This September, Governor Newsom signed SB 868, the Plug and Play Solar Act. Scott Wiener wrote it, and California is now roughly the tenth state to make room for balcony solar. These are small kits that plug into a standard outlet and push power straight into the home’s circuits. For renters, condo owners and anyone told “you can’t go solar here,” it’s a real change. Most of the practical questions still fall on the homeowner, though.
A plug-in system is one or two panels and a microinverter, mounted on a railing, a patio or a ground stand and plugged into a receptacle. Under SB 868, a qualifying device is capped at 1,200 watts of AC output per dwelling. It has to be designed to offset your own consumption. It has to meet the National and California Electrical Codes, carry a UL (or equivalent lab) certification as a plug-in PV system, and shut itself off from the grid during an outage so it never backfeeds onto lines a utility crew is working on.
Qualifying devices are exempt from interconnection agreements, utility approval, extra equipment requirements and utility fees. Utilities, including municipal ones like LADWP, may ask you to fill out a simple online registration form. They cannot make you wait for permission.
A rooftop system is a different thing. A typical Southern California home system runs 5 to 10 kilowatts or more and is permitted, inspected and wired to the panel by a licensed contractor. Balcony solar is a useful supplement, not a replacement.
Your HOA or landlord. SB 868 deals with your relationship to the utility. It doesn’t override your lease, your CC&Rs or building rules about what you can attach to a railing. Get permission in writing.
Your circuit, not just your outlet. I worry about this one most. A plug-in kit feeds power into a branch circuit, and that breaker can’t see the solar current coming in. If the same circuit also carries a space heater or a window AC unit, the wiring can carry more than it was designed for. Use a dedicated or lightly loaded outlet, never an extension cord or power strip. In an older home, have an electrician look at the circuit first.
The listing. The law’s protections apply only to devices that meet every condition it sets out. A kit with no recognized certification for plug-in PV doesn’t qualify, whatever the listing says. Check the certification mark and look it up.
Utility and export rules. The law waives interconnection. It doesn’t promise to pay you for exported power. Treat any energy that leaves your home as worth roughly nothing, and size the kit to what you use during the day.
Insurance and fire safety. Tell your insurer. Keep panels and cables out of exit paths, off combustible surfaces, and secured against wind. On a balcony, a loose panel can hurt someone below.
Balcony solar makes the most sense where rooftop solar doesn’t work: renters, apartments, condos with shared roofs, shaded houses. A well-placed 800-watt kit in Southern California sun might produce on the order of 1,000 kilowatt-hours a year. A vertical railing that faces north or sits in shade will make much less. At today’s California rates, that can mean real savings and a payback in the low single-digit years.
Most single-family homes with a decent roof face different math. Under California’s net billing tariff, exported solar earns far less than it did under the old net metering rules. The value now comes from using your own power, including after sunset when rates peak. A battery is what lets you do that. The federal residential tax credit ended after 2025, so rooftop systems have to make sense on their own merits, and in many SoCal homes with high bills and EV charging they still do. A 1,200-watt plug-in kit simply can’t cover an evening peak or keep your refrigerator running during a Public Safety Power Shutoff. The required anti-islanding feature switches it off when the grid goes down.
Expect a gold rush and some overpromising. Be skeptical of:
Pull 12 months of usage from your utility account and look at what you use during daylight hours. If you rent, live in a condo, or can’t put panels on your roof, a certified plug-in kit on a safe, lightly loaded circuit is a smart, low-risk first step. If you own a single-family home with a usable roof, get a rooftop-plus-storage assessment first, then decide whether a plug-in kit fills a gap.
SB 868 runs through January 1, 2030, when the interconnection exemption expires unless the Legislature extends it. If the industry wants that extension, the next four years need to go well, which means consumers have to have good experiences. The industry should give them honest advice now.
Oren Tamir is Founder & CEO of NRG Clean Power, a residential solar and battery storage installer based in Woodland Hills, California, serving homeowners across Southern California.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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