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.
On 27 August 2026 it becomes lawful in Great Britain to plug a small solar generator into an ordinary domestic socket. That is a real change, and it has been reported widely. What has been reported far less carefully is how narrow the change is. The two statutory instruments behind it do not legalise balcony solar in general. They carve out one tightly bounded category of device, and a large share of the kit currently sold into the UK from European retailers falls outside it.
This is the short version: an 800 VA cap, no battery, a moulded UK plug with a 5 A fuse, the product listed on an industry register before it is sold, one device per household, and a notification to your network operator within 28 days. Miss any one of those and you are outside the exemption, whatever the seller’s listing says.
The two instruments
The legal change is made by a pair of instruments, both in force on 27 August 2026.
SI 2026/848, made on 16 July 2026, is the safety instrument. It amends regulation 8 of the Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994 so that a notified body may approve a plug for a “plug-in microgenerator” even though it deviates from BS 1363, but only as regards the provisions that restrict the use of a plug for generation. In every other respect the plug must fully comply with BS 1363, and the device must comply with the Interim Product Specification. The same instrument amends regulation 22(1)(c) of the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002, which is the limb that removes the obstacle to connecting a generator to the distribution network through a socket.
SI 2026/896, made on 29 July 2026, is the planning instrument. It amends Part 14 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 so that mounting these devices on a building or in a garden is, within limits, permitted development. It applies to England only.
The statutory definition, and the four-part test
SI 2026/848 defines a plug-in microgenerator as a device that converts sunlight directly into electricity, has a maximum rated AC output not exceeding 800 watts, connects by a standard plug and socket, operates in parallel with the network, and cannot import energy for storage. Read alongside the Interim Product Specification, that produces a practical four-part test for anything you are thinking of buying.
1. Output and array size
Maximum apparent power of 800 VA, measured as the highest ten-minute average, with a maximum of 3.5 A AC at the point of connection. The SI text says 800 watts and the specification says 800 VA. Those are not identical at non-unity power factor, which is why the safest way to describe the ceiling is “800 VA / 800 W”. Separately, the DC side is capped at 2,000 W of total module Pmax and 120 V open-circuit at the inverter inputs. Fitting more panel than inverter is normal and permitted within that ceiling, and we have explained why in our piece on the 800 VA limit.
2. No battery
The statutory definition excludes any device that can import energy for storage, and the government was explicit that the framework “relate[s] only to plug-in solar devices without batteries” and does not extend to plug-in batteries or other forms of plug-in microgeneration. A great many of the balcony systems marketed in Europe are sold with an integrated or bolt-on battery. Those products remain outside the framework entirely. See why battery kits are not covered.
3. The plug
A BS 1363-1 plug with partially insulated pins, non-rewireable and moulded on, fitted with a BS 1362 fuse of not more than 5 A, into a BS 1363-2 socket. Any outdoor plug and socket assembly must be rated at least IP55. The specification then prohibits, in terms, “multi-way adaptors, travel adaptors, RCD adaptors and plug convertors”, and says the device must not be connected to an extension cable. A German-market kit on a Schuko lead with an adapter is therefore not a compliant installation, and no adapter makes it one. That is the most common way a buyer will get this wrong.
4. On the register
Manufacturers must register the device on the ENA Type Test Register, via the Connect Direct platform, and obtain confirmation of compliance before placing it on the market. The product marking must also state that notifying the network operator is mandatory on connection and on disconnection. Checking the register is the one verification step a buyer can perform themselves, and it is worth doing before you pay: see how to check the ENA register.
No dedicated circuit is required. An ordinary BS 1363 socket outlet is the intended connection point. No RCD is mandated either. The government considered requiring bidirectional or Type-A RCDs and declined. Instead the device must meet BS EN 62109-1 clause 7.3.8, limiting smooth DC residual current to the mains to 5 mA in normal and fault conditions.
One device per household
This is the limit that almost no coverage mentions. G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 (2026) permits one device per household, and that is the operative rule on 27 August 2026. The Interim Product Specification anticipates a shift to one device per final ring circuit, and the government has said it intends to move that way, but only subject to a corresponding amendment to G98, which has not been made and has no published date. Anyone telling you that you can run two or three units on separate circuits is describing an intention rather than the current rule. We have set out what the per-household limit means in practice, including for households that already have rooftop solar.
You must notify your network operator
There is no exemption from notification for small devices. Connection falls under Engineering Recommendation G98, and G98 Issue 2 section 8.3.1 requires the installer to advise the distribution network operator no later than 28 days after commissioning, inclusive of the day of commissioning, using the Form B Installation Document at Appendix 3. The regime is connect-then-notify rather than permission-first. If you install the kit yourself, you are the installer for these purposes. You must also notify on disconnection. The notification process is covered separately.
Where the rules apply is not uniform
“Legal across the UK” is wrong, and it is the error most likely to leave a reader in the wrong position.
- The plugs and sockets limb of SI 2026/848 extends UK-wide, including Northern Ireland.
- The ESQCR limb extends to Great Britain only.
- G98 is a GB document. Northern Ireland uses G98/NI, and its application there awaits a decision by the relevant Northern Ireland department.
- The permitted development change is England only. We have not located an equivalent Scottish or Welsh instrument, so we do not state the planning position in those nations. If you are in Scotland or Wales, ask your local planning authority rather than relying on English guidance.
The nation-by-nation picture is set out in more detail in our guide for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
What is not in the framework at all
MCS certification is not required and is not referenced anywhere in the framework. That matters only because MCS is the gateway to the Smart Export Guarantee: SEG requires MCS certification and an export-recording smart meter, and plug-in solar sits outside MCS. No document says you are legally excluded from export payments, but in practice you are very unlikely to be paid for anything you export. Plan on the basis that the value is in what you use yourself.
There is also no BSI standard and no PAS for plug-in solar. The Interim Product Specification is a departmental document given legal force by being named in SI 2026/848, and the government has committed only that work “will begin” on a long-term successor, with no publisher, no designation and no date. Any product advertised as “BSI-certified” plug-in solar is making a claim that cannot be true.
The answer, in short
Yes, from 27 August 2026, for a device that meets all four parts of the test, in a household that has no other G98-notified generator, notified within 28 days, in the nations where the relevant limb applies. That is a genuine liberalisation and it is worth having. It is also a much smaller opening than “plug-in solar is now legal in the UK” implies, and the gap between the two is where buyers will lose money on kit they cannot lawfully use.
Before you buy, read the full legal rules guide and the current shortlist of kits. If you rent or live in a flat, the legal position is only half the problem. Permission from a landlord or freeholder is the other half.