Supporters of a bill to regulate “plug-in solar” in New Hampshire believe the device would democratize access to the Granite State’s shining solar energy in a time of energy uncertainty. But they also said they wanted to tread carefully to avoid potentially dangerous pitfalls.
“What the sponsors of this bill really mean is to give people who don’t have community solar coverage, who don’t own a home, or who can’t afford heavy rooftop solar, the opportunity to generate electricity and save money,” he said. Dover Democratic Sen. David Watterson monday.
Also known as “portable solar,” this device consists of a standalone solar panel that can be plugged into a wall outlet. They send electricity back to your home, offsetting some of your electricity usage.
Watters said the bill is about ensuring New Hampshire residents have personal freedom in their energy choices. He noted that the law also establishes certain formal safety requirements for the system, and that its “plug-and-play” model can pose electrical risks, especially in homes with older wiring.
“This gives people some freedom to produce their own electricity and immediately reduce costs, which is something we value in our state,” Watters said Monday during a House Science, Technology and Energy Committee hearing.
Caught in mainland America
In Germany, the “birthplace” of the technology, more than 1 million portable solar panels have been registered, according to the nonprofit organization Solar Power Europe. Watters said the actual number of units in use there is likely higher because not all users are registered with the government.
Utah became the first state in the United States to approve plug-in solar regulations a year ago. Currently, other states and northeastern parts of the country following. Monday, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed Laws regulating the adoption of technology there.
Watters said at a public hearing in Concord that day that plug-in solar arrays are already available for purchase online, and New Hampshire residents are not being prevented from installing solar arrays in their homes. Senate Bill 540 He said he is trying to impose safety regulations on the technology and chart a path toward broader adoption.
“The reason we want to enable these devices is because we think people should receive some sort of clear signal that there are safe and unsafe ways to do this,” he said. Sam Evans-BrownExecutive Director of Clean Energy New Hampshire. “As it stands, this technology is really in a gray area, and while you can access Temu and get one of these, you could be putting yourself and your family at risk.”
One of the differences between plug-in solar and more traditional arrays is how it connects to your home’s electrical network. Larger arrays are connected directly, while plug-in solar is designed for wall outlets. Proponents say this is key to the system’s accessibility, portability and ease of use for renters, but also requires some unique safety considerations.
One is that it is important to ensure that the wiring that passes through the plug is not overwhelmed by the excess current coming in from the solar generator. Household circuits are typically designed to trip circuit breakers when there is an overload of power on the wires, but the system relies on the current flowing into the system through its normal route.
If the generator is plugged into a wall outlet, the current it produces can overwhelm the wiring away from the breaker, creating a fire hazard without tripping the safety system. This is called “breaker masking,” Evans-Brown said at the hearing.
Another concern is that the generators will continue to produce power for some time after they are unplugged, creating a risk of electrocution, or that if the generators are not disconnected during a power outage, they will be feeding power into the grid while line workers are working on wiring assuming the local power is off.
Some plug-in solar the advocate said Utility companies and solar skeptics highlighted concerns about safety risks and argued that they were slowing down the adoption of democratized renewable power generation. But on Monday, Watters and other supporters of the technology said they take those concerns seriously and see the bill as a way to address them.
Evans-Brown said some groups lobbying for widespread adoption of the system are “probably pushing this bill faster than it would be safe.”
According to , plug-in solar faces different regulatory hurdles in the US and Germany. michael sherrerco-founder of Houston-based plug-in solar company CraftStrom.
“We quickly realized that each power company was playing by its own rules, and they were all privatized,” he said in an interview. “This is very different from Germany.”
Nevertheless, Scherer, who consulted with Watters on the bill, anchored his business, believing the technology would have a disruptive impact on the solar energy market by allowing residents to avoid the interconnection agreements with utility companies typically required for large solar arrays. This makes solar energy cheaper to capture “beyond the meter,” he said.
Some plug-in solar technologies include built-in breaker masking and features that prevent excess power from being fed into the grid, Scherer said. But not all systems on the market have those capabilities, speakers noted Monday.
Safety restrictions
As proposed, SB 540 includes several safety restrictions aimed at preventing dangerous outcomes. Each pay-as-you-go customer is limited to one portable solar system. A bill passed by the Senate in March would limit the system’s maximum generation capacity to 1,200 watts. This is slightly more electricity than a typical microwave oven uses to heat food.
Watters and Evans-Brown on Monday suggested further restrictions could be included in future amendments. This could include dividing the portable solar category into two groups. One is below a certain threshold that can be safely connected in the home, while technologies above that threshold require an electrician and a specialist plug to set up.
Watters said the bill should leave room for the New Hampshire Building Code Review Board to adopt national fire and safety standards for portable solar from UL Solutions (formerly Underwriters Laboratories), an organization that certifies consumer electronics.
philip shamanThe Chair of the Building Code Review Committee said the bill should rely on UL Solutions’ requirements for safe balcony solar power rather than attempting to legislate a threshold.
“They are experts on this issue,” he said.
UL requires manufacturers to evaluate certain safety solutions, such as specially designed plugs and built-in power control systems that monitor the output from the generator, which it says can help make plug-in solar arrays safer.
Release valve that solves high electricity bills
Broadly speaking, Watters said, the system allows users to lower their bills by reducing the amount of electricity they need to buy from the grid.
However, if a customer generates more electricity than they use and that energy is fed back into the grid, they could be billed by the utility, he said. Some meters will record it as electricity usage, resulting in a transmission charge, but whether that happens depends on the type of meter installed in the customer’s home, utility officials said.
“This seems to impose unnecessarily high bills on consumers and reward energy suppliers and distributors with passive income from bills for electricity they did not produce or distribute,” said the Milan resident. Gerard Penaut By written testimony.
Utility representatives from Eversource and Unitil said during the hearing that they want to know how many balcony solar units are in use in New Hampshire. Watters said that could be achieved through a voluntary registration system. Kat McGeeDemocratic Rep. Hollis said it would be difficult to maintain records and enforce a one-unit-per-meter limit.
Congressman JD BarnardThe Southampton Republican said landlords and other property owners should be able to ask for such programs to be removed from their properties. Watters said he agreed.
Watters said if the bill passes, the New Hampshire Department of Energy will help communicate the regulations to the public. But Congressman. michael harringtonThe Strafford Republican said he doubts the bill will be able to make a difference in public safety until the public knows what the bill is about.
“In a way, we’re trying to put the genie back in the bottle,” he says.
