Plug-In Solar Panels Starting to Sprout in U.S. Backyards

bookofjoe

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/business/energy-environme...

CodeWriter23

There was a carport fire in my building back in the 90's. The firefighters got all set up to turn their hoses on it but did not actually start using water to fight the fire until the utility guy from the city arrived to de-energize the supply from a nearby vault. How does that safety protocol work when the electrical connections and supplies are distributed around the house and may be inaccessible due to fire?

downrightmike

Let's just point out that it isn't about the line workers, it is about raising prices on consumers. They'll replace the line worker at the drop of a hat, and fight tooth and nail to grow profits, that's just how corporations work.

sixothree

Anyone have good suggestions for stands for 2-4 panels?

domh

This is going to be made legal in the UK on the 27th August. Max 800w inspired by Germany. I'll definitely get some panels and see how they go.

neves

Which are the high quality chinese brands of plug-in panels?

fooblaster

The thing we should be incentivizing people to use here are batteries, in the exact same configuration. We do not in many places, need more solar power generation, but we need devices that slurp down power at 2pm and dump it out in the three hours after sundown. Utilities should be paying anyone who dumps power to the grid at peak post-sundown demand hours, so that it is a no-brainer to install such a thing.

plantain

This is absolutely insane. This is the most inefficient way imaginable to deploy solar power. We could deploy 100x the capacity $/Wh with utility-scale farms. Unfortunately we are just completely failing on basic coordination problems like this in the west, every man for himself.

KennyBlanken

The biggest obstacle to solar in the US: utility companies. Ask anyone who has had a system installed. Your system can be totally compliant with national and state electrical code, installed by a competent installer using staff who are licensed electricians, get a stamp of approval from your own's inspectors - and the utility will refuse to connect it and insist you meet an additional set of their own conditions. And there's nothing you can do about it. No appeals, no review process, nothing. It's not even consistent, with utilities seeming to just obstruct for the sake of obstructing. Over and over I've of systems going in, the utility comes out (eventually) to inspect, refuses to connect. They're called back out, nothing has changed, and the system gets approved. This is legislatures getting tired of all that power company bullshit, and bypassing them. As balcony solar rules hit state legislatures, expect some really absurd scare campaigns by power companies, and lots of lobbying. Power companies see every solar panel they don't own as a threat to the profits they make on their fossil fuel power plants.

AuthAuth

This is in my opinion a bad solution to the problem of expensive energy or renewable transition. Having individuals start managing their power via plugin solar and plugin batteries creates a gap between the people who can afford it and those who cant. The people who cant afford it end up paying more for electricity. A better solution is to do this on a local or federal government level and build the required amount of power.

mannyv

I have a two panel system, and the panels are about 430 watts each. Given the current ToD rates for electric, it will take years to pay back. Microinverter: 400 Panels (used): 250 for both Cables: 50 I also picked up two LiFePo4 batteries and two Kasa smart plugs and time shifted my computing infrastructure's electricity usage. That made much more of a difference in my bill, since a few hundred watts moved to .09/kwh. If the bms was smarter i could charge the batteries with solar, but alas i can't cap the recharge current.