Is plug-in solar legal in the UK?

Yes — since 27 August 2026, if the kit ticks four boxes. Before that date, plugging a solar panel into a household socket sat in a genuine grey area. It does not any more.

But "plug-in solar is legal" and "the kit in front of you is legal to plug in" are not the same sentence, and the shop will not always tell you which one applies. Here are the four boxes, what to check before you buy, and the permission question almost every guide skips.

The four things a kit has to be

All four at once. Miss one and it is not something you can plug in — though, as below, that does not make it banned:

Generates electricity from sunlight — solar only. Wind, hydro or any other generation type is not covered by this route.
Maximum rated AC output of 800 watts or less — this is the inverter's output, not the panels' combined DC wattage, which is usually a bigger number. See our explainer on AC vs DC watts if that distinction is new to you.
Connects via a standard plug and socket, and is designed to run in parallel with the network — it feeds into your home wiring the same way any other socket-connected appliance does, rather than needing a dedicated circuit.
Not designed to import electricity in order to store it — no battery. Storage kits are a different, older, still-lawful route (fixed installation by an electrician), just not this one. See why a battery kit isn't plug-in solar.

On top of those four, the device has to have been tested in a lab — chiefly to prove it shuts itself off the moment the power goes out — and to appear on the public list of equipment that has passed. That test is called G98 and the list is kept by the Energy Networks Association at connect-direct.energynetworks.org. Our guide shows you how to check a kit against it in about thirty seconds.

What actually changed

Two separate legal obstacles were removed by the same amendment regulations:

The plug itself. BS 1363, the British Standard for plugs and sockets, previously restricted the use of a plug for connecting an electricity-generating device — a rule aimed at conventional appliances that draw power, not devices that push it back out. The 2026 regulations allow a notified body to approve a plug for a plug-in microgenerator that doesn't conform to BS 1363 specifically because of that restriction, provided it meets the Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification.
The wiring rules. The Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 (ESQCR) now allow a plug-in microgenerator to be installed and operated where it complies with the Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification — rather than being judged, as any other generator connection effectively was, against the wiring-installation standard BS 7671, which assumes a dedicated, professionally installed circuit.

Together, those two changes are what makes "buy it, plug it into an existing socket, no electrician" lawful for the first time.

The bit most coverage skips: are you allowed to?

The government's own announcement is direct about this, and it is worth repeating because most retailer pages do not mention it at all:

"Before purchasing or installing plug-in solar devices, people should check whether any permissions are required for the property. This may include permission from a landlord and/or building owner or freeholder permission, planning permission or listed building consent." — DESNZ, "Households can save as plug-in solar panels come to market", 26 August 2026

The new regulations make the device lawful to sell, own and connect. They do not override a tenancy agreement, a lease, a freeholder's rules, or planning controls that already apply to your property — including listed building consent if that applies to you. If you rent, or you own a flat with a freeholder, that conversation happens before you buy, not after.

You have to tell the company that owns the cables in your street

This was an open question when we first published. It is not any more.

You have to tell the company that owns the electricity cables in your street — not the company that sends you the bill. It is your job, not the shop's.

The regulator put it in writing on 11 August 2026: the change "requires customers to notify their DNO" — their words for that network company — when a plug-in solar device is installed or removed (Ofgem's decision). It falls to you rather than to an installer precisely because these devices are meant to be fitted by the householder, and it is separate from the device being on the register: the manufacturer registers the product, you notify the network that your home now has one connected.

Two consequences worth knowing before you buy. You may only have one — G98 currently limits you to one plug-in device per household, which is stricter than the one-per-circuit limit in the product specification, and where they conflict G98 wins. And no network operator has yet published a form or a page specific to plug-in solar, so you will be using a general G98 process, several of which are written for installers and ask for details a self-installer does not have.

We have set out the whole picture — what each operator says, the real source of the "28 days" figure, and what to do when the form assumes an installer — in you must tell your network operator, and their forms don't let you.

In short

Plug-in solar is legal in the UK from 27 August 2026 — as a category. Whether any specific kit qualifies depends on four conditions you can check yourself, and whether you are free to install it depends on your tenancy or lease, which the new law does not touch. See our full register check for how the products actually on sale measure up.