WATAUGA COUNTY, N.C. — Right now, there are two bills in the General Assembly that could make adding solar to your house as easy as plugging in a new fridge.
Both SB 957 and HB 1129 set out to make small solar systems called plug-in or balcony solar legal to install without an interconnection agreement from your local utility.
Nancy LaPlaca, an advocate for the bill and a volunteer for the climate action group, Third Act, hopes it will give North Carolinians more options to expand clean energy and lower their power bills.
“Every time those rates go up our solar becomes more valuable,” she said.
She loves having solar on her Boone home, but said, it was a long and arduous process to get it approved.
Besides investing tens of thousands of dollars in the system itself, LaPlaca says she spent months negotiating with her utility to make it work.
That’s why she’s hoping plug-in solar systems can serve as an easier and more accessible option.
Cora Stryker, the co-founder of Bright Saver, a nonprofit advocating for the technology, said the technology is well-known in Europe but is just starting to take off in the United States.
“In Germany, you can go to Ikea, or even your local grocery store, in some cases, buy a solar panel, bring it home, plug it into the wall, and that’s it,” she said.
These systems are small, usually one to four panels, enough to cover about 5-15% of your household electricity.
But Stryker says that’s up to 15% you’re not paying every month from a one-time purchase that’s safe and easy to install and doesn’t require your utility’s approval.
“You really can’t have these cumbersome applications for interconnection processes, it raises the cost, you need wait times, it’s just the self-install model that is going to make this benefit millions of households in the United States,” Stryker said.
Stryker says she’s been working with states from Utah to Virginia to pass plug-in solar legislation. Setting safety standards and cutting red tape.
She hopes North Carolina can join the growing list soon.
Senator Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe County) is one of SB 957’s sponsors, explained that the bill, along with the companion legislation in the house, sets limits on the size of these systems and requires that they’re certified by Underwriters Laboratories or a similar nationally recognized testing laboratory. They also require the system to stop sending power to grid in case of an outage to prevent interference to line workers.
Mayfield hopes this will make solar far more accessible to those who want to try solar but don’t have the means or ability to invest in a full rooftop system.
“They’re vastly more affordable to more people than a full-scale solar residential solar system,” she said. “And it allows people who don’t live in a place where they can put solar, where they have control of the roof or the yard or whatever, to have to get some of their energy from solar energy, you know, anybody who lives in an apartment, anybody who lives in a rented house.”
LaPlaca hopes systems like this can work as a learning tool, exposing more households to the benefits of generating your own electricity. She hopes as the technology gets more accessible, our entire electrical system will get greener.
“You’re looking at a system that provides resiliency, lower costs and long term it’s a real benefit to the customers,” said LaPlaca. “Those little tiny bits of solar all add up.”