Tweaks to state laws mean many Americans will be able to benefit from small, simple plug-in solar panels
Acquiring solar panels at home can be an expensive hassle for people in the US. But small, simple, plug-in solar panels for use on balconies are soon to become available for millions of Americans, with advocates hoping the technology will quickly go mainstream.
Earlier this year, Utah became the first state in the country to pass legislation allowing people to purchase and install small, portable solar panels that plug into a standard wall socket.
When attached outside to the balcony or patio of a dwelling, such panels can provide enough power for residents to run free of charge, home appliances such as fridges, dishwashers, washing machines and wi-fi without spending money on electricity from the grid.
Balcony solar panels are now widespread in countries such as Germany – where more than 1m homes have them – but have until now been stymied in the US by state regulations. This is set to change, with lawmakers in New York and Pennsylvania filing bills to join Utah in adopting permission for the panels, with Vermont, Maryland and New Hampshire set to follow suit soon.
Probably except for states like Texas…
I mean, if the first state was Utah, then we can hope that this is free from ideology.
Texas is produces lots of renewable energy!
Every giant monstrosity of a commercial building should be forced by law to have a solar farm before one god damn acre of field or wilderness is eligible.
Why do we need a law to allow this? That doesn’t make sense. We don’t need a law allowing other new products when they come out
Back-feeding the grid during an outage is the main concern. One panel isn’t going to hurt a line worker. A neighborhood of them might.
“Normal” installations have a transfer switch of some kind between the house and the grid to prevent this. Which means a permit and electrician.
Don’t know what’s different about these panels / installations that makes them safe without that.
I would think I built in switch that it won’t power the line if not getting power as well.
Which is how fixed solar installs work.
Mains electricity is highly regulated because it can and regularly does kill people and start house fires.
HOAs maybe? Mine would lose their shit if people started having these things “visible over the porch wall.”
Edit: Article says it’s for regulations about putting power back into the grid.
Some HOAs will object too, without a doubt.
HOA’s are terrible. Co-worker recently ended up taking theirs to court because state law says they can do something but HOA said no. HOA lost and did they change the rules? Nope. They granted an ‘exception’ because they want every single HOA member to go through the same hassle. You’d think the state wouldn’t want the extra court cases and do something about it but no to that too.
When I last checked solar panels were still prohibitively expensive.
They’d take over 10 years to break even.
I’d probably move before then.
We bought a balcony power supply this year, and we seriously expect it to break even 2027.
Im looking into panels to install at my mom’s. Here in southern Europe, the most expensive part of the install is labor, not the panels + inverter.
My installed panels had about 5yr break even, and PV prices have only come down (while power costs have, as projected, gone up).
And the balcony panels in the article are something you could take with you, right?
(Edit: US Northeast, SunBug.)
We expect a three-year break even, because we got the panels at a discount.
My issue is probably using local companies instead of a DIY solution.
I’ll have to revisit this coming spring.
Solar, cool, but can we talk about whst is going on with that fence in the picture? Like did someone get super lazy when staining it?
Maybe they had a lawn sprinkler set up there that over the years washed the stain off the fence where it was hitting.
My first thought was that there was a bright light shining on it for some reason.
Sun reflecting off an upstairs window
