{"id":217846,"date":"2026-06-12T22:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217846\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T22:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:44:13","slug":"pennsylvania-lawmakers-consider-balcony-solar-for-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217846\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania lawmakers consider balcony solar for consumers"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may have noticed your electricity bill is rising. The Pennsylvania Utility Commission alerted consumers<\/a> that the price of electric generation is increasing this month, just as it\u2019s getting hotter outside, and people are using more electricity for air conditioning.<\/p>\n

Solar advocates say there\u2019s one affordable option that could help: solar panels that you can plug into an outlet.<\/p>\n

LISTEN to the story
\nhttps:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media.alleghenyfront.org\/061226_JG_BALCONY+SOLAR.mp3<\/a>
\nAn idea that\u2019s catching on<\/p>\n

When Cora Stryker heard about the rising popularity of plug-in solar panels in\u00a0Germany<\/a>, she was excited by the idea that solar can be easily installed by anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s primarily driven by renters in urban areas, and there you have those beautiful multi-story buildings with balconies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As a climate advocate, she saw a vision of the future in what\u2019s also called \u201cbalcony solar.\u201d Instead of a rooftop installation, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, plug-in solar panels are cheaper and easier to set up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stryker co-founded a non-profit called Bright Saver<\/a> last year with two ideas in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, energy affordability. People can\u2019t meet their energy bills; it\u2019s cutting into other expenses, such as putting food on the table,\u201d she said. \u201cThe second mission or the parallel mission is climate action, clean energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is balcony solar?<\/p>\n

Bright Saver is trying to bring balcony solar to the United States. Their website sells a $500 kit that includes a solar panel and a microconverter that plugs into a standard 120-volt outlet in the house. Kits are also available at retailers like Amazon and Ikea.<\/p>\n

Stryker says a Bright Saver panel, which weighs 11 pounds and looks like a flat-screen TV, can be set up on a balcony, in the yard or anywhere that gets at least six hours of sun per day and can be plugged in.<\/p>\n

\u201cElectricity is like water; it flows in both directions,\u201d she said. \u201cYou will plug these into your house wiring and anything you\u2019re running off of that house wiring \u2014 your refrigerator, your TV, your router \u2014 will consume that energy on the spot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One Brightsaver panel produces about 180 watts of power, reducing the amount of electricity a home pulls from the electric grid. Some experts say they can pay for themselves in three to five years.<\/p>\n

States consider regulation of balcony solar<\/p>\n

Many states haven\u2019t approved of their use yet. According to a website that tracks plug-in solar legislation<\/a>, five states have approved laws enabling consumers to use plug-in solar panels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thirteen others are in different stages of considering it, including Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is to keep utility bills down,\u201d said State Representative Chris Pielli, a Democrat from Chester County. He cosponsored a bill<\/a> introduced last summer into the House Energy Committee because he said demand for power continues to rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should encourage every safe source of local power generation, including these small consumer-owned solar systems,\u201d Pielli said. \u201cEvery kilowatt helps in meeting rising demands.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Utility company concerns<\/p>\n

Since plug-in solar adds energy to the system, groups representing electrical workers and utility companies in different states have brought up safety concerns. For example, in a power outage, they fear the devices could add electricity to back to the grid and potentially electrocute workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legislation does not include provisions to ensure systems are designed to automatically disconnect during power outages,\u201d according to an email from Duquesne Light, an electricity provider in southwestern Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh. \u201cWithout these safeguards, there is a risk that electricity could flow back onto de-energized buildings and even distribution lines, creating potential hazards for crews working to restore service and for the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts say<\/a> these concerns have been solved for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Germany has one million solar panels and no incidents of fire or of major deaths tells you that it\u2019s a technical issue that can be resolved,\u201d said Shanti Gamper-Rabindran, a professor of economics and the energy transition at the University of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

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Earlier this year, UL Solutions, which is behind the familiar UL label on the back of electronics, debuted<\/a> a certification program for plug-in solar manufacturers to address safety concerns.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Utilities have other issues with balcony solar. The bill in the Pennsylvania House states that these plug-in solar panels do not require interconnection agreements with utilities, as do residential rooftop installations.<\/a> This raises concerns for Duquesne Light about how plug-in systems would \u201csafely interact with the grid and the utility\u2019s ability to know where and how they are operating,\u201d according to the company.<\/p>\n

But solar advocates say people with plug-in solar panels should not be required to get these agreements and other permits, because they generate far less electricity than rooftop arrays. With rooftop solar, homeowners can get credit on their electric bill for excess power they supply to the grid, called net metering.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo there are a lot of permits that happen along the way. Those take a lot of time. They add a lot of cost,\u201d said Henry McKay of the non-profit Solar United Neighbors<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the lower end, the average residential rooftop solar installation in Pennsylvania generates more than 7 kilowatts<\/a> of electricity, which is six times the 1.2-kilowatt limit set by the Pennsylvania bill for a balcony solar array.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very unlikely even for the electricity you create to backfeed out onto the grid, like what happens a lot with rooftop solar,\u201d McKay said. \u201cBecause this is so much smaller scale, your fridge is going to eat up most of that power or whatever you\u2019re doing at home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neither the Public Utility Commission nor PJM, the regional grid operator that includes Pennsylvania, wanted to comment on the legislation.<\/p>\n

In the House, it\u2019s getting bipartisan support. \u201cI\u2019m trying to make sure that we have as many options as possible to help keep the burden of increased electricity costs for Pennsylvanians as low as possible,\u201d said Representative Gary Day of Lehigh County, who is one of three Republican co-sponsors<\/a> of the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though House Republicans have opposed solar programs<\/a> in the past, he said they support an \u201call of the above\u201d energy strategy. The bill\u2019s Democratic sponsors say if the plug-in solar bill doesn\u2019t pass this time around, they will keep reintroducing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You may have noticed your electricity bill is rising. The Pennsylvania Utility Commission alerted consumers that the price…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[95191,28,30,29,4372],"class_list":["post-217846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-12-june-2026-episode","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-solar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}