Plug-in solar is now legal to use in Great Britain. SI 2026/848 came into force on 27 August 2026 and Ofgem has approved the G98 connection changes — only kits listed on the ENA Type Test Register may be used, and Northern Ireland is not covered. Read the UK legal status

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UK solar passes 2.1 million installations

DESNZ counted 2,131,000 solar installations and 23.2 GW at the end of August 2026 — the most new installations in any 12-month period since 2012. Plug-in kits are almost certainly not in that count, and the department says so.

Written and edited by Christopher Panteli

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Christopher is the founder and editor of MyPlugInSolar. He oversees the site’s research standards, data tools and editorial process. He is not an electrician or solar installer, and specialist technical claims are sourced from official documentation or reviewed by appropriately qualified professionals.

At a glance

  • Provisionally, 23.2 GW of solar across 2,131,000 UK installations at the end of August 2026 — up 9.0%, or 1.9 GW, on a year earlier.
  • 291,000 installations were added in the past 12 months, which DESNZ says is the most in any 12-month period since 2012.
  • August alone added 24,154 installations and 124 MW. Of those, 17,285 were on residential buildings, adding 98 MW.
  • DESNZ states that the figures “do not currently include all unsubsidised solar installations below 150 kW capacity that are not recorded in these data sources”, and that it is reviewing its sources.
  • A self-installed plug-in kit has no MCS certificate and no subsidy, so it is unlikely to appear. The record it does create is your G98 notification to the network operator.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published its monthly solar deployment table on 29 September 2026. Its own commentary opens: “There are now more than 2.1 million solar installations in the UK. Provisionally, as of the end of August 2026 there is a total of 23.2 GW of solar capacity in the UK across 2,131,000 installations. This is an increase of 9.0% (1.9 GW) since August 2025. There have been 291,000 installations in the past year — the most in any 12 month period since 2012.”

The figures

  • August 2026 alone: 24,154 installations and 124 MW of capacity, which DESNZ marks as provisional and likely to be revised.
  • Homes: 17,285 of August’s new schemes were on a residential building, adding 98 MW. Over the last 12 months more than 1 GW of domestic solar went in, across more than 195,000 homes.
  • The split: most UK installations are domestic, but they account for only about 30% of total capacity — a share that fell after the early Feed-in Tariff years and has crept back up over the last four.

Why plug-in kits are almost certainly not counted

This is the part worth reading carefully if you own a plug-in kit, or are about to. DESNZ builds the table from a specific list of sources: its own survey of major power producers, the Renewable Energy Planning Database, the Microgeneration Certification Scheme database, the Renewables Obligation, the Feed-in Tariff, Contracts for Difference, some distribution network operators’ embedded capacity registers and Ofgem’s REGO dataset. It then adds, in its notes:

“However, the statistics do not currently include all unsubsidised solar installations below 150 kW capacity that are not recorded in these data sources. We are reviewing data sources to improve coverage and intend to make use of data from other sources when available.”

A plug-in kit you install yourself is unsubsidised and has no MCS certificate, because MCS covers work done by an accredited installer. It is below 150 kW by a very wide margin. So on DESNZ’s own account it falls into exactly the gap that sentence describes. We are not going to put a number on how many are missing — nobody credibly can, and DESNZ does not.

What it means for plug-in owners

  • Do not read the record year as a plug-in story. The surge is rooftop solar on homes, counted through MCS. Plug-in solar only became legal to use in Great Britain on 27 August 2026, at the very end of this reporting period.
  • Your kit does leave one official trace: the notification to your distribution network operator under G98. That is a requirement, not an optional registration — see G98 notification.
  • It also explains the MCS wall you hit elsewhere. The same certificate that keeps a plug-in kit out of these statistics is the one that keeps it out of export tariffs — see the Smart Export Guarantee.
  • Expect the gap to narrow. DESNZ says it is reviewing its sources. If plug-in devices are ever counted, DNO notifications are the obvious route.

For how the two routes compare before you choose one, see plug-in solar versus rooftop solar.

Sources

  1. 1. Energy Trends: UK renewables — Solar photovoltaics deployment (ET 6.3, monthly), Commentary and Notes sheets — Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, 29 September 2026
  2. 2. UK sets fresh renewables record as solar installations hit 14-year high — BusinessGreen, 29 September 2026

Read the full guide

Where the UK rules stand

Plug-in solar has been legal to use in Great Britain since 27 August 2026, when SI 2026/848 came into force alongside Ofgem-approved changes to the G98 connection code — provided the kit is listed as compliant on the ENA Type Test Register. Northern Ireland is not covered. See the current legal status and our editorial policy.

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