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BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen
The moment renewable energy nerds like me have been waiting for has arrived: plug-in solar, plug-and-play solar, balcony solar – whatever you want to call it – is now permitted in the UK.
That means you can now install a solar panel kit and plug it straight into your mains socket, to reduce your bills and reliance on the grid. It’s undeniably good news.
However, much of the reporting has missed out very crucial pieces of information.
I will try not to rain on any parades, because today is a step forward. But consumers need to have the right information to avoid being taken for a ride.
First, some background. The plans, largely copying Germany where balcony solar has been a huge success, could save households up to £110 a year on their bills through “clean, homegrown power” the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says.
Each plug-in solar kit produces up to 800W of power. The Government estimates it’s enough to provide up to 20% of an average home’s electricity use. It’s probably easier to see it as comfortably covering your ‘baseload’ energy usage. A typical fridge, television, Wi-Fi router, laptop, phone charger and so on.
What has changed today is that you no longer need sign-off from an electrician to install the systems, and the planning rules have changed meaning they constitute ‘permitted development’ and reducing the chance of fights with your local council. (Fights with neighbours aren’t dealt with by the legislation).
So the benefits. No installation cost, less energy taken from the grid, lower costs, renewable power at home. Good timing ahead of the 4% energy price cap increase too.
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Ministers say the legal changes follow rigorous, independent safety testing, covering all key electrical elements, which shows that compliant panels are safe and compatible with UK wiring. Officials say the UK safety specification is more stringent than that of Germany, where around half a million new devices were plugged in last year.
But the key is in the word ‘compliant’. Almost none of the coverage directs people to see what devices are actually compliant that are for sale in Britain (not Northern Ireland, it’s not permitted there yet).
We’ve had a look. At time of writing, just seven – seven – kits can be sold legally in Britain today, to plug-in without an electrician’s approval. Officials have not denied this. It’s no wonder the Government appears slightly coy about pointing people to the official dashboard monitoring this stuff (ENA Connect). It tells you if products meet the new ‘Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification’.
Every retailer – and there are many – that fails to make clear whether their devices are compliant for installation without an electrician is failing the public.
If you buy any other kit, it will need sign-off from an electrician to be compliant. So that’s seven permitted devices, from just one company. More products are expected to be signed off over the next week, I’m told, but at present a firm called UKSOL has the monopoly on compliant kits.
Competition is not there yet (at least not legally). Therefore, prices will remain high.

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Or rather, prices for compliant kits will remain high. I’ve seen countless testimonies on forums and social media in recent weeks from people simply buying their own panels and microinverters (the bit that connects the solar panels to your electrical circuit) and installing them themselves.
You can do this for much cheaper than the all-in-one kits – roughly £330 vs £600 – but without the all-clear fr…