What is a solar battery and what does it do?

Last Updated on 19/10/2025 by owen_2023

What is a solar battery and what does it do?

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What is a Solar Battery?

 Solar batteries, or solar power storage, allows you to store electricity generated from the sun through your solar panels, to then use in the evening or at a later date. Adding a solar batteries is a great way to use more renewable energy, utilising the power you generate yourself and decrease your reliance on the grid.

What Does a Solar Battery Do?

A solar battery draws in the energy produced by your solar panel. It then converts this solar energy from Direct Current DC into Alternating Current AC for the household power system. The solar battery allows energy generated during daylight hours to be stored until needed, typically during the evening. Solar panel batteries, also known as solar battery storage systems, work by storing the excess energy produced by solar panels (also referred to as solar PV panels) during the day, for later use when the sun isn’t shining. There are two main battery technologies currently used, lithium-ion and lead-acid, both of which are designed to handle the cyclic charging and discharging required for solar energy storage. During the night, when your home demands electricity your solar battery discharges to power your appliances and devices, so you’re reaping the benefits of solar PV long after the sun has set.

Adding solar battery storage

Solar panels generate the most power during daylight hours, which is often when homes use the least electricity. Whilst this unused electricity can be sold back to the grid, you could benefit more by storing it in a solar battery and using the energy to power your own home.

A solar battery package maximises your own use of the low-carbon energy you’re generating from the sun. This means you’ll import less electricity from the grid, saving you money on your energy bills.2

What is The Difference Between a Solar Power Battery And a Normal Battery?

All batteries store energy, but a solar battery differs from an ordinary battery. The first main difference is the capacity of a solar battery. A fully charged solar battery could power your entire home for around 10 hours, whereas the batteries in your radio will only give you a limited amount of energy. A standard battery is used once the energy has been discharged. A rechargeable battery can be reused once charged, but there is a limit to how often this can be done. A solar battery is designed to be constantly charged and discharged for many years. Solar batteries have the additional function of being able to be used in a complete solar energy system, connected to your solar panels, with the ability to convert this energy produced into the energy needed to power a home. A solar battery is essential to optimise the use of your solar panels.

Why Use a Solar Panel Battery?

Solar panels are a brilliant way to use the sun’s power to generate endless, clean energy. However, their limitation is that they can only generate energy during daylight hours. If you use the bulk of your household energy during the evening, the power generated by your solar panels during the day is essentially wasted. Investing in solar batteries as part of your solar power system allows you to store the energy generated throughout the day in your solar battery storage and then use this energy during the evening to run your household. With some solar battery storage systems, you can sell any surplus energy your solar panels generate back to the national grid.

Can I add a solar battery to existing PV setup?

For more complicated or larger systems, or when there’s already PV in a property and you want to add a battery, you’ll need to have separate battery and PV inverters. In this case the battery is effectively joined to the PV system on the AC side of the inverters – these are called “AC connected” or “AC-coupled” batteries.

Do Solar Batteries Work During A Power Cut?

Yes. In the same way solar batteries store power that’s usable when PV panels aren’t at full capacity, batteries store backup power that’s usable during a power cut. This means you’ll carry on as normal, while properties around you without the same technology are plunged into complete darkness. The battery stores the energy and you can use it whenever — and however — you wish to.

Pros And Cons of Solar Batteries

The main advantage is the ability of the solar battery to store the energy generated until it is needed. This makes the investment in your solar panels far more financially effective and enables you to reduce your reliance on the grid. Using solar energy to power your home will reduce your energy bills, environmental impact, and reliance on the national grid. Solar batteries are an investment, and this may be a deterrent to some people. However, a solar battery may not be the best fit if you can only have a limited number of solar panels and are at home during the day. Still, solar batteries are generally an excellent investment.