Published weekly
Articles
One new article a week on the rules, the products and the money. Legal claims are traced to SI 2026/848, SI 2026/896 and the DESNZ Interim Product Specification.
Do you need planning permission for plug-in solar?
In England, a 2026 amendment to the GPDO extends permitted development to plug-in solar, with real dimensional limits and some pointed exclusions. Outside England the position is unresolved.
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Law & compliance
Leaseholders and plug-in solar: whose balcony is it anyway?
Whether your balcony is demised to you or forms part of the common parts is usually the question that decides everything. Here is how to find out, and how to ask.
1 October 2026 · 9 min
Law & compliance
One device per household: the plug-in solar rule nobody mentions
G98 permits one plug-in device per household rather than one per circuit. The move to a per-circuit allowance is intended but has not been made, and it has no date.
24 September 2026 · 7 min
Law & compliance
800 VA or 800 W? What the plug-in solar limit actually means
The statutory instrument says 800 watts and the product specification says 800 VA. They are different quantities, and the difference explains the 3.5 A cap and the separate 2,000 W DC ceiling.
17 September 2026 · 7 min
Installation
Telling your network operator: the G98 notification you cannot skip
Plug-in solar has no small-system exemption from G98. You connect first and notify afterwards, within 28 days, using a Form B, and you notify again when you take it down.
10 September 2026 · 7 min
Law & compliance
How to check a plug-in solar kit is actually legal: the ENA register explained
Manufacturers must list a plug-in solar device on the ENA Type Test Register before selling it. Here is what the register is, how to search it, what the legislation and the specification say word for word, and what to ask a seller who cannot give you a reference.
3 September 2026 · 11 min
Law & compliance
Battery balcony solar is not covered by the new rules. Here is what that means
The plug-in route that opens on 27 August 2026 applies to panel-only devices. Kits with a storage battery sit outside it, which changes how you connect them rather than whether you can.
27 August 2026 · 7 min
Law & compliance
Is plug-in solar legal in the UK? The 27 August 2026 rules, in plain English
Two statutory instruments take effect on 27 August 2026. They legalise a much narrower category of device than the headlines suggest, and most kits sold from Europe fall outside it.
22 August 2026 · 8 min
Law & compliance
There is no BSI standard for plug-in solar: here is what actually governs it
No British Standard and no PAS covers plug-in solar. What gives the rules legal force is a departmental interim specification derived from a German pre-standard, and an earlier draft of it has already been withdrawn.
22 August 2026 · 7 min
Law & compliance
Your balcony solar kit has the wrong plug, and an adapter will not fix it
The Interim Product Specification prohibits adaptors, convertors and extension leads outright. A German kit on a Schuko lead cannot be made compliant by plugging it into a travel adapter.
22 August 2026 · 7 min
Coming up
We publish one new article a week. Here is what is queued.
- How much does plug-in solar actually save in the UK?15 October 2026
- Plug-in solar payback: the numbers nobody puts in the advert22 October 2026
- Will you get paid for exporting? Plug-in solar and the SEG29 October 2026
- Where can you actually buy plug-in solar in the UK?5 November 2026
- EcoFlow vs Anker vs Zendure: which balcony solar brand suits a UK buyer?12 November 2026
- What the government plug-in solar safety study actually found19 November 2026
- Plug-in solar in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland26 November 2026
- Renting? A tenant guide to plug-in solar3 December 2026