Balcony solar is taking state legislatures by storm
Lauren Phillips’ balcony has become a powerhouse. A very small one, without carbon.
A few weeks ago, the lawyer installed what may be the first plug-and-play solar panel in the Bronx. The 220-watt installation, attached to the balcony railing with zip ties, was a godsend for the tenant and mother of two.
“I have a huge child care bill every month. My electric bills just keep going up,” Phillips said. “Everywhere you turn, things just keep getting more and more expensive.”
Rechargeable solar nonprofit Bright Saver, which provided the roughly $400 panel to Phillips for free, estimated it would produce about 15 to 20 percent of the electricity his family uses and save him about $100 a year. Every time Phillips looks at the device, she says, she’s amazed that “it’s just a thing I plugged in and it generates my own energy.”
Phillips is one of the few intrepid Americans installing DIY solar panels without permission from their utilities, taking advantage of a regulatory gray area. Only deep-red Utah has a law, passed in March 2025, that explicitly allows residents to plug in these devices. So far, a few thousand homes have installed systems, Bright Saver said.
But other states, including New York, may soon follow Utah’s lead and accelerate the adoption of solar panels that plug into a standard 120-volt wall outlet. By Wednesday, Democratic and Republican lawmakers in 27 states and Washington, D.C., had announced their own legislation to make these systems permissible, according to Bright Saver.
As utility bills rise and contribute to broader cost-of-living challenges in the United States, lawmakers are looking to wearable technology as an affordable tool. It literally empowers people, said New York Assembly Member Emily Gallagher, a Democrat who introduced a bill in September to pave the way for small-scale solar power.
“People are extremely excited about it,” noted Gallagher, a tenant who yearns for her own plug-in system.
An 800-watt unit that costs $1,099 is capable of powering a refrigerator or a few small appliances during a sunny fraction of the day. That’s enough energy to reduce a New York household’s bills by an average of $279 a year, Gallagher said. Assuming utility costs continue to rise, these savings could reach $327 per year by 2035.
Rechargeable solar energy is already booming in Europe. In Germany, as many as 4 million homes have installed these systems, which people can order through Ikea.
Balcony solar power has taken off in Germany. Why not the United States?
But in the United States, outside of Utah, the technology is stuck in a regulatory limbo. Although the systems are not illegal, utilities often require users to sign an interconnection agreement before hooking up solar, just as they would for a large rooftop array. And these deals can require fees and take weeks or even months to close.
Utah has waived this interconnection requirement, provided that a nationally recognized testing laboratory certifies that the solar device is safe to use. All other laws introduced since would do the same.
“Technology has evolved and the law hasn’t caught up yet,” Phillips said. Setting up your own system could be “an act of solar civil disobedience,” she reflects.
UL Solutions launched an initial testing protocol in January, which a group of experts will refine in the coming months, according to Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president for California of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group and former executive director of the trade group California Solar and Storage Association.
There is real demand for rechargeable solar power, said Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver. Momentum for these devices is growing faster than expected.
Some zealous lawmakers have announced bills out of the blue, Stryker noted. A few chambers have even seen multiple lawmakers introduce rechargeable solar bills independently of each other.
Missouri State Rep. Mark Matthiesen, a Republican, sponsored a DIY solar bill in December. Electricity rates are rising rapidly in his state; Families who benefit from a system could save $30 to $40 a month and break even in just 25 months, he said.
How Germany equipped half a million balconies with solar panels
“Then anything beyond that is money in your pocket,” said Matthiesen, who purchased rooftop solar panels in 2024. “If people can buy something to invest in themselves, to save money later, then we as a government should just let people do that.”
Matthiesen heard about plug-in systems last year from fellow lawmakers when they met at the site formerly known as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. As for South Carolina state Rep. Mike Burns, another Republican who recently introduced a balcony solar bill, it was an avid voter who tipped him off.
A few proposals, including those in Missouri, Washington and Wyoming, have stalled. Some utilities have opposed legislation for unlicensed systems, saying there are safety risks, including as energy is fed back into the grid and risks exceeding capacity.
Defenders, however, claim that this argument ignores the physics of electricity. Because these are modest systems, which proposals generally limit to 1,200 watts (or up to one-sixth the size of a typical rooftop array), a home’s appliances will quickly gobble up the power they produce, according to Del Chiaro. Very little, if any, energy will be returned to the distribution network.
According to Stryker, balcony solar bills in New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey and Illinois appear on track to pass. A proposal in California — a potentially huge market as the state with the second-highest electricity prices and the nation’s largest state economy — is under consideration. Stryker predicts more lawmakers will announce legislation for the emerging technology this year.
For Phillips, balcony solar is more than a way to save money; it’s a step towards a healthier future. She is a third-generation native of the Bronx, an area disproportionately affected by harmful pollutants.
“I was actually hospitalized for an asthma attack last year,” Phillips said. “For me, anything we can do to make our power grid greener and reduce pollution is a matter of justice, especially for the people who live where I live.”
Phillips told friends and family about his mini power plant. “Everyone wants one,” she said. States simply need to pass their portable solar bills to open the floodgates, Phillips noted.
“I can’t wait to see solar panels appear on all the balconies.”
