California Legalizes Balcony Solar

California has legalized balcony or "plug-in" solar, allowing small, portable solar kits - panels, an inverter and cables - to be sold and more easily used by renters, people with unsuitable roofs and households that can’t afford full rooftop systems. The devices, which in other countries plug into a standard wall outlet, currently range from roughly $300 to $2,200 and can supply up to about 20% of a home's electricity, with proponents estimating savings near $500 a year for a small apartment. The bill won broad bipartisan legislative support and aims to broaden access to clean energy, while some large utilities opposed it on safety and cost-shift grounds and labor groups shifted to neutral after code safeguards were added.

The law sets concrete technical and administrative rules: systems must be certified by an outside safety organization, must not exceed 1,200 watts per home, and must prevent backfeeding during power outages. It creates a free, immediate registration path instead of the typical interconnection process and includes a phase-in - compliant models are expected to reach the market in 2027, the law takes effect that year, and sale of noncompliant systems will become illegal in 2030; the statute sunsets Jan. 1, 2030. Supporters see this as a stepping stone to true plug-and-play standards and wider adoption.