The UK government has committed to legalizing plug-in “balcony” solar, while also bringing forward its annual utility-scale renewables auction in response to ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announced that the plug-in solar kits similar to those seen in the German market would soon be available in the United Kingdom, in a bid to boost residential PV deployment. It follows the UK government’s summer 2025 commitment to investigate plug-in PV as part of its Solar Roadmap policy.
Bringing the eighth CfD auction forward to July was described by Solar Energy UK as having the biggest impact on renewables deployment. The trade association claimed the earlier auction would help to “push expensive natural gas” off the grid. Chief executive Chris Hewett said events in the Middle East “have underlined the importance of weening the British economy from dependence on oil and gas as soon as possible.”
“We look forward to engaging with the Government on the introduction of new regulatory standards for plug-in technology and the details of the next CfD auction as swiftly as possible,” Hewett said.
The seventh CfD round saw a record among of solar secure contracts – totaling 4.9 GW of capacity at a clearing price of GBP 0.065 ($0.088) per kWh. Allocating a significant volume of contracts to utility-scale PV projects in the next allocation round will be key to the UK government achieving its deployment goal of at least 45 GW solar by 2030, up from 21.8 GW deployed PV in January 2026, according to the most recent provisional government data.
Solar Energy UK also welcomed the commitment to plug-in solar, noting the technology has been effectively deployed in leading European markets such as Germany and the Netherlands – although the association added conventional domestic rooftop arrays with battery storage offered consumers greater cuts to home running costs.
New grants and interest-free loans for solar, battery storage and other home energy upgrades are expected in the United Kingdom soon as part of the government’s $20 billion Warm Homes plan, which the Energy Secretary said will also be brought forward in light of conflict in the Middle East.
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