What Plug-In Solar Costs | San Diego Plug-In Solar

First, a California catch

SB 868 defines a qualifying plug-in system as, among other things, one with no more than 1,200 watts of AC output, that meets the electrical code, is certified as a plug-in photovoltaic system by UL or an equivalent national testing laboratory, and has certified outage isolation. Certified parts do not automatically make a certified system. [1] [2]

KPBS reports that the new national safety standard does not yet cover many products on the market, and that depending on what manufacturers release, a household may need to hire an electrician to connect larger panel setups to a special wall outlet. [17] The report does not say at what wattage, so we are not guessing. Treat an electrician as a possible extra cost until you have the exact product in hand.

Bright Saver, a U.S. nonprofit, says its kit does not yet have whole-system certification and that it is not yet shipping kits to California. [3] So a low price from another state or from Europe is a benchmark, not a ready-to-install San Diego option.

What kits cost right now

These are published prices, not quotes, and not recommendations. Panel wattage is DC capacity and inverter wattage is AC output, so sizes are not directly comparable. European prices stay in their own currencies, because converting them would hide import costs and equipment that will not work here.

Published prices for plug-in solar kits, checked October 3, 2026
Seller and kit	Published price	What to know
Bright Saver, U.S. nonprofit 180 W and 360 W member kits	$285.30 and $414.17	Includes fulfillment and shipping. Membership adds $29 for the first year. California shipping is waiting on whole-system certification. [3] [4]
Solarcoop, citizen cooperative, France 400 W balcony kit	€370	Two flexible panels, inverter, mounting accessories and AC cable. Made for the French market, so a benchmark only. [5] [6]
Energie Genossenschaft Schweiz, Swiss cooperative 400 Wp kit	CHF 390 on sale, CHF 650 regular	Mounts and a 5 m cable included. Shipping for one module is CHF 86.95, or pick up free. Two-year warranty. [12]
SoLocal Energy, Kassel, Germany 650 W of panels	€500 for pickup, €1,000 installed	Normal-tier prices from a June 2026 list. Reduced and solidarity tiers also exist (see below). [10] [13]
priwatt, Germany 450 Wp configuration	€189 on sale	Inverter and cable, but no panel mounting system. Shipping extra. A commercial price benchmark. [14]
CraftStrom, U.S. 1,200 W Eco-Line kit	$2,250 and $2,390.63	The company’s homepage and product page show different prices. Six panels, mounts, three inverters and cables. Ask for a delivered quote and the exact certification. [7] [8]

These are research examples, not approved suppliers, installation quotes, or promises of availability. We have not tested any of this equipment. Taxes and site-specific costs may add to the total.

What else you may have to pay

The sticker price is only part of it. Before you sign anything, ask for a written total that lists each of these, and who pays for it:

Equipment, tax and freight
Approved mounting hardware
Labor, and any outlet or circuit work, which may include an electrician and a special wall outlet for larger setups
Local permit costs, if any apply
Insurance costs the arrangement adds
Monitoring, membership or app fees
Financing fees and total interest
Coordination fees
Maintenance, removal, and what happens when you move

A line should say zero only when someone else is actually covering it.

Do not count on the 30% federal tax credit that homeowners used to get. The IRS says the residential clean energy credit is not available for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. [15] We have not found a funded San Diego rebate for plug-in kits.

How other places made it affordable

Kassel, Germany

The city offers a €150 purchase subsidy to residents. Separately, eligible low-income households can get an energy check, and if the home suits it, a professional installs one panel at no cost to them. This is the clearest example we found of solving the upfront-cost problem. [9]

Berlin, Germany

Berlin announced grants of up to €500 for balcony solar starting in 2023, and widened them in 2024. Applicants had to apply before buying. This is a documented past program. We cannot say it is still open on the same terms. [16]

SoLocal Energy, Kassel

Customers choose a reduced, normal or solidarity price based on their own income and wealth. A 650 W package is €450, €500 or €550 for pickup, and €825, €1,000 or €1,175 installed. Neighbors who order together get €25 off pickup, €50 off delivery and €100 off installation. [10] [13]

Cooperatives in France and Switzerland

Solarcoop and the Swiss cooperative sell kits outright and publish the price. That keeps the deal simple and leaves no open-ended claim on your savings. But owning a cooperative does not remove the upfront cost, and a household without the cash still needs a grant or a bridge. [5] [12]

What we take from these: publish a sustainable standard price, make any cross-subsidy explicit, and bring costs down by organizing one building at a time. None of these programs is offered by us, and we are not promising San Diego discounts until we know what real group buying and installation would save.

Some sellers, including priwatt and EcoFlow, advertise installment payments. Their public pages do not show a contract that keeps the payment below what your system saves. A loan approval and a monthly payment that looks manageable are not the same as a deal that leaves you better off, so get the APR, the total finance charge, and the default and early-payoff terms in writing. [11] [14]

What a renter actually keeps

The real question is not what the panels produce. It is what comes off your bill, minus everything you pay to get it. Only electricity you use at the moment the panels make it counts, so a household that is away all day saves less. A panel app shows what was generated, not what you used. The numbers in the two tables below are made up to show how the arithmetic works. They are not a San Diego forecast or a current SDG&E rate. For San Diego, our model estimate for an 800-watt kit is roughly $150 to $330 a year, with every assumption listed under how we estimate savings. Nobody has measured results here yet.

Illustration: one year of savings from a small system
Step	Assumed value	Result
Electricity the system makes	500 kWh a year	Not a San Diego forecast
Share you use at home as it is made	70%	350 kWh. The rest is not counted
At 30¢ per kWh avoided	350 × $0.30	$105 a year
At 45¢ per kWh avoided	350 × $0.45	$157.50 a year
At 60¢ per kWh avoided	350 × $0.60	$210 a year

Now suppose the system costs $600 delivered and installed, and is paid off over 60 months at 0% interest, plus $1 a month in program costs. That is $11 a month out of pocket. Here is what happens as the monthly savings change:

Illustration: a fixed $11 monthly payment against changing savings
Savings that month	Payment plus fee	What the renter keeps
$8	$11	Lose $3
$15	$11	Keep $4
$25	$11	Keep $14

A fixed payment fails the test the moment savings dip below it, and winter months dip. Averaging over a year hides that. One fairer design is to cap repayment at a share of verified savings, say 50%. At $15 of savings that leaves you $7.50, and after $1 of administration $6.50 goes toward the $600, which takes about 93 months. If that is too long, a grant has to close the gap. Those are design examples, not lender offers or equipment quotes.

The deal we want to build

This is the standard we are aiming for. It is not a program you can sign up for today, and nothing here is a contract or a guarantee.

No solar-related rent increase, permission fee, separate electricity charge, or landlord share of your savings under our arrangement.
Every fee shown up front, as its own line, before you commit.
Clear ownership and a clear end date for any repayment, with a dollar cap, never an open-ended percentage.
Moving is your choice: take it with you, hand it on, return it, or buy it out at a published price. No whole-debt-due-at-move-out.
Payments pause or shrink if the equipment fails, becomes unsafe, or your savings fall too low.
Your solar deal stays separate from your lease. No eviction remedy, lien, or lease default for a solar-only debt, no forced switch of electricity provider, and no sale of your usage data.
If the numbers do not work for your home, we will say so.

Three routes we are looking at

Three proposed ways to pay for a plug-in solar kit
Route	What the renter pays	How the work is funded
Sponsored kit	No purchase or installation cost	A sponsor pays for equipment, qualified labor and a disclosed coordination fee
Group purchase	One published, delivered price	A capped, disclosed fee is built into the quote, and a sponsor covers hardship cases
Savings-based pilot	Nothing upfront, then a capped share of verified savings	A funded pool provides the capital and a reserve for repairs and weak performance

We may charge a small, published coordination fee for our work. The amount, and who pays it, has not been decided. We are looking for sponsor funding so the cost does not land on the households least able to afford it. If we are ever paid by a supplier, we will say so, and we will not claim to be independent while steering buyers.

No funded program, financing offer, or installation service is available through us yet. We have not secured any subsidy, financing, or supplier partnership.

Questions to ask before you buy anything

Which exact models are certified as a plug-in PV system, by which laboratory, and under what listing number? Ask for the certificate, not just a sentence in the ad.
What is the full price for my home, delivered, with approved mounting, tax and installation?
What still works without a paid app or cloud service?
What does the warranty exclude, who pays return freight, and what happens if the seller goes under?
How much of the electricity will I actually use during the day? Ask for measured savings, not just total generation.

Estimates and examples only. Your savings depend on sunlight, daytime use, equipment and your electricity rate. Prices and availability change, so get a dated written quote. German and French pages are paraphrased in English. We have not tested products, checked every seller’s finances or complaint history, or confirmed that any listed kit qualifies in California. See the full disclaimer.

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Sources

Checked October 3, 2026. Seller pages show what sellers offer and claim, not independent performance or legal compliance.

What it costs, and who keeps the savings.