Three Weeks Out, Still No Compliant Kit on Sale

This article was written on 5 August 2026, which is 22days before plug-in solar becomes legal to sell and use in the UK. We are stating the date up front because the situation it describes is the fastest-moving thing on this site, and the honest answer to “can I buy a compliant kit yet?” could change in a week. On the day of writing, it was no — and the reasons for that are worth understanding, because they also tell you what to look for when the answer flips.

The Register Is Still Empty

Under the final Interim Product Specification, a compliant plug-in solar device has to be verified as compliant on the ENA Type Test Register — being listed on it is explicitly not enough — and it has to carry an Interim Product Specification compliance declaration on the product. Those two things are what separate a legal kit from an ordinary imported one.

When we last checked, on 11 August 2026, the register showed no verified plug-in solar devices at all. That reflects an independent check of the register itself on 11 August 2026. We keep the position under continuous review on the certification tracker, which carries a last-checked date rather than a claim.

The tracker, not this article, is the live source. If you are reading this well after the publication date above, check there first.

The Retailers Have Been Named, but Not Dated

Seven retailers were named alongside the consultation launch: Amazon, Asda, B&Q, Currys, Lidl, Screwfix, Wickes. That list is real and it is official — it is also the entirety of what has been confirmed. None of them has announced a launch date, a product, or a price.

It is worth being blunt about the surrounding noise here, because this niche has attracted a great deal of confident nonsense. Claims that particular supermarkets are “launch partners”, that named manufacturers are “official government partners”, or that stock lands on a specific date, are not traceable to any primary source. Retailers outside the list of seven have not been announced as involved. If a shelf date matters to your plans, wait for the retailer to say it themselves. Our background on the retail side is in UK supermarkets set to stock balcony solar.

What Is on Sale Today, and Why It Will Not Qualify

You can buy an 800W-class balcony solar kit online in the UK this afternoon. Almost none of what is available will be able to use the plug-in route on 27 August 2026, for reasons that are worth separating out:

• Schuko-plugged European kits. The specification requires a factory-fitted BS 1363 plug with a fuse of no more than 5A and partially insulated pins. A European kit with a travel adaptor is not that. Some brands have begun shipping UK-plugged stock, but a UK plug on its own does not make a kit compliant — it is one requirement out of many.
• Battery-integrated kits. Products with storage built in are excluded from the plug-in route entirely, which rules out most of the premium end of the market. That exclusion is not a technicality and it is not going away before the in-force date — we set it out in the battery exclusion analysis.
• Grey imports and marketplace listings. Consultation respondents repeatedly flagged online marketplaces selling kits that meet none of the UK requirements. The compliance declaration and the register exist precisely so buyers can tell the difference.
• Kits built around a type-tested inverter. This is the subtle one. Several microinverters used in European balcony kits already hold G98 type-test listings for the inverter itself. That is not the same as the complete device — panels, inverter, cabling and UK plug together — being verified against the UK specification. A listing for a component is not a listing for the product you are buying.

Why the Gap Exists

This is not a failure and it is not a conspiracy. The final specification was published on 16 July 2026— roughly six weeks before the in-force date. Before that, manufacturers had a draft that was subsequently changed in several material respects, including the residual DC current limit, the verified-listing requirement and the on-product declaration. Type testing a product against a specification that only settled in mid-July, then getting it assessed and identified as compliant on a register, is not a fortnight's work.

The in-force date was always the date the route opens, not the date the shelves fill. Expect the first verified products to appear somewhere behind it rather than exactly on it. What we would not expect is a long delay: the commercial incentive is considerable, the European supply chain already builds to an 800W-class format, and seven major retailers are waiting.

What “Ready” Will Actually Look Like

When a kit is genuinely ready to buy, all of the following will be true at once. Treat any missing item as a reason to wait:

• the device appears on the ENA Type Test Register and is identified there as verified compliant
• the product carries an Interim Product Specification compliance declaration, with labelling and a QR code pointing to the registration process
• it ships with a fused BS 1363 plug — not an adaptor — and outputs no more than 800VA at up to 3.5A
• it has no integrated battery and no more than 2,000W of panels
• it is sold by a seller with a UK presence, UK returns and UK support — the inverter is the safety-critical component and you want someone accountable for it

Our compliance checker runs a kit through all ten of the specification's rules in a couple of minutes, which is faster than reading a product page twice.

What to Do With the Wait

Waiting is not the same as doing nothing. The work that determines whether plug-in solar is worth it for you is mostly not about the kit:

• Establish what you would actually save. The government estimate is £70–£110 a year against an expected price of £400–£600, but that depends entirely on daytime consumption. The savings calculator uses your own numbers.
• Get permission sorted. Landlord consent or a leasehold check takes weeks, not days, and is unaffected by the new regulations. Nothing in SI 2026 No. 848 overrides a tenancy agreement or a lease.
• Plan around a single kit. The one-device-per-circuit rule is in the specification, but Engineering Recommendation G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1 2026 still restricts a household to 1 device unless and until it is amended — so that, not your circuit count, is the ceiling today.
• Check your mounting position honestly. Orientation, shading and a secure fixing matter far more to the payback than which brand you end up with.

When We Will Change This Advice

We will say “you can buy” when a specific product is verified on the ENA register and available from a UK seller — not when a press release says it is coming, and not on the in-force date itself. Until then, the position stated on the certification tracker is the current one, and what actually changes on 27 August 2026 covers what the law does and does not do. If you want solar generating before then, the compliant route is still a professionally wired installation, as our legal status guide explains.

Sources: DESNZ, Plug-in Solar: Regulatory Amendment and Interim Product Specification — Government Response (16 July 2026), via gov.uk; SI 2026 No. 848 via legislation.gov.uk; ENA Type Test Register status as checked 11 August 2026. © Crown copyright 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0.