Plug-In Solar Laws by State: Where Balcony Solar Is Legal in 2026

Plug-in solar, also called balcony solar, has no federal rule in the United States. As of November 2026, ten states have signed laws that exempt a certified plug-in kit from the utility’s interconnection agreement: Utah, Maine, Maryland, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, California and New Jersey. Most confirmed caps are 1,200 W. New York’s bill awaits the governor; elsewhere, utility rules decide.

Some of these laws are already in effect, others only from 2027, and the count comes from the Bright Saver tracker, which we have checked against the enrolled texts for the states we cover in our own guides. In every state, your lease, your homeowners association and the local building code still apply, with narrow exceptions in Virginia and Colorado.

Status by state, November 2026

Table scrolls sideways

Dates and caps for Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York come from the Bright Saver tracker; we have not yet read those enrolled texts, so treat them as reported. The full data table and map further down cover every state.

Utah went first: HB 340

Utah’s House Bill 340 was signed on March 25, 2025 and took effect on May 7, 2025. It created the first legal definition of what the bill calls a portable solar generation device. A device qualifies when it generates electricity from sunlight, its output does not exceed 1,200 W, it plugs into a standard 120 V outlet, it is certified by a nationally recognized testing laboratory such as UL, and it complies with the National Electrical Code, which among other things requires it to stop energizing the building when the grid goes down.

A qualifying device may be plugged in without an interconnection agreement, and the utility may not require approval, a fee or extra equipment. Before HB 340, Utah’s utilities treated any generator running in parallel with the grid like a rooftop system: an application, an inspection and in some service areas a fee. The bill removed that step for the small category and changed nothing else: not the lease, not the building code, not the rules of a homeowners association. The details are in our guide to Utah’s plug-in solar law.

The 2026 laws state by state

Nine states followed Utah in 2026. Bright Saver, a nonprofit that campaigns for plug-in solar laws and publishes the tracker, supplied much of the model language, which is why the 1,200 W cap, the certification requirement and the exemption from interconnection agreements recur. The differences are in the details.

• Maine signed LD 1730 on April 6, 2026; it has applied since July 15, 2026. Up to 420 W of combined inverter output per service address needs no electrician and no notice. From 420 W to 1,200 W, each system needs a Maine-licensed electrician, a dedicated circuit with a single outlet, and a notice to the utility within 30 days. See balcony solar in Maine.
• Maryland put its rules into HB 1532, the Utility RELIEF Act, signed on May 12, 2026: one system per meter, residential use, at most 1,200 W, and a notice to the utility before installing. Bright Saver gives July 1, 2026 as the effective date; some secondary sources differ. See balcony solar in Maryland.
• Virginia enacted HB 395 and SB 250, approved on April 22, 2026; the rules take effect on January 1, 2027. A device may deliver at most 1,200 W per customer or per unit, you notify the utility on a State Corporation Commission form, and landlords with more than four rental units may not prohibit a tenant’s device. See plug-in solar in Virginia.
• Colorado signed HB26-1007 on May 7, 2026; it took effect on August 12, 2026. The cap is reported as 1,920 W, one device per address, and from January 1, 2027 HOAs may not prohibit a plug-in device. See plug-in solar in Colorado.
• California signed SB 868 on September 30, 2026. From January 1, 2027, a device certified as a plug-in photovoltaic system with up to 1,200 W of AC output per dwelling is exempt from interconnection requirements; a utility may ask for a simple online registration. The exemption expires on January 1, 2030 unless extended. See plug-in solar in California.
• Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire and New Jersey are listed as signed by the tracker, with effective dates from July 1, 2026 (Vermont) to March 1, 2027 (New Jersey). We have not read the enrolled texts yet, so we do not state their caps.
• New York passed S 8512A / A 9111C in both chambers; as of November 2026 the bill awaits the governor’s signature.

Three large states have no law. Arizona’s HB 2843 died in committee in February 2026 and SB 1606 was deferred to 2027; see plug-in solar in Arizona. Florida had no bill in 2026, so a grid-tied kit falls under the utility interconnection rule for small systems; see balcony solar in Florida. Texas has no bill filed, and its legislature next meets in January 2027; see plug-in solar in Texas.

What “legal” means in practice

A state law is one of four layers that decide whether you may plug in a kit, and it is the only layer a bill can change. The other three stay where they are.

State law. It defines the device, sets the cap and removes the interconnection agreement. In the ten states with signed laws, that question is settled once the law is in effect. In the others, there is no category for plug-in solar at all, which means the device is treated like any other generator.

Utility tariff. Every utility has interconnection rules approved by the state’s public utility commission or, for municipal and cooperative utilities, by its own board. Most were written for rooftop systems and require an application, a permitted installation by a licensed electrician and sometimes an external disconnect for any generator that runs in parallel with the grid, however small. Plugging in a kit without going through that process can breach your service agreement even where nobody checks. Enforcement against a 400 W device is rare, but rarely enforced is not the same as allowed. In states with a plug-in law, some utilities still ask to be notified; the law tells you whether that is a request or a requirement. In Maryland and Virginia it is a requirement before installing, in Maine above 420 W. Our guide on whether to tell your utility walks through the cases.

Local code. Cities and counties adopt the National Electrical Code on their own schedule, and whether a cord-and-plug generator needs a permit is a question for the building department. Some of the 2026 laws address permits directly; the Utah law, as we read it, does not stop a city from asking for one. Call before you assume.

Landlord and homeowners association. Virginia is the only state we know of that gives tenants a right: from January 1, 2027, landlords with more than four rental units may not prohibit a tenant’s device on the exterior of the tenant’s premises, though they may set reasonable rules. Colorado bars HOAs from prohibiting a plug-in device from the same date. Everywhere else, your lease governs what you may attach to the railing, and condominium bylaws and HOA rules govern what may be visible from the street; see our guides for renters and for HOA rules. Germany has gone further and given all tenants a legal right to approval, which is one reason its market is years ahead.

Why certified hardware lagged the laws

When Utah’s law took effect in May 2025, no complete plug-in kit sold in the United States was certified as a system by a recognized testing laboratory. Microinverters had carried the UL 1741 listing that grid-tied inverters need for years, but a kit is more than its inverter: the cable, the plug, the connectors, the mounting and the way the parts behave together on a household circuit all belong to the product. Through 2025 and 2026, manufacturers and testing laboratories worked on certification for complete systems, and listed kits began to reach the market.

As of November 2026, check the listing for the specific kit, not a brand’s general claim. A listed inverter inside an unlisted kit does not meet the Utah definition as we read it, and the same test applies in the other states. Retailers who sell in both the US and Europe sometimes advertise European certifications; those do not count here.

All states: data table and map

The table and the map below come from our data file and are updated as we verify each state. Enacted means the governor has signed and we have an effective date. Pending means a bill has passed or is moving but has not been signed. Unknown means we have not researched the state yet, not that nothing is happening there. Each row carries a verified flag; as of November 2026, the whole table is still being verified.

If you know of a bill we are missing, write to kontakt@voltgeber.com with a link to the legislature’s page for it. A link to the bill itself is more useful than a news article about it.

What to check before you buy

• Your state. Is there an enacted law, what is the cap, and does it require certification of the complete kit? The table above is the starting point; the legislature’s website is the authority.
• Your utility. Read the interconnection section of its tariff or call. Ask whether a device under the state law needs notification and whether your meter records exported electricity separately. Most smart meters do rather than running backwards, and the surplus leaves unpaid.
• The kit’s listing. Look for a listing of the complete system by a nationally recognized testing laboratory, a UL 1741 inverter and ground-fault protection. Ask the retailer for the certificate number rather than the marketing page.
• The outlet and circuit. A 1,200 W inverter puts 10 A on a 120 V circuit, most of what a 15 A breaker allows. Use a dedicated outlet, never an extension cord or a power strip, and do not put a second kit on the same circuit. Maine requires a dedicated circuit and a licensed electrician above 420 W; what a full-size kit involves is in our guide to 1,200 W plug-in solar.
• Lease, HOA and condo bylaws. Get permission in writing before you buy. Describe the mounting, the weight and how the cable enters the apartment. Railing mounts over a sidewalk raise liability questions that a landlord will ask about.
• Insurance. Tell your renters or homeowners insurer. A plug-in kit is cheap enough that the premium rarely changes, and an undisclosed device is the kind of detail that complicates a claim.
• Export. Nobody pays you for surplus. If the kit offers a zero-export setting, it reduces what flows to the grid, but it does not by itself create permission where the tariff requires an application.

Next steps

• Whether and how to tell your utility about a plug-in kit
• Plug-in solar for renters: what to ask your landlord
• What a kit costs and what it saves at your electricity rate