Miliband’s plan to get plug-in solar panels in shops like Lidl this summer still needs ‘great deal of work’ as safety proves a sticking point
The Government’s plan to roll out cheap plug-in solar panels in Britain’s supermarkets this summer still requires ‘a great deal of work’ according to an expert engineer.
In March, Labour vowed to ensure that plug-in solar panels were available in supermarkets and other retailers across Britain ‘within months’.
Ed Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said it was working with retailers like Lidl and Iceland, as well as solar panel manufacturers such as EcoFlow, to make this happen.
But this week, a spokesperson for Lidl told This is Money that the chain was still in the ‘early stages’ of exploring in-store solar panels, adding that no dates for launch had been confirmed yet.
And Joe Cannon, a senior engineer at the Institute for Engineering and Technology, told This is Money: ‘A great deal of work still needs to happen to make it a reality, safely’.
He said that while Labour was ‘pushing hard’ to bring plug-in solar panels to market quickly, ‘Enthusiasm and safety don’t always move at the same speed’.
Solar ambitions: Energy Secretary Ed Miliband wants plug-in solar to be widespread
According to the Government, a household could save between £70 to £110 a year on their energy bills by installing plug-in solar.
Plug-in solar panels are already widely used in parts of Europe, for example in Germany where around half a million such devices are installed each year.
But Britain has specific technical requirements and a unique electrical infrastructure which has previously prevented the panels from being sold.
Cannon said: ‘Before these devices go on general sale, we need a dedicated UK product standard for plug-in solar, and one doesn’t currently exist.’
‘The risk is that products reach shelves before the safety framework is fully in place, and that’s precisely what we’re urging the Government to guard against’ he added.
He said assurance was needed to ensure plug-in solar panels from different retailers would ‘behave consistently and safely’.
A spokesperson for DESNZ told This is Money that it had commissioned an ‘independent study’ to explore what regulations might need to be put in place before the panels could be sold.
‘Our tests have shown plug-in solar is safe to use on UK domestic circuits,’ they said.
‘All products will need to meet the UK’s high product safety standards, and we have commissioned an independent study to inform further regulations ahead of their sale.’
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Should the government fast-track plug-in solar panels to cut bills, even if safety standards aren¿t ready?
Early stages: This week, a spokesperson for Lidl told This is Money that the chain was still in the ‘early stages’ of exploring in-store solar panels
Why are plug-in solar panels different to other household appliances?
The main difference is that, with most electrical appliances, power only flows in one direction – but with solar panels, that isn’t the case.
Most homes have a device called a Residual Current Device, which is usually within their fuse box. This is the safety device that cuts the power if something goes wrong, for instance if someone cuts through a live cable while mowing the lawn. ‘It is what stands between you and a serious electric shock’, Cannon said.
The problem, according to Cannon, is that many RCDs are designed for electricity flowing in one direction only. When a plug-in solar panel pushes electricity back through the circuit, some of these devices can fail to trip when they should.’
‘Your home’s wiring, consumer unit, and protective devices were designed on the assumption that electricity flows in one direction: from the grid to your appliances,’ he explains.
‘Introduce a source of generation into those circuits, and some of those protections can stop working as intended.’
The standard UK plug (type BS 1363) explicitly states it is not to be used for connecting electrical power generators to sockets.
It means plug-in solar panels, as they currently exist, are operating outside the boundaries of what British plugs and sockets were designed for.
Could using plug-in solar in older homes be a problem?
Households with older properties could also face problems with plug-in solar panels, according to Cannon.
Recent IET research found that around 70 per cent of households have not had a professional electrical safety check in over ten years.
Many homes, particularly older terraced houses, ex-council properties and anything built before the 1980s, have wiring and consumer units that were never designed to handle today’s electrical demands, let alone a generating device feeding power back into the system.
Cannon said: ‘There’s a particular concern here about energy bills and who these products are aimed at.
‘The households most attracted to plug-in solar as a way of cutting costs are often those in lower-income areas, living in older properties with ageing electrical installations. They could be the most motivated buyers, and also the most exposed to risk. That’s not a coincidence we can ignore.’
He recommends that anyone buying plug-in solar panels once they are more freely available gets their electrics checked beforehand.
He said: ‘The single most important thing anyone can do before they buy, before they open the box, before they even look at the instructions, is to have their home’s electrical installation checked by a qualified, competent electrician.’
