Tell your state leaders to cosponsor a bill deregulating plug-in solar for Pennsylvania!

After months of hard work, a nationwide wave is building to make 2026 the year when plug-in solar becomes accessible in states across America! State legislators in five U.S. states (New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, and Pennsylvania) are now working to introduce legislation to make plug-in solar practically accessible for their people, and leading nonprofit Bright Saver reports that further announcements in multiple additional states should come soon. Next year’s state legislative session could be a transformative moment for American clean power!

This U.S. plug-in solar movement started in earnest in early 2025. After Republican legislator Raymond Ward introduced a far-sighted bill, the state of Utah voted to deregulate plug-in solar, with unanimous bipartisan support. Home solar provides abundant low-cost power, but many Americans can’t access rooftop solar due to cost, renter status, or other reasons. Plug-in solar, aka “balcony” or “backyard” solar, allows anyone to get their own source of cheap clean power. Now, it looks like Utah’s plug-in solar law was just the start of a nationwide trend!

It is technically legally possible to install plug-in solar in much of the U.S., but it’s prohibitively difficult in practice because it requires the homeowner to submit the same kind of complex, technical diagram-heavy grid interconnection request that you’d need for a full-scale solar farm. As Bright Saver puts it: “Right now, in this country, every state except Utah applies the same one-size-fits-all rules meant for rooftop solar systems that are 5–20 times larger. That means even the smallest balcony units — which never send power back to the grid and are essentially invisible to the utility — are sometimes forced into the same interconnection agreements or licensed electrician requirements. Those extra steps can be lengthy and expensive, in some cases nearly doubling the cost of a simple plug-in system.”

The Utah HB340 bill deregulating plug-in solar simply created a new legal category for small-scale solar systems under 1200 watts, then said that small-scale solar systems were exempt from grid interconnection agreements (a notorious snarl of onerous red tape) and were allowed a small amount of back feeding. It also releases utilities of liability for small-scale solar, thus winning utility support for the measure.

This was an incredibly simple piece of legislation — just one page, with zero fiscal implications. Bright Saver already has model legislation text up on their website. It’s a bill that gives families the freedom to generate their own clean energy at home without maddening bureaucratic barriers. And now, people are trying to make it happen across America.

“It’s no secret that Pennsylvanians are struggling to keep up with rising electricity bills. This legislation gives people a powerful way to fight back. Plug-in solar will give renters, apartment dwellers, and homeowners a way to generate some of their own power and cut monthly costs. This isn’t about politics; it’s about putting money back in family budgets and giving people control over their energy in whatever space they have.”

— Chris Pielli, Pennsylvania State Representative.

The potential of plug-in solar technology is truly incredible. In Germany, more than 500,000 plug-in solar systems have been installed so far, and major retailer IKEA is now selling integrated kits including both plug-in “balcony” solar arrays and a home battery — a fully independent household clean power plant being sold for 1,229 euros!

Deregulating plug-in solar is a no-brainer for every state in America!

State leaders have a historic opportunity here to empower household energy independence for their constituents and bring forward a future where all Americans can generate their own clean, abundant, affordable electricity. Any state legislator who takes the initiative to cosponsor a Utah-style plug-in solar deregulation bill for Pennsylvania will be demonstrating true leadership.

Tell your state leaders to cosponsor a bill deregulating plug-in solar for Pennsylvania!