Mainly clear skies. Cold. Low 2F. Winds light and variable..
Mainly clear skies. Cold. Low 2F. Winds light and variable.
Updated: February 2, 2026 @ 10:59 pm
Two solar panels that feed directly into a home electric system are easy to install and provide a small amount of electric power. If legislation currently under consideration at the Statehouse passes in Vermont, such units may be more common.
Two solar panels that feed directly into a home electric system are easy to install and provide a small amount of electric power. If legislation currently under consideration at the Statehouse passes in Vermont, such units may be more common.
MANCHESTER — It’s not in widespread use yet, but it could be soon.
Imagine electricity from solar panels coming from panels that are small and manageable enough to be installed by an ordinary home owner or apartment dweller DIY-style, without needing an electrician to certify everything is connected properly. The panel gathers in a relatively small amount of sunlight that’s converted into electricity that feeds directly into a home’s electrical system through a simple plug in connection to an outside facing electric socket terminal.
It may not be a game changer for your electricity expenses, but the power pulled in by the solar panel is likely to be enough to run a typical refrigerator for a day, and money is saved from the electric bill.
“Plug-in” solar units, sometimes referred to as “balcony solar,” since the panels are often hung off apartment or other home balconies, got a unanimous thumbs up from the Vermont State Senate last Thursday, Jan. 29. The bill, known as S.202, will modify provisions for residential solar generation and connection to home electrical circuits. It will eliminate the need for permits or a solar user obtaining a state “certificate of public good” before operating it. Instead, all a customer of an electric utility would need to do is fill out a basic notification form that they have installed such a device and plan to use it.
The Senate’s 29-0 vote followed a positive vote in the Senate’s Natural Resources and Energy committee, which recommended its passage. Sen. Seth Bongartz was one of the bill’s sponsors and is also a member of the Natural Resources Committee, said it was a low-cost way for people who would like have some solar power to add it into the mix.
“We took the most testimony on issues of safety,” Bongartz said in a recent interview. “Because you’re replugging into the grid, in some ways you are potentially back feeding. But basically, if there’s a certification that it will shut off if the power goes off, so that you won’t be feeding into the grid …. it won’t overload the system.”
The bill sets a maximum power outlet limit of 1,200 watts to a standard electrical outlet. It will also be possible to connect to a storage battery that saves the electric power for later use.
There’s a catch, however. Right now, the only state in the country where it is incontrovertibly legal to operate a plug-in solar unit is Utah. But 21 other states, including Vermont, have bills allowing them working their way through their state legislatures. The time might not be far off when a trip to the local hardware store or online merchant will make obtaining and installing one a simple, straightforward task.
The bill is now headed over to the state House of Representatives, where it’s first stop will be in the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure, which is chaired by Rep. Kathleen James, of Manchester.
Much like in the State Senate, Rep. James doesn’t anticipate much negative pushback to opening the doors to plug-in solar. Electric utilities were comfortable with the language of the bill, as were the state agencies that oversee solar, she said.
“Plug-in or ‘balcony’ solar units aren’t widely available or popular yet, but as the technology improves and the prices come down, we want to be sure that Vermonters can take advantage of this simple solar solution,” she stated in an email. “It’s a way to generate a bit of power and save a bit of money on electric bills.”
Once the bill is voted out of her energy committee, it will go for a floor vote in the House, which if favorable, could send it on the way to the Governor’s office for a signing. If passed, the statute as written would come into effect on July 1, 2026.
Plug-in solar has been in widespread use in Europe for the past few years, but only now is beginning to make inroads in the United States. Once more states adopt it, the price of such units is likely to decline. A typical set up today would cost less than $3,000, said Bill McKibben, a Vermont-based climate activist who devoted a recent newsletter to an account of how easy it was for him and a work partner to install one at his home. The pay-off period will vary according to the cost and amount of electric power a customer would use, but a typical payback period could be as little as two to three years, he stated in an email to The Journal. At least, that seems to be the case in Europe, he said.
“It entirely depends on the price of electricity (oh, and how much value you put on a working planet),” he said.
It took him and his friend Rupert Mayer, a co-founder of Brightsaver, a non-profit organization which aims to boost plug-in solar use, about 10 minutes to install the system which used two 400 watt solar panels, he wrote in the newsletter.
“Think Ikea, but easier,” he wrote. ”Now the panels are sitting on the ground outside our house, feeding the sun’s power into a small battery, about the size of a boombox turned on its end. The battery in turn feeds a small but steady amount of power into the household grid through a plug. That’s plugged into the wall. That’s it.”
Jim Hand, a resident of Dorset who has been a consumer of solar power from panels on his home and has explored the technology closely, said the installation of a unit was fairy straightforward. And while electric utilities might have at one point registered concerns, between the maximum power load limits and the rising costs of electricity, being driven by ever-increasing amounts of demand being put on the electric grid, utilities may see a benefit, he said.
“Let’s say we had 5,000 people do this and you could produce three or four kilowatts per day,” Hand said. “That’s 20,000 kilowatts they (electric utilities) don’t have to buy at expensive prices, because overtime there’s high demand and 50 percent of our power is gas-created, then they’re not buying it at real expensive times …so there’s benefits, especially during high peak demand times.”
An easy-to-install system that saves money and doesn’t require a permit. No field full of solar panels, and a lot less expensive than a roof-top solar system. With electricity prices rising as utilities struggle to meet increased demand, “balcony solar” would seem to check a lot of boxes. But not before S.202 get’s a governor’s signature here, and in several other states where legislation is advancing. After that, the payback period may shorten some more as the market for the panels grows and prices drop. And the units become easily available.
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