Newsom Signs Plug and Play Solar Act for California

Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 868, known as the Plug and Play Solar Act, legalizing the use of small, portable balcony solar systems in California. Effective January 1, the law removes the requirement for homeowners and renters in apartments, condos, and single-family homes to obtain interconnection agreements from utilities before installing panels. The legislation applies to systems capped at 1,200 watts.

To ensure safety and prevent grid backfeeding, systems must be certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) or an equivalent national testing lab and must automatically shut off during grid failures. While the law is set for January, immediate adoption is limited because current market systems do not yet meet the required UL 3700 safety standards, though some manufacturers expect certification by the end of the year.

Authored by Senator Scott Wiener, the bill faced opposition from the California Municipal Utilities Association and utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric, which cited hazards for line workers. The law includes a sunset provision that ends the interconnection exemption on January 1, 2030, unless the Legislature extends it. California is the tenth U.S. state to legalize this technology, which is already widely used in Europe.