Plug-in solar panels — portable, low-wattage systems that homeowners and renters can install without professional electricians — are gaining legal acceptance across the United States as electricity rates continue to climb.
Residents of Utah and Maryland can now legally plug solar panels into standard wall outlets, according to state laws. Seven additional states — Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Virginia — have passed legislation this year to authorize the practice, Bright Saver said. Maryland’s law took effect May 12.
Bright Saver, a nonprofit that tracks and advocates for the technology, said more than 20 other states are working on similar bills.
The core technology is straightforward: a portable solar panel connects to a microinverter, which plugs into a dedicated wall outlet. The inverter converts the panel’s direct current into alternating current synchronized with the home’s electrical system. Safety-certified inverters, such as those used by EcoFlow and Anker Solix, automatically disconnect from the grid when they sense an outage, eliminating the risk of backfeeding electricity that could harm line workers.
“It sounds like a crackpot invention advertised on the back of an old comic book,” wrote Christopher Mims, a Wall Street Journal technology columnist who tested a system at his Maryland home and described it as taking under an hour to set up.
The concept is already well established in Europe. Moncef Krarti, a professor of architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, said more than one million balcony solar systems have been installed in Germany alone. While each home’s generation is capped at about 800 watts under German rules, their combined output is equivalent to a large power plant, Krarti said.
“The lesson from Europe is clear: Stripping away the permits and cost barriers typical of solar installation has driven up adoption,” Krarti said.
U.S. systems typically have a maximum legal output of 1,200 watts to the home, according to state rules.
Companies including EcoFlow, Anker Solix, Craftstrom, Zendure and Hoymiles offer plug-in solar kits. EcoFlow sells a U.S. system with two 400-watt panels and a 1.92-kilowatt-hour battery for about $2,300, the company said. Anker Solix said it plans to release a comparable system for the U.S. market by early 2027; its current German system, with panels rated for up to 870 watts and a 2.7-kilowatt-hour battery, costs about €2,000 ($2,300), said Tianhong Hou, the company’s head of product development.
Entry-level setups can cost as little as $500 for a single 200-watt panel and a microinverter.
Krarti said the systems are most cost-effective in states with the highest electricity rates. California residents pay 30 cents per kilowatt-hour or more; Hawaii rates exceed 40 cents. In such states, a typical system can pay for itself in three years or less, Krarti said. He cautioned that when electricity is priced below 20 cents per kilowatt-hour, the systems might not recoup their cost during their usable lives.
Plug-in solar is not designed to fully replace grid power. “The point of plug-in solar isn’t to zero out a home’s energy consumption — that likely requires a big, professionally installed rig costing tens of thousands of dollars,” Mims wrote. But in apartments, it could offset more than half of electricity use, according to Krarti.
The modular, permit-free nature of plug-in systems makes them especially attractive to renters, who can dismantle and take the equipment when they move. The bundled batteries also provide backup power during outages, with outlets for charging phones, refrigerators and medical devices, according to EcoFlow and Anker Solix product specifications.