CE marking is not enough: the one question that tells you if a plug-in solar kit is actually approved
1. The advice that is quietly wrong
Search for whether balcony solar is legal in the UK and you will find large retailers giving the same tip: only buy a kit with a clear CE or UKCA marking and you are covered. It sounds sensible, and it is the wrong test. A mark on the box tells you what the manufacturer has declared about itself. It tells you nothing about whether the device is accepted onto a British network — which, from 27 August 2026, is the thing that actually decides whether a plug-in kit is allowed on your wall.
2. Why a CE mark does not answer the question
A CE mark is a European self-declaration: the manufacturer states that the product meets the relevant EU directives. It is not an independent, third-party test, and it is not acceptance by a network operator. We make the same point on our US pages about American kit, and the underlying logic is identical: “A CE mark is a European self-declaration” — a claim by the maker, not a listing by an accredited body. UKCA is the domestic equivalent of the same idea. Neither mark is the document the UK regulations point to.
3. The one criterion that does answer it
There is a single question worth asking, and it is free to check. Ask the seller for the System Reference of the kit on the Energy Networks Association type test register, and then look it up yourself. The register is public and needs no account:
- Go to connect-direct.energynetworks.org, the ENA type test register.
- Filter Type = Plug-in Solar.
- Find the System Reference the seller gave you, and read its status.
If a seller cannot give you a System Reference, there is nothing for you to look up — and that is worth knowing before you pay.
4. What you will see there today
As we read the register on 2 September 2026, there were 23 plug-in solar devices listed. 20 were compliant — from five manufacturers, UKSOL Ltd, Perlight, Thunder Energy, InstaGroup and City Plumbing Supplies — and 3 were non-compliant. That is the real state of the market days after the rules came into force: the register moved fast, and a CE mark on any of those boxes would still not have told you which side of the line it fell on. We keep the current count, with the reading date, on our UK legal page.
5. The second step almost nobody mentions
Being listed as compliant on the register means the device is accepted by the network operators. It does not automatically mean the device is certified against the Interim Product Specification v2, the document the regulations actually name. These are two different bars, and it is easy to read the first as if it were the second. In the words we use on the legal page: “Until a product states that it meets IPS v2, you are inferring compliance rather than relying on a UK-stamped one — so ask the retailer to confirm it before you buy.”
6. One question to the seller
You do not need to memorise the regulations to protect yourself. You need one sentence: “What is the System Reference?” A seller who is selling a genuinely approved kit can answer it in a line. A seller who cannot has told you something too. If you want the settings a compliant unit has to survive, that is the G98 protection settings. For who is preparing to sell it in the UK, see where to buy plug-in solar.