Plug-in solar panels still have safety risks in the UK despite legalisation

Plug-in solar panels can be particularly handy for people renting flats Ingrid Balabanova/Shutterstock It is now legal to buy and use plug-in solar panels in the UK, but safety concerns surrounding them haven’t yet been addressed . This is according to one of the leading engineering institutions, which says the legalisation has been rushed through without creating proper legal standards and has created an increased risk to life. With plug-in solar panels, you simply buy a kit, place it in a sunny spot and plug it into a wall socket. There’s no installation cost, no certification and no planning permission. The devices are popular in many European countries and the UK government legalised them on 27 August to boost renewable energy generation and cut down on household bills. Prior to this legalisation, Mark Coles, the head of technical regulations at the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), told New Scientist about several potential issues. One surrounded residual current devices (RCDs), the safety devices found in fuse boxes that sense when current is leaking to ground – a sign of electrocution or a short circuit – and almost instantaneously cut power. Most RCDs used in the UK aren’t suitable for current flowing in both directions and so could malfunction if used with plug-in solar panels. Another of the IET’s concerns is what happens if there are multiple kits in use and a power cut occurs. In theory, the plug-in kits should also shut down in order to prevent “islanding”, when one home’s power stays live. But if they are still generating power, then they could deceive each other into thinking the grid is live and keep running. The problem then is that power can jump past the fuse box and electrocute maintenance workers in the area fixing the outage.  The IET made these concerns clear to the UK government both before and during the consultation (DESNZ) that ended on 30 June. But Coles says the issues weren’t addressed and now present a risk. “It was a done deal before it went out, I’m sure,” says Coles. “It’s been rushed. There needed to be time to develop a proper standard for these things, because we feel under certain circumstances that there’s an increased risk to life.” Coles says the risks emerge only when there’s a perfect storm of problems, but that this will inevitably lead to an injury or a death over time if plug-in solar panels are widely adopted.