The California Senate has passed SB 868, also known as “The Plug And Play Solar Act.” The bill establishes a definition of and rules for “portable solar generation device(s),” which generate power from solar panels connected to a home’s writing using a standard 120V outlet, via a small inverter with up to 1,200 watts of AC output.
Such devices, commonly referred to as “balcony solar panels” or “plug-in photovoltaics” (PIPV), would be exempted from rules that require the owner to pay a fee and obtain permission from the utility company to interconnect home solar panels.
SB 868, introduced by Senator Scott Wiener in early January, was modeled after the nation’s first successful plug-in solar bill — 2025’s HB 340 in Utah. Following the Utah bill’s passage, legislators in six other states have passed balcony solar laws (though two have not yet been signed by their state’s governors).
“The cost of electricity has risen to absurd levels, and plug-in solar is an easy way families can lower costs,” said Wiener in a statement celebrating his bill’s passage in the Senate. “These units are small and mobile enough that millions of Californians can use them to save on affordable clean energy where rooftop systems aren’t appropriate. I thank my colleagues for supporting this important measure to provide affordable clean energy to more people in our state.”
The California bill passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support on a 35-1 vote, and now heads to the state Assembly. California legislators have until August 31 to pass bills for final approval this session.
As goes California…
While bills in other states have been cause for celebration by plug-in solar advocates across the country, California is seen as the most important market for the technology. The state has long been a leader in installed solar capacity, although Texas has become the nation’s solar hub as California policy has slowed new distributed solar additions.
Advocates say that the push for plug-in solar will spread the technology quickly across the state, allowing companies that sell such products to access millions of new customers — something they say will make the economics of adding a couple of panels to an apartment balcony an obvious good choice.
“These systems are simple, practical and proven. They give people the ability to plug into clean energy savings immediately,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president for California of the Environmental Working Group (and former executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association) in a statement. “We strongly encourage the Assembly to promptly take up and pass the balcony solar bill, ensuring that as we head into a hot summer, millions of Californians can look forward to having access to this technology and begin to see meaningful reductions in their energy bills.”
While it is uncertain whether the Assembly will pass the bill (and if so, whether outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom would sign it), at least one candidate vying to replace Newsom is a fan of plug-in photovoltaics.
“Solar keeps getting cheaper, faster, and better. Balcony solar is fantastic—unbox it and hang it up. Any politician who opposes this technology is either ignorant or is beholden to utility monopolies. As governor, I’ll unleash solar’s full potential,” wrote Tom Steyer on X.
Even without legislative action, some companies are already selling plug-in solar products in California, including APsystems, Craftstrom and the nonprofit Bright Saver. But these companies are still pushing legislators to pass SB 868.
Cora Stryker, the cofounder of Bright Saver, has been a vocal advocate for plug-in solar laws nationwide. In a statement made to pv magazine USA ahead of the Senate vote, she expressed her personal viewpoint on the momentum behind the plug-in solar movement.
“From big states like California and New York to smaller states like New Hampshire and Virginia, there’s no doubt that Americans want some agency to fight back against rising energy bills,” Stryker wrote. “Californians right, left and center are contacting their elected officials to say clearly that they need plug-in solar – not next year, but right now. The question now is whether elected officials will listen to the people. We are optimistic that they will.”
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Balcony solar that is grid tied and the utility does not charge a monthly fee to own and used can lower the utility bills by up to 25%. if the highest usage in after work in the evening the pointing the majority of the system west to catch the sunset hours could even save more. 300 watts east, 300-watts south and 600 watts west would cover continuous loads like the electric clocks, alarm systems and refrigeration systems with two ( refrigerator and separate freezer ) always plugged in. The smallest system allowed by PG&E to interconnect on the NEM programs is 2000 watts of solar power and the extra electricity is taken by the utility and sold for full value to the neighbors but only paid about 25% of the value to the owner of the panels under NEM3.0. When one gets home, after work after 4:00 PM, they increase the rates from 40 cents per kilowatt hour to 60 cents per kilo watt hour and even eat up the remaining 25% the homeowner has banked. Traditional NEM systems cost $3.00 per watt permitted and installed and the balcony solar is about $1.50 per wat packaged and homeowner installed. The savings payback is faster than traditional solar and is portable to the next domicile one moves to. Great for renters with south or west facing balconies.
This will end up killing some lineman one day when it back feeds into the system they have created for maintenance
No it won’t
They have a requirement included in the bill that the inverters need to have backfeed prevention capabilities.
But there appears to be no provision in the California legislation to avoid breaker masking / overcurrent issues. Nor the touch safety hazards as described in the ul.com whitepaper on Plug-in PV.