The innovators: how smaller batteries give more power to UK solar households

London startup tailors smaller, cheaper battery for UK households to use more of their own generated solar energy

When Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, took to the stage in California in April to launch a solar battery for the home, the audience hollered and whooped at every detail. On the other side of the Atlantic, a more modest, quieter challenger plans to take on the US electric car giant.

Based within a railway arch, with the sound of trains running overhead from nearby London Bridge station and surrounded by other ecologically minded startups, the offices of Powervault are a far cry from Tesla's showpiece Californian stage. The similarity lies in the product - the Powervault battery, which stores energy from domestic solar panels.