A hybrid system is solar plus battery storage, still connected to the grid. It used to be presented as a specialist option. It is now close to the default.
92% of UK battery installations in 2026 went onto properties with solar, and roughly 36000 batteries were certified in the first half of the year.
Figures from the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), last reviewed 6 Nov 2026.
What makes it hybrid
A hybrid inverter handles both the solar array and the battery in one unit. It decides, moment to moment, whether generation goes to the house, to the battery or to the grid, and whether the house draws from the panels, the battery or the grid.
A standard solar inverter does none of the battery side. That is the whole distinction, and it is the source of the most expensive mistake in this part of the market.
The decision that costs money if you get it wrong
If there is any chance you will add a battery, fit a hybrid inverter at the start.
Adding a battery later to a system with a standard inverter means one of:
- Replacing the inverter with a hybrid one, discarding a working unit
- Adding an AC-coupled battery with its own separate inverter, which works fine but means two inverters and a small efficiency loss at the extra conversion
The extra cost of a hybrid inverter now is modest. The cost of doing it twice is not. Given how many households who skip the battery initially come back to it, this is worth deciding deliberately rather than by default.
DC coupled and AC coupled
DC coupled, which a hybrid inverter gives you, sends solar into the battery as DC without converting it to AC first. Slightly more efficient, and the normal arrangement for a new installation.
AC coupled means the battery has its own inverter and sits alongside the solar system. Slightly less efficient because of the extra conversion, but it does not require touching the existing installation.
AC coupling is usually the right answer for an existing system, especially if you are receiving Feed-in Tariff payments, where altering an accredited installation can affect your entitlement. See adding to an existing system.
DC coupling is usually right for a new installation.
What a hybrid system does day to day
On a sunny day, in rough priority order: the house takes what it needs from the panels, surplus charges the battery, and anything left over exports.
In the evening, the house runs from the battery until it is empty, then from the grid.
On a time-of-use tariff, the battery also charges from the grid during the cheap overnight window, so it is full for the expensive evening period regardless of what the weather did. That last behaviour is what makes a battery worth having in winter. See smart tariffs.
What to check
- Is the inverter genuinely hybrid, and what battery capacity can it take?
- Can it charge the battery from the grid on a schedule? Not all can, and without it you cannot use a time-of-use tariff properly
- Is it tied to one manufacturer’s batteries, or can it take others?
- Does it provide backup in a power cut, or is that extra? See power cuts
- How much battery could be added later, if you start with less?
- Where will the battery go, and does that comply with the siting rules?