- Plans are underway to sell balcony solar panels in the UK
- Retailers including Amazon, Currys and Asda are in discussions
- These units are expected to start at around £400
While rooftop solar panels can help cut electricity bills, installing them is an expensive and complicated business – problems that new ‘plug-in’ balcony solar panels set to hit major UK retailers seek to address.
As reported by The Guardian, these innovative panels simply plug into a standard three-prong socket. Everything connected around the home – from refrigerators to PCs – uses solar energy first before connecting to the mains.
Representatives from Asda, Currys, B&Q, Amazon, Lidl, Wickes and Screwfix have just met with the Minister for Energy Consumers, Martin McCluskey, to draw up guidelines for the sale of these balcony solar panels. It looks like they will be widely available in the near future and are expected to start at around £400.
Official research suggests savings of around £70-£110 a year from a single panel, so you’ll need to use it for around four years before you get your money back. However, professional installation is not required, nor is planning permission. A typical rooftop solar panel runs into the thousands of pounds.
Coming soon
“Plug-in panels can be transformative for renters or those on lower incomes, so I welcome the conversation today with big names like B&Q and Currys showing a huge amount of support to get the panels into people’s homes,” McCluskey said, adding that they will “help make the UK less dependent on global fossil fuel markets”.
Of course, as well as cutting your electricity bills by an estimated 30%, you’re also helping the planet, and this is part of a wider push by the UK government to add more solar power. Official figures say there were 269,000 solar installations across the country during 2025, a new record and a 37% increase from the previous year.
If you didn’t want to feed your collected solar energy directly into your home’s electrical circuit, you could invest in a solar battery instead. We have already seen reasonably priced products in this category from Lidl and EcoFlow.
There is no firm timeline, but the aim appears to be to get these panels on sale as soon as possible, and the UK government is now consulting on safety guidelines. When they first appear in stores, all you need is an extra outlet and some sunshine.
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