How much do Solar Panels Cost?

How much do solar panels cost?

This is a question we are asked a lot by our customers. Firstly, whenever I’m asked this question, I unfortunately have to respond to a question with a question. Does the customer mean the cost of the individual solar panels themselves or the cost of the full installation? The former, is very easy to answer. Solar Panels have reduced by as much as 87% since 2013 (Independent Newspaper, n.d.) and a 400W panel now costs between £60-75.00. The higher the wattage of the panel, the higher the cost, and at the higher end of the market, at this time of writing, a 460W panel will set you back between £75-90.00.

If you are considering buying your own panels, an important element to consider, apart from the wattage, efficiency and warranty length is which company has manufactured the panel. A good indicator of market confidence is the Bloomberg Tier 1 Solar Panel Manufacturer list. Manufacturers on this list have produced panels in large volumes and supplied panels to multiple large solar panel farms of at least 1.5MWp which must have been funded by finance institutions. The Bloomberg Tier 1 list gives investors and consumers some assurance that the manufacturer is established and has gained the markets confidence in their products. Landsmart only purchase and fit Tier 1 panels with a minimum 20 year performance guarantee.

How much does a solar installation cost.

This question is more complicated as there are many variables which need to be assessed during an on site survey and equipment options which each consumer may choose. A consumer must also be aware of cheap poor-quality products on the market when doing their own cost calculations. At Landsmart we only fit and supply quality products that have either MCS and or G99 & G100 Conformity Certification. Now that we have determined the average cost of the panels, we need to work out the cost of the rest of the system. In this example we will assume that we are fitting a small system of around 4kWp, which is 10 x 400W panels. A solar panel system is made up of the following items

Grid Tied Inverter (Between £400 – £800)
Hybrid Inverter (£800 – £1200)
Solar Panel Mounting System (£400 – £550)
2-4kWh Battery (£600 – £1300)
Ancillary items such as cabling, trunking, isolators and circuit breakers (£200 – £300)
Scaffolding (£800 – £1000)
Labour (£1000 – £1500)

Taking the average of each cost from the above example, we can see that a basic 4kWp system with battery storage costs approximately £5,550 in equipment and labour to install.

If you’re interested in a free no obligation quote please contact us via our Contact Us page. We cover the following areas and more Guildford, Haslemere, Petworth, Pulborough, Arundel, Worthing, Crawley, Horsham, Wimbledon, Sutton, Kingston, Colliers Wood, Woking, Crawley, Reigate, Redhill, Banstead, Dorking, Midhurst.

Written by Ruairi Lynch on the 24.04.24