On 27 August plug-in solar became legal in the UK. On 28 August Octopus Energy announced their kit. By the end of September the market already looked very different from the grey area it had occupied for the previous two years. Here is what happened, what landed, what is still missing, and an honest personal update from Stamford.
The ENA register: UKSOL as the only name that matters right now
On the day the law changed, the ENA G98 Type Test Register had four complete kits listed as Compliant, all from one company. That company was UKSOL, a British manufacturer based in Sheffield. They had registered four kits on 18 and 19 August, the week before legalisation, and by 26 August they had seven models with Compliant status, covering 460W to 920W output.
The Climate Transition Minister, Katie White, visited their Sheffield assembly operation on 19 August. The government has been clear that UKSOL’s early work on certification was part of the plan to have real product available on day one rather than a legal framework with nothing in it.
What is conspicuously absent from the Compliant column is EcoFlow. Despite EcoFlow being the government’s named technology partner since March 2026, their products had not appeared as Compliant on the register as of October. Neither had Anker, whose Solarbank 4 Pro was filed on 3 August and was still showing non-compliant. HDM Solar’s PIS0100, filed 19 August, was the same. Both contain batteries, which is the practical reason — battery-integrated systems are excluded from the socket-connection route under the current rules. But EcoFlow’s standalone microinverter products were also absent, which surprised a lot of people who had assumed they would be first.
I was one of them. The best plug-in solar panels guide predicted EcoFlow would be certified first. That needs updating, and I will update it. The honest picture right now is that UKSOL is the only manufacturer with multiple certified complete kits on the register. The register is a live document and this will change — check it directly at energynetworks.org rather than relying on any article, including this one, for the current state.
Octopus Energy: first major supplier into the market
The day after the law changed, Octopus Energy launched their own plug-in solar kit. A single 460W JA Solar bifacial panel at £450, or two panels at £650. Both come with a 5-metre cable and UK three-pin plug, wall or floor mounting hardware, and delivery from end of September. For Octopus customers, generation shows up in the app alongside the rest of their energy data.
That app integration is the genuinely interesting part. If you are already on Octopus Intelligent or Octopus Agile, having your solar generation visible in the same place as your tariff and usage data is a practical benefit rather than a gimmick. It is the kind of thing that could influence when you run appliances.
One caveat worth noting: some industry observers flagged questions about whether the Octopus kit had cleared ENA register Compliant status at the point of taking orders. Octopus proceeded regardless, with delivery pencilled in for late September. The practical advice is the same as always: check the ENA register for the specific product before connecting, not before ordering. Registration and delivery run on different schedules.
Octopus has also confirmed that their Nook Cube plug-in battery will pair with the plug-in solar kit from Q1 2027, launching across the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. That is the genuinely interesting next step for people who are out all day and currently self-consuming a fraction of what they generate.
OVO and the suppliers who are coming
OVO Energy confirmed they are working on a plug-in solar proposition planned for launch in the coming months. Their kit description — two panels on a rack mount with a microinverter, three-pin plug — sounds similar to the Octopus configuration. To mark launch day they also ran a competition giving away five free kits to OVO Beyond customers, with entries closing 17 September. Smart marketing that also generates early real-world user data.
The entry of Octopus and OVO into the market within weeks of legalisation matters because it validates the product category for mainstream households. Buying from your energy company rather than from a specialist solar retailer is a more comfortable proposition for most people, and both companies have the app infrastructure to build something useful around generation monitoring.
Where to actually buy a kit in September 2026
Argos was stocking UKSOL kits from day one and had six models by early September, ranging from £599 to £999. Very launched a near-identical UKSOL range shortly after, with delivery ranging from mid-September to mid-November depending on the model. City Plumbing had UKSOL kits alongside a Jinko 940W Hoymiles HiFlow combination kit at £432 — the most competitive price from a mainstream UK retailer as of September, and notable because it uses a Hoymiles HiFlow inverter.
Amazon committed to stocking plug-in solar and there were some listings appearing, but the marketplace was a mixed bag. Uncertified imports were appearing alongside legitimate products, which is the problem I flagged in the Amazon buying guide. The check the ENA register rule is more important on Amazon than anywhere else. Currys, Wickes, B&Q and Screwfix all confirmed they are coming.
Lidl has not launched. Iceland has not launched. These were the two budget retailers named by the government as partners in March. When Lidl does launch it will almost certainly be a Specialbuy event that sells out in days. The advice to sign up for their newsletter and be ready still stands.
The solar installations record
On 28 August DESNZ released figures showing nearly 172,000 UK residential solar installations completed since January 2026, with July recording the third-highest monthly total on record. Energy Minister Michael Shanks described plug-in solar legalisation as making it “easier than ever for more families to benefit from Britain’s solar revolution.” These figures are for conventional rooftop solar — plug-in solar is too new to appear in the statistics yet. But the broader uptick in solar interest is real and plug-in solar is part of the same story.
A personal update from Stamford: in storage until spring
I have been running my EcoFlow STREAM setup on the south fence here in Stamford since earlier this year. Through August and into September the generation was useful. Then September did what September in the East Midlands does — the sun angle dropped, the overcast days accumulated, and the output figures got noticeably worse.
The fence installation was always a compromise. The ideal location is the roof of my office, south-facing, proper elevation, no partial shading from the house in winter. I wrote about the installer problem in the Lincolnshire installer article back in August. I have still not found someone to do it. Months of looking. No result.
Without the roof mounting, the fence installation in winter is generating something close to not enough to justify leaving the kit out in the weather. The panels are now in storage. I am not going to pretend otherwise. The technology works and the economics make sense — I know this from the summer numbers. But a fence-mounted system in Lincolnshire in October is not the same proposition as a properly oriented roof installation, and the fitter who could sort the roof installation has not appeared yet.
If you are a tradesperson in Lincolnshire and you can help — an electrician, a roofer, a handyperson with the right skills — the contact page is there. The panels will be going back up in spring either way. With a roof mount if I can manage it. On the fence again if I cannot.
What to watch through winter
The ENA register will keep growing through autumn. EcoFlow, Anker, and the European brands working toward UK certification will start appearing as Compliant. The register is the only source worth trusting for current status — check it before you buy rather than relying on any article about who might be certified soon.
The G98 one-per-household limit is still there and still the biggest practical constraint for people who want more capacity. Moving to one-per-circuit requires changes to the ENA framework and DESNZ has flagged it as a priority, but there is no confirmed timeline. Realistically 2027.
Octopus Nook Cube battery pairing with plug-in solar from Q1 2027 is the most commercially interesting development on the horizon. A plug-in battery that stores daytime generation for evening use, managed through the Octopus app, changes the self-consumption maths significantly.
For everything else — the G98 notification process, what the one-per-household rule actually means in practice, what the regulations say — the 27 August launch article and the G98 guide cover the detail. The certified kit guide is being updated as new products clear the register.
If you bought a kit in September and have generation numbers to share, leave a comment. First-hand data from real UK installations in the first weeks of the market is genuinely useful and I read every one.