10/08/2026
((( ❤️ )))
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=122152147647110421&id=61583312640806&mibextid=wwXIfr
Yeah, California!
California renters can now clip a solar panel to their balcony and plug it straight into the wall with no utility permission or fees, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Plug and Play Solar Act over PG&E's objections.
The kits cost a few hundred dollars, can save a household $400 to $800 a year, and make California the tenth state to legalize them.
Each home can run up to 1,200 watts, enough to keep a fridge and a Wi-Fi router going on sunlight. The savings estimate comes from Solar United Neighbors, as reported by USA Today.
Until now, utilities made anyone who tried it file the same interconnection paperwork as a full rooftop system. Advocates told KQED that could double or triple the cost.
PG&E and SDG&E opposed the final bill, arguing in part that plug-in panels would shift costs onto people without solar. That group includes every renter who can't put panels on a roof they don't own, which is exactly who this law was written for.
Germany already has more than 4 million of these systems. Deep-red Utah legalized them first in 2025 without a single no vote. California's bill passed the Assembly 73 to 0.
The first compliant kits are expected around spring 2027, and the clock starts ticking the moment they land. Utilities got one concession written into the law: on January 1, 2030, the exemption expires and PG&E can go back to demanding its paperwork unless lawmakers extend it.
Until then, a panel zip-tied to an apartment railing in Fresno doesn't need PG&E's blessing to run the fridge.
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