Last October, Colorado state Rep. Lesley Smith was in Germany, visiting her husband’s family. While strolling around her sister-in-law’s neighborhood, she glimpsed a solar panel hanging off an apartment building balcony — something she’d never seen before. “Oh, my goodness, look at that,” Smith remembered thinking, considering the benefits of plug-in solar.

Small-scale household solar is common in Germany, where an estimated 4 million units have been installed. It’s a simple concept: Just plug one or two solar panels attached to a microinverter into any household outlet, place the panels outside on a patio or balcony, and you can generate enough power to offset around 15% to 20% of your energy usage. The gear costs several hundred dollars and can be set up almost anywhere, so renters and homeowners alike can enjoy the cost savings and climate benefits of clean energy.

But in the U.S., a tangle of regulatory and market constraints has prevented widespread adoption of the technology, known as balcony or plug-in solar.

That could soon change, however: This year, as of press time, lawmakers in 27 states — including Colorado’s Rep. Smith — have introduced plug-in solar legislation that would enable anyone to start harnessing the power of the sun and shaving down their power bills. In the West, plug-in solar also offers a way to tap into some of the region’s vast solar potential while offsetting rising electricity costs, said Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, one of the leading groups advocating for it. Lawmakers this year have introduced bills in the Western states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, though as of late February, Washington, Arizona, Wyoming and New Mexico’s bills had failed to advance.

The West has, in fact, led the charge on balcony solar: Smith and other lawmakers modeled their bills on a first-in-the-nation plug-in solar law that passed unanimously in Utah last year. Utah’s law exempts the technology from costly permitting requirements, such as registering an interconnection agreement with the local utility, something rooftop solar users must do. It also establishes power wattage limits, removes liability for utilities when people install devices on their own and requires units to be certified under a national electrical safety standard.

Read the full article about plug-in solar by Akielly Hu at High Country News.