The Economic Impact of Solar and Battery Storage

Increasing the deployment of solar energy and battery storage will be an integral part of the UK’s transition to net-zero. Despite this, no study had previously considered these technologies’ contribution to the UK economy. Over the past few months, on behalf of Solar Energy UK (SEUK), we have estimated the economic impact of solar and battery storage in 2024 and up to 2035.

Based on SEUK’s estimates, at the end of 2024 the UK had a total installed capacity of 19.9 GW of solar and 7.5 GW of battery storage. Once accounting for spend on the development, construction and operation of utility scale projects, domestic and commercial installations, as well as savings to households and businesses, in 2024 solar and battery storage contributed a total £1.9 billion GVA and 20,400 jobs, including:

£1.3 billion GVA and 13,000 jobs from solar
£0.6 billion GVA and 7,400 jobs from battery storage.

To support the electrification of the UK economy, SEUK estimates the sector could reach up to 90 GW of installed capacity from solar and 50 GW of installed capacity from battery storage. This expansion could result in a total economic impact in 2035 of over £5.0 billion GVA and 42,600 jobs, including:

£3.5 billion GVA and 28,700 jobs from solar
£1.6 billion GVA and 13,900 jobs from battery storage.

On average solar and battery storage jobs are 43% more productive than the average job across the UK economy. Therefore, these two technologies support the good and high productivity jobs, which are required to secure economic growth.

Our assessment also found that the utility scale solar and battery storage support farming businesses by providing a source of income diversification, with annual payment to landowners that could reach £321 million in 2035, as a result of sectoral expansion.