[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":200},["ShallowReactive",2],{"page-\u002Fguides\u002Futah-went-first":3,"author-mike":141},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bare":7,"body":8,"dateModified":117,"datePublished":117,"description":118,"extension":119,"howToSteps":120,"kits":120,"layout":121,"meta":122,"navigation":123,"path":124,"schemaType":125,"seo":126,"sources":127,"stem":134,"targetKeywords":135,"titleTag":139,"translationOf":120,"__hash__":140},"content\u002Fguides\u002Futah-went-first.md","Utah went first. What happened after HB 340","mike",false,{"type":9,"value":10},"minimark",[11,18,23,26,29,37,41,47,50,56,62,66,69,72,76,82,88,94,100,104,107,114],[12,13,14],"answer-box",{},[15,16,17],"p",{},"Utah legalised plug in solar in March 2025 — the same 1,200-watt cap, the same 120-volt connection, the same certification requirement California is proposing. It passed unanimously in both chambers, the local utility took no position because it had helped write the language, and manufacturers including EcoFlow and CraftStrom entered the market as a result. Eight or so states have followed. California would be by far the largest.",[19,20,22],"h2",{"id":21},"what-utah-did","What Utah did",[15,24,25],{},"Representative Raymond Ward's HB 340 passed the Utah House 72–0 and the Senate 27–0, was signed by Governor Cox in March 2025, and took effect on 7 May 2025.",[15,27,28],{},"The structure is the one California is now copying: a device under 1,200 watts, connecting through a standard 120-volt receptacle, certified by a recognised testing laboratory and compliant with the National Electrical Code, is exempt from interconnection requirements.",[15,30,31,32,36],{},"The detail that matters most: ",[33,34,35],"strong",{},"Rocky Mountain Power, the state's main utility, took no position."," It had been involved in drafting the language. Compare that with California, where SCE and SDG&E opposed SB 868 outright — and the bill passed anyway, but with a longer fight and more amendments.",[19,38,40],{"id":39},"what-happened-next","What happened next",[15,42,43,46],{},[33,44,45],{},"Manufacturers moved."," EcoFlow launched its STREAM range into the US with Utah as the initial market. CraftStrom expanded there. The National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, which tracks this policy area, notes that the model — limiting interconnection requirements and professional installation costs — can cut prices for plug-in systems by roughly half.",[15,48,49],{},"That's the important mechanism, and it's worth being precise about it. The law didn't subsidise anything. It removed the process cost. An interconnection application, an inspection, and an electrician are a large fraction of a $600 purchase, and deleting them is equivalent to a very large discount.",[15,51,52,55],{},[33,53,54],{},"The certification bottleneck showed up first there."," Utah's law required certification before UL had a plug-in photovoltaic standard, which meant early sellers were pointing at UL 1741 inverter listings. UL 3700 arrived in January 2026 and started resolving that.",[15,57,58,61],{},[33,59,60],{},"Other states followed."," By mid-2026 around eight or nine states had enacted plug in solar frameworks — Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey and Virginia among those adding them in the second quarter of 2026. Bills were active in a dozen more.",[19,63,65],{"id":64},"what-we-dont-know-about-utah","What we don't know about Utah",[15,67,68],{},"We'd like to tell you how many devices Utah has installed, whether there have been any incidents, and what the average customer saved. We can't, because Utah doesn't run a registration database the way Germany does, and nobody has published a good count.",[15,70,71],{},"That absence is itself a finding of sorts. The German data exists because registration is mandatory and centralised. The American approach — deliberately, in the name of removing friction — produces no data at all. Which means in three years, when California's exemption comes up against its 2030 sunset, there may be no dataset to argue with.",[19,73,75],{"id":74},"why-california-is-different","Why California is different",[15,77,78,81],{},[33,79,80],{},"Scale."," Utah has about 1.1 million households. California has about 13.55 million, of which roughly 6 million rent. California is not the next market, it's the market.",[15,83,84,87],{},[33,85,86],{},"Rates."," Utah's electricity is inexpensive. California's is among the most expensive in the country. The same panel is worth roughly twice as much here, which changes the buying decision entirely.",[15,89,90,93],{},[33,91,92],{},"Utility posture."," Rocky Mountain Power helped write Utah's bill. SCE and SDG&E opposed California's. That difference will probably show up in how registration processes get built and how enthusiastically they're publicised.",[15,95,96,99],{},[33,97,98],{},"Housing."," Utah is largely single-family and owner-occupied. California is the opposite in exactly the places where plug in solar makes most sense. That's an argument for a larger market and a harder one — more renters means more demand and more landlords to ask.",[19,101,103],{"id":102},"what-it-means-for-you","What it means for you",[15,105,106],{},"Mostly: this isn't an experiment. There's a year of US market history, a decade of German history, and a set of manufacturers who've already built products for these rules. California isn't going first, it's going biggest.",[15,108,109],{},[110,111,113],"a",{"href":112},"\u002Fis-it-legal","Where SB 868 stands →",[115,116],"sources-block",{},"2026-09-01","Utah legalised plug in solar in March 2025 with the same 1,200W cap California is proposing. What the first US market tells us about what's coming.","md",null,"article",{},true,"\u002Fguides\u002Futah-went-first","Article",{"title":5,"description":118},[128,131],{"title":129,"url":130,"accessed":117},"Utah HB 340 (2025)","https:\u002F\u002Fle.utah.gov\u002F~2025\u002Fbills\u002Fstatic\u002FHB0340.html",{"title":132,"url":133,"accessed":117},"National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, plug in solar model policy","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ncel.net\u002F","guides\u002Futah-went-first",[136,137,138],"Utah HB 340 plug in solar","plug in solar states","which states allow balcony solar","Utah's Plug In Solar Law: What Happened After HB 340","BNZRkusjzGBhnk8XONes3SQA2NkXBoCrGTjEnO9hoMQ",{"id":142,"title":143,"body":144,"description":191,"email":189,"extension":119,"location":192,"meta":193,"name":150,"navigation":123,"path":194,"photo":195,"role":196,"sameAs":120,"seo":197,"stem":198,"__hash__":199},"authors\u002Fauthors\u002Fmike.md","Mike",{"type":9,"value":145},[146,152,158,166,170,173,176,180,183],[15,147,148,151],{},[33,149,150],{},"Mike Yu"," is the editor of SmallSolarCo. He started it after working out that a plug-in panel was the only kind of solar available to him — he rents in Irvine with a west-facing balcony and no roof of his own — and found that nothing written about it in California was both plain and sourced.",[15,153,154,157],{},[33,155,156],{},"He is not an electrician, a solar installer, or a lawyer",", and the site says so wherever it matters. What he does is read the primary sources — bill text, CPUC filings, utility tariff sheets, UL standards, manufacturer specification sheets — and put them in one place with the arithmetic attached and a date on every claim.",[15,159,160,161,165],{},"He has a background building web products, and built the savings model here himself, using NREL irradiance data and Southern California Edison's published rates. It's published in full on ",[110,162,164],{"href":163},"\u002Fmethodology","the methodology page",", and the site's tests fail if an article and the calculator ever disagree.",[19,167,169],{"id":168},"what-this-site-does-and-doesnt-do","What this site does and doesn't do",[15,171,172],{},"It explains, catalogs, and calculates. It does not test hardware. Kit pages are built from published specifications with the date they were checked, not from a test bench, and the site says so rather than implying otherwise.",[15,174,175],{},"There is a plug-in kit on the Irvine balcony logging output, which is used to check whether the model is roughly calibrated. Figures from it are labelled measured and carry their conditions. Everything else on the site is labelled as an estimate, and there are far more estimates than measurements.",[19,177,179],{"id":178},"editorial-independence","Editorial independence",[15,181,182],{},"Affiliate commissions don't reach the savings model — it's the same arithmetic for every kit, and the current recommendation for anyone spending under $400 is a nonprofit that pays nothing. We don't accept hardware on terms that involve anyone approving coverage first. If a manufacturer sends something, the page says so.",[15,184,185,186,190],{},"Reach him at ",[110,187,189],{"href":188},"mailto:hello@smallsolarco.com","hello@smallsolarco.com",".","Mike Yu is the editor of SmallSolarCo. He started it after working out that a plug-in panel was the only kind of solar available to him — he rents in Irvine with a west-facing balcony and no roof of his own — and found that nothing written about it in California was both plain and sourced.","Irvine, California",{},"\u002Fauthors\u002Fmike","\u002Fimages\u002Fauthors\u002Fmike.jpg","Founder and editor",{"description":191},"authors\u002Fmike","2UYfVkomBje4XbTXMc-HWSa7jliDKILElV8MEZxfPVw",1788880326640]