The utilization of solar energy into the rechargeable battery, provides a solution to not only greatly enhance popularity of solar energy, but also directly achieve clean energy charging, especially the simplified solar-powered rechargeable batteries. This concept has been demonstrated via the employment of high-efficiency nanophotocatalysts for capturing solar energy into batteries. In this review, we give a brief generalization on the conventional applications of solar energy, and systematically discuss the new type applications for rechargeable batteries. Additionally, the challenge and outlook of solar-powered rechargeable batteries have been proposed. The development of solar-powered rechargeable batteries would greatly contribute to building resource-conserving society. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.