote with attribution.
What does solar cost per kW in the UK in 2025/26?
The median installed cost of a 0–4kW domestic solar system in Great Britain is £1,780.25 per kW in 2025/26, on a Declared Net Capacity basis. Adjusted for inflation that is £1,276.85/kW — the lowest in the 13-year published series, and 34% below the 2013/14 peak. At the median rate a 4kW system works out at about £7,120 installed. Source: DESNZ, from the MCS Installation Database.
£1,780.25
median per kW, 0–4kW, 2025/26
−34%
in real terms since 2013/14
265,682
installations recorded in 2025/26
The headline: solar has never been cheaper in real terms
Cash prices tell a misleading story. In cash terms the median cost of a 0–4kW system rose from £1,896.67/kW in 2013/14 to a peak of £2,263.37/kW in 2023/24, then fell back to £1,780.25/kW. That looks like a market that got dearer and then partially recovered.
Adjusted for inflation the picture is different and clearer. 2025/26 is the cheapest year in the entire published series at £1,276.85/kW — 34% below the 2013/14 level and 8.7% down on last year alone. The 2022/23–2023/24 spike was the energy crisis pulling demand forward and stretching installer capacity, not a permanent repricing.
Installed cost per kW, 2013/14 to 2025/26
0–4kW band, Declared Net Capacity basis. Inflation-adjusted column is DESNZ's own real-terms series.
| Financial year | Median £/kW | Median, real terms | Mean £/kW | Real-terms trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013/14 | £1,896.67 | £1,923.60 | £2,049.27 | |
| 2014/15 | £1,904.40 | £1,910.13 | £2,028.09 | |
| 2015/16 | £1,665.00 | £1,661.68 | £1,806.76 | |
| 2016/17 | £1,666.67 | £1,642.04 | £1,840.11 | |
| 2017/18 | £1,697.75 | £1,629.32 | £1,824.56 | |
| 2018/19 | £1,667.27 | £1,566.98 | £1,806.30 | |
| 2019/20 | £1,481.48 | £1,369.21 | £1,647.48 | |
| 2020/21 | £1,500.00 | £1,374.89 | £1,699.25 | |
| 2021/22 | £1,732.48 | £1,531.81 | £1,893.30 | |
| 2022/23 | £2,250.00 | £1,805.78 | £2,371.87 | |
| 2023/24 | £2,263.37 | £1,718.58 | £2,392.36 | |
| 2024/25 | £1,884.24 | £1,397.80 | £2,109.87 | |
| 2025/26 | £1,780.25 | £1,276.85 | £2,008.32 |
Regional cost, 2025/26: a 16% spread
Where you live changes what you pay. North East is the cheapest region at £1,878/kW. South West and London are the dearest, both at £2,177/kW — a 16% difference for the same size of system. On a 4kW installation that is roughly £1,196 between the cheapest and dearest regions.
Note: the regional table reports the mean, not the median, so these figures sit above the national medians shown above. They are not directly comparable.
| Region | Mean £/kW 2025/26 | 2024/25 | Change | Installations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East | £1,878 | £1,954 | -3.9% | 10,900 |
| Scotland | £1,944 | £1,962 | -0.9% | 22,170 |
| Wales | £1,951 | £2,119 | -7.9% | 16,920 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | £1,972 | £2,006 | -1.7% | 13,608 |
| East of England | £1,976 | £2,033 | -2.8% | 17,991 |
| North West | £2,021 | £2,089 | -3.3% | 16,496 |
| West Midlands | £2,021 | £2,170 | -6.9% | 16,357 |
| East Midlands | £2,057 | £2,175 | -5.4% | 17,695 |
| South East | £2,082 | £2,179 | -4.5% | 22,621 |
| South West | £2,177 | £2,265 | -3.9% | 20,136 |
| London | £2,177 | £2,375 | -8.3% | 4,958 |
What this means for your quote
At the 2025/26 median of £1,780.25/kW, indicative installed costs are:
| System size | At national median | In North East | In South West |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3kW | £5,340 | £5,634 | £6,531 |
| 4kW | £7,120 | £7,512 | £8,708 |
| 5kW | £8,900 | £9,390 | £10,885 |
| 6kW | £10,680 | £11,268 | £13,062 |
Use these as a benchmark, not a target. If a quote sits far above the regional figure, ask what justifies it — premium panels, microinverters, a difficult roof or extensive scaffolding are all legitimate reasons. If it sits far below, ask what has been left out.
These are capacity-only costs. Battery storage is a separate line and is not included in any figure on this page.
See how your quote compares
The 2025/26 median is £1,780.25/kW. Get installed prices for your property and check them against it.
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Domestic vs non-domestic
| Year | Sector | Mean £/kW, all sizes | Installations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | Domestic | £2,063.30 | 155,159 |
| 2024/25 | Non-domestic | £1,893.27 | 52,890 |
| 2025/26 | Domestic | £1,962.09 | 176,894 |
| 2025/26 | Non-domestic | £1,844.85 | 88,788 |
Methodology and limitations
Source. Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Solar photovoltaic (PV) cost data, derived from the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) Installation Database. Latest release 2026-05-28, covering 2013/14 to 2025/26 (financial years).
Measure. All figures are Declared Net Capacity (DNC). DESNZ also publishes a Total Installed Capacity (TIC) series, but flags it as "Official Statistics in development". Costs per kW on a TIC basis run roughly 6–12% lower, because TIC is the larger capacity number. Mixing the two would misstate the trend, so this page uses DNC throughout.
Coverage. MCS-certified installations only. Non-MCS work is out of scope. MCS database coverage has improved substantially over the series — from around 50% in 2013/14 to over 97% in 2025/26 — so early years are less complete and long-run comparisons should be read with that in mind.
Geography. England, Scotland and Wales (Northern Ireland not covered). There is no sub-regional or postcode-level breakdown in this dataset, and we do not create one. Any page claiming official town-level solar pricing is not using this source.
What is not included. Battery storage, EV chargers and standalone scaffolding are not separated out. Median and mean are different measures and are labelled as such throughout — the national tables report the median, the regional table reports the mean.
Licence and reuse. The underlying data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. You are welcome to quote the figures and charts on this page. Please attribute to "Home Solar Guide, from DESNZ Solar PV cost data" and link back. If you need the underlying series in another format, contact us.
Data verified: 2026-08-07
Next DESNZ release expected: 2027-05
Next review: 2026-11-01