The Ministry for Regulation has recommended legalising plug-in solar in New Zealand, more than a decade after the required equipment was banned over electricity and fire safety concerns.

The ministry's review, ordered in May by Minister for Regulation David Seymour, found the barriers to plug-in solar could be removed if suitable safety standards were developed. Energy Minister Simeon Brown has been working on those standards, and said the ministry's proposals would help make solar uptake cheaper and faster.

Plug-in solar systems plug directly into a standard wall socket rather than being hard-wired into a home's switchboard (the main panel where electricity is distributed through a house). They have been illegal since 2012. Seymour said the systems can be used by renters and people living in apartments who cannot access traditional rooftop solar. "If they're good enough for Germany and the UK, they're good enough for us," he said, according to RNZ.

The review, which Seymour launched with the stated aim of making New Zealand the easiest place in the world to switch to solar, set out 15 recommendations in total. The ministry expected all of them could be implemented within 18 months.

Several of those recommendations target the compliance burden on households. The review found that installing a small-scale solar system could involve up to six different sign-offs and five site visits from four different entities before the system could be switched on. To reduce that load, the ministry recommended a more proportionate, risk-based inspection model that would not always require an electrical inspector to check every installation in person.

Under the proposed changes, accredited installers could sign off on installations of up to 100kW without an in-person inspection, and some types of installations could be exempted from needing a resource consent (council permission for certain building or land-use activities). The review also suggested shortening lines companies' processing times for standard residential connection requests from 10 working days to the next working day.

The implementation pathways vary across the 15 recommendations. Legalising plug-in solar and exempting accredited installers from inspections could be carried out through secondary legislation, which means rules made by ministers under existing law rather than going through the full parliamentary law-making process. Eight recommendations, including proposals to make metering data more accessible, would require amending the Electricity Industry Participation Code, the rulebook that governs how the electricity market operates.

The ministry estimated its recommendations could deliver net benefits of between $28 million and $50 million over 10 years, through lower compliance costs, reduced delays, and the uptake of plug-in solar.

Solar policy has been surfacing across party lines. National has proposed removing some planning rules to make it easier for households to install solar without council consent. Labour has put forward kickstart subsidies for renters and low- and middle-income families to cover installation costs. The Greens have proposed zero-interest loans for solar installation.

The political alignment here is worth noting. Both coalition partners have a stake in the outcome: Seymour holds the regulation portfolio and is driving the review, while Brown, as Energy Minister, is responsible for the safety standards that the ministry says are the precondition for legalisation. The 18-month implementation window the ministry cites is advisory, not binding, and the secondary legislation pathway means changes could proceed without primary legislation, though amending the Electricity Industry Participation Code will require a separate process through the Electricity Authority.

The cross-party policy spread also signals that the direction of travel on residential solar has broad support, even if the mechanisms differ. National's consent exemptions and Labour's subsidy approach are not in tension with the ministry's recommendations; if anything, they complement them. The Greens' zero-interest loan proposal would sit alongside, not against, a regime that lowers installation friction. The practical question for all parties will be whether the safety standards Brown is developing land quickly enough to unblock the plug-in solar ban within the ministry's projected timeframe.

For renters and apartment dwellers, the group Seymour identified as the primary beneficiaries, plug-in solar is the only form of residential generation that does not require property modification. The current ban removes that option entirely. Whether the standards process delivers on the ministry's timeline will determine whether those households gain access to self-generation in the near term or continue to wait.