A busy week: New Jersey’s legislature unanimously sent a balcony solar bill to the governor’s desk, APsystems became the first company to claim an actual third-party UL 3700 certification, and two unrelated federal actions (new tariffs on solar materials and an FCC ban on foreign networked inverters) both landed with real, if delayed, implications for this market.
Update, September 19, 2026: New Jersey’s governor signed the Garden State Balcony Solar Act on September 1, and it takes effect March 1, 2027. California’s SB 868 passed the legislature in late August and is waiting on Governor Newsom, whose deadline is September 30. New York’s SUNNY Act is still waiting on Governor Hochul.
Two days on, the procedural picture below hasn’t moved: New Jersey, New York, and California are exactly where we described them; no governor has signed. What has changed is outside corroboration of the APsystems certification claim: Engadget, InsideEVs, and Pocketables have each independently reported the EZ1-LV as CSA-certified to UL 3700, and Environment America put out a statement calling it the category’s first national safety certification. We still haven’t pulled the listing from CSA’s own database ourselves (see the note below), but it’s no longer just a manufacturer’s marketing page making the claim.
Photo: Jerrick Castillo / Unsplash
New Jersey Joins the Queue
On June 30, both chambers of the New Jersey legislature passed the Garden State Balcony Solar Act (S2368/A4836) unanimously. The bill lets residents plug in solar systems up to 1,200 watts without a permit or utility approval, and it bars landlords, HOAs, and condo boards from banning the devices outright, though they can still set reasonable rules on size and placement. It now sits on Governor Sherrill’s desk. Her office hasn’t signaled a position, but her administration has made utility-bill relief a signature issue, and this bill fits that agenda cleanly.
That makes New Jersey the third state waiting on a governor’s signature, alongside New York’s SUNNY Act and California’s SB 868, up from the two we reported on July 31. Here’s where all three stand:
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New Jersey Awaiting signature
Garden State Balcony Solar Act (S2368/A4836) · 1,200W · Passed both chambers unanimously June 30 · Takes effect six months after signature · Blocks landlord/HOA/condo board bans outright.
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New York Awaiting signature
SUNNY Act · Passed both chambers May 28 · Still on Governor Hochul’s desk as of this writing.
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California Awaiting signature
SB 868 · Passed the Senate 35–1 · Currently in Assembly Appropriations · Newsom’s deadline is October 2026.
Three governors, three pending signatures, tens of millions of renter households between them. We’ll update this the moment any of the three sign.
APsystems Claims the First Real Certification
Two weeks ago we wrote about Hoymiles’ HiFlow Pro, which its own marketing carefully calls UL 3700-compliant, a self-declared claim, not an independent one. APsystems is now making a stronger claim for its EZ1-LV microinverter: the company’s own product pages state it is “CSA Certified to UL 3700,” and describe it as CSA C/US listed on top of the existing UL 1741 / UL 1741SB / IEEE 1547 standards. CSA Group is an accredited independent testing lab, the same category of organization as UL Solutions itself, so if this claim holds up, it would be the first genuine third-party UL 3700 certification in the category, not just a compliance claim.
This started as a manufacturer’s own claim, repeated across its marketing pages, and as of this writing, independent tech press (Engadget, InsideEVs, Pocketables) and an Environment America statement have all reported it as a real CSA certification, not just a marketing line. That’s meaningfully more corroboration than we had on August 8.
We still haven’t personally pulled the listing from CSA Group’s public database, and we’re mindful that this exact category has already produced two overclaimed “certified” stories this year. Until we’ve verified it against CSA’s own records directly, we’re calling it credible and now well-corroborated, not yet independently confirmed by us, and we’d encourage the same caution before you buy based on any single source, including this one.
Worth noting: the EZ1-LV has reportedly been selling in Maine and other select markets since early 2026, giving it a real-world track record the still-unshipped HiFlow Pro doesn’t have yet. If the certification claim checks out, APsystems would be the first plug-in solar company to clear the bar the New York Times said nobody had reached as of July 31.
Two Federal Curveballs
Neither of these is specific to plug-in solar, but both touch the products on our recommended kits page, so they’re worth flagging plainly.
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Tariffs
The administration announced a 15% tariff plus minimum import prices on polysilicon and its derivatives (wafers, cells, and finished modules), effective December 4, 2026. The tariff applies to any polysilicon-containing component regardless of country of origin. Practically: expect solar panel and kit prices, including plug-in kits, to drift upward sometime after the effective date. Nothing changes for purchases made before then.
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FCC inverter ban
The FCC added foreign-produced, network-connected power inverters to its restricted list, effective July 28, 2026. This only blocks new device models from foreign manufacturers going forward; existing FCC-approved models remain legal to sell and install, and hardwired (non-networked) units aren’t covered at all. Several plug-in microinverter brands, including ones on our recommended list, ship Wi-Fi or Bluetooth-connected hardware built overseas. None of their current, already-approved models are affected. Future product launches from those companies are the thing to watch.
Our Take
Individually, none of these is dramatic. Together, they sketch where this market is headed: legislation is still accelerating (three states now genuinely close), the certification race has a real leader for the first time, and federal policy is starting to touch this category in ways that weren’t true six months ago. None of it changes our standing advice: buy a UL 1741-certified kit today, watch UL 3700 claims carefully, and expect prices to firm up rather than fall from here.
Full state-by-state detail lives on our state law tracker. For kit picks and certification notes, see our recommended kits page.
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