The retrofit sector should treat plug-in solar as its biggest lead generator yet, not a threat
As plug-in solar panels go on legal sale across Great Britain for the first time this week, energy-efficiency specialist InstaGroup has urged the retrofit and property sectors to treat the new category not as competition, but as the largest source of new solar customers the market has ever seen.
A change in government rules, effective 27 August, allows compact plug-in kits which feed electricity into a home through a standard socket, need no electrician and cost a fraction of a rooftop system, to be sold legally in UK shops. Government research suggests a kit could save a household up to £110 a year, covering around a fifth of its daytime electricity use.
Unlike rooftop solar, the kits carry no MCS certification requirement. However, InstaGroup, which runs the UK’s largest and longest-running installer network, believes the arrival of plug-in solar will expand the installed market rather than erode it.
Tim Deathridge, COO at InstaGroup, said: “In 45 years of watching new technology arrive in home energy, we’ve never seen anything with this much mass-market potential. Plug-in solar puts generation within reach of millions of people who would never have booked a survey or weighed up a rooftop install, such as renters, first-time buyers, or anyone put off by the cost or the commitment. That isn’t a threat to our industry, but the biggest introduction to solar it has ever had.
“The mistake would be to see a low-cost panel and a full rooftop system as competitors. They’re not. One is the first taste, and the other is the full meal. Someone who plugs in a panel this summer and watches their meter slow down is exactly the person who fits a full array, adds a battery, and eventually a heat pump, three years from now. The businesses that capitalise over the next decade will be the ones treating this week as an introduction to make, not a threat to see off.
“For landlords the calculation is slightly different. A portable kit suits a tenant who may move on, but a portfolio facing tougher energy-efficiency standards needs permanent, certified measures, and that’s where professional installation and the funding routes attached to it come in.
“Our one caution is honesty. Plug-in solar is safe and simple when done properly, one kit per home, and sited somewhere unshaded. The industry’s job is to make sure buyers get that guidance, not just the loudest sales pitch. This is the moment home solar finally goes mainstream, and that should excite us all.”
