We do not recommend brands We are not an installer, we do not sell equipment and we are paid by installers for introductions, so an endorsement from us would not be worth anything to you.
What we can usefully do is tell you which manufacturers have a real UK presence and are likely to appear on your quotes, and which ones you may have read about that are no longer relevant.
Last reviewed 6 Nov 2026.
The honest starting point
Most panels sold in the UK today are good The gap between a mid-range and a premium panel is much smaller than the price difference suggests, and the installer has a far larger effect on whether you are pleased with the system.
If you are choosing between two quotes and the only difference is the panel brand, choose on the installer.
Manufacturers you are most likely to see
Based on what UK installers commonly fit:
- JA Solar and Jinko are the two most frequently fitted in the UK domestic market
- Longi is the largest manufacturer globally and widely available here
- Trina is a long-established name with continuing UK presence
- Aiko is the notable newer entrant, using back-contact cells that generally handle partial shading better than conventional designs
That last point is more relevant in Britain than in most markets, because our roofs are small, overlooked by chimneys and dormers, and partial shading is normal rather than exceptional.
You may also be quoted Canadian Solar, Hanwha Q Cells or REC, all established manufacturers with UK availability.
On sourcing no primary source publishes UK installed market share by brand. This list comes from installer-facing and comparison sources and is a guide to what you will see on a quote, not a ranking and not an endorsement.
Manufacturers that are no longer relevant
If you have been reading older reviews, several names that once dominated are gone:
- Hanergy collapsed. Around $19bn came off its market value in a single day in 2015 and the thin-film business did not recover.
- Suntech was forced into bankruptcy in 2013 after defaulting on a bond payment.
- Yingli was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2018 and entered judicial reorganisation in 2020.
- Tesco sold panels as a retail offer, long discontinued.
- Schott Solar, Bosch, Perlight, Phono and Hyundai have exited photovoltaic manufacturing or no longer have meaningful UK domestic presence.
This matters for more than trivia A panel warranty is a promise from a company that has to exist to honour it. The list above is why we say the warranty question worth asking is not “how many years” but “who would I claim from, and how”.
What actually matters when comparing panels
- Price per watt installed, not price per panel
- Both warranties: product and performance, which are separate
- Whether the manufacturer has a UK office or distributor, so a claim is possible in practice
- Efficiency, but only if your roof space is the constraint. With room to spare, a cheaper panel per watt is usually better value
- Shading behaviour, if your roof has shading
See choosing panels and panel technologies.
Inverters and batteries
Different manufacturers and, in the case of the inverter, arguably a more consequential choice than the panel, because it is the component most likely to need replacing.
See which inverter brands and solar batteries.
Individual brand pages
We keep pages on manufacturers people search for. They describe what the manufacturer is and what to check, rather than scoring them:
See also all panel reviews.