Balcony Solar and Why Your Electric Bill is so High

A bill sponsored by Senator Hansen in Dover looks like a consumer win. It isn’t. It’s a dress rehearsal for the end of flat-rate electricity in Delaware.

A draft bill sponsored by Senator Hansen for the 153rd General Assembly sounds harmless: it permits small solar panels you can plug into a standard household outlet. Often called “balcony solar” or ‘plug-in’ solar panels, these compact, DIY-installable photovoltaic systems are designed to mount on balcony railings or other small residential spaces and plug into a standard household socket. The bill defines a “portable solar generation device” as a moveable photovoltaic unit of not more than 1,200 watts, designed to connect through a standard 120-volt outlet, and would exempt such devices from interconnection requirements, net metering program rules, and any utility approval or fees.

A thousand watts here, twelve hundred watts there. Minimal permits with limited utility review and no fees. Just plug it in and watch your electric bill drop a few dollars each month.

Safety Risks in Plug-In Solar Systems

What is missing from that picture is safety. In January 2026, UL Solutions — the independent safety science organization whose mark appears on virtually every consumer electrical product sold in America — launched a dedicated testing and certification framework for plug-in solar systems specifically because plug-and-play solar poses electrical hazards that existing codes do not yet address. A UL white paper on plug-in PV safety identifies three categories of risk that Sen. Hansen’s bill does not resolve. First, the bill’s safety requirement — UL certification — is correct as far as it goes, but current UL standards for inverters were written to protect the grid, not to make the output plug touch-safe for consumers. A plug-in solar device that is generating power has live voltage on its plug blades; the inverter may take up to two seconds to shut down after a fault. Second, because the device back-feeds power into a standard household circuit, it can cause the circuit to carry more combined current than the breaker can detect as an overload, creating a hidden fire risk. Third, UL testing found that when a plug-in solar device is connected to a GFCI-protected outdoor outlet — exactly where a balcony device would be installed under NEC Section 210.8(A) — the inverter’s continued current output after a ground fault can exceed the 28.6-millisecond safety limit that protects people from electrocution, defeating the GFCI’s protective function. The bill requires UL certification and an anti-islanding feature, both appropriate. But it does not require the dedicated circuit, proprietary connector, or bidirectional GFCI that UL Solutions identifies as necessary to make these devices safe for general consumer installation.

What a 1,200-Watt Balcony Solar Panel Buys You

A 1,200-watt panel produces about 99 kilowatt-hours a month in Delaware — roughly 10 to 12 percent of an average household’s consumption. At current electricity rates, one panel saves about $17 a month. It cannot power your air conditioner, your dryer, or your electric water heater on its own. It generates electricity only when the sun is shining and once it goes dark, you are back on the grid, at prevailing electricity rates.

But there’s a catch. Balcony solar works by reducing the amount of electricity you draw from the grid — you’re billed for fewer kilowatt-hours. What could be wrong with that? The problem is that the utility’s infrastructure costs don’t disappear just because your consumption declines. The poles, wires, substations, and capacity obligations must still be maintained whether you use 8 kWh or 800 kWh. As more customers adopt behind-the-meter solar, those largely fixed costs are spread over fewer kilowatt-hours sold, increasing pressure on rates for all customers. Delmarva’s proposal to raise the monthly fixed charge from $13.50 to $15.94—an 18% jump—is an early warning sign. At scale, this dynamic can become self-defeating: the savings from balcony solar may be offset by the rate adjustments that follow.

The Real Drivers of Rising Electricity Bills 

Delmarva Power customers have already seen bills increase by almost $11 per month (~7.5%) starting in June 2025. This requires explanation. Wholesale electricity has two primary components: Energy, which reflects the cost of generating electricity in real time, and Capacity, which pays generators to guarantee availability during peak demand. Years of renewable energy subsidies have contributed to lower wholesale energy prices by flooding the market with zero-marginal-cost wind and solar. But those same policies coincided with accelerated coal retirements and tighter reserve margins. The July 2024 capacity auction cleared at $269.92 per megawatt-day – nearly ten times the prior year’s price of $28.92. That $12.5 billion increase in wholesale capacity costs is now flowing to ratepayer bills. Delmarva Power customers are paying for capacity scarcity caused by policies that reduced energy costs in the short term while undermining long-term supply.

That scarcity did not emerge overnight. It followed decades of policy aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions through subsidies for wind and solar. Federal tax credits significantly expanded wholesale markets with generation that has near-zero marginal cost and receives priority dispatch. The result was a weakening of price signals that attract investment into power plant generation. Nearly 100 gigawatts of coal capacity have been retired over the past decade. New coal construction has largely ceased. Delaware’s CO₂ contribution is globally insignificant. The cost to Delaware ratepayers is not.

Delaware’s Shift Toward Time-Based Pricing

On December 9, 2025, Delmarva Power filed two documents with the Delaware Public Service Commission. The first was a request to increase base rates by $67.8 million — the third such request in five years. The second was the Affordability and Load Flexibility Portfolio, which included a proposed “Whole Home Time-of-Use rate option.” It would shift the price of electricity higher during peak demand hours — from 2 to 8 PM — and lower during off-peak hours.

Time-of-use pricing is not something Delaware may eventually adopt. It has already been proposed by Delmarva Power, and the Public Service Commission is currently reviewing it. If Sen. Hansen’s Portable Solar Generation Device bill reaches the full General Assembly, the lawmakers would be considering it against the backdrop of a rate structure already moving toward time-based pricing.

The Reliability Challenge Ahead

The underlying pressure is not going away. Data centers consumed roughly 20 gigawatts per hour nationally in 2023 — about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity, according to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report. For perspective, a single large data center could require power comparable to the output of a full commercial nuclear reactor. By 2030, peak demand could reach 134 gigawatts per hour according to industry projections. In September 2025, the Commission opened a docket to address large-load facilities and temporarily paused new data center interconnections. A proposed Delaware City facility would draw 1,200 megawatts, nearly half the State’s peak summer demand.

So, what is the path forward? Natural gas plants are the fastest way to add firm capacity; more than 100 gigawatts of new projects have been announced nationally in recent energy forecasts. Nuclear is the long-term answer; Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are entering agreements tied to nuclear generation for future data center demand. Both technologies saw limited investment during years when federal subsidies and market policies favored alternative renewable energy generation.

The draft balcony solar bill is not an answer. It is a small consumer coping mechanism; honest only if it is understood for what it is. It is a signal that cheap, flat-rate electricity in Delaware is under increasing pressure. The Public Service Commission is considering rate structures that would move away from uniform pricing. The draft bill does not change that; it just makes it more bearable for the people who happen to have a sunny balcony.

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About the Authors:

Mr. John Nichols is a long-time advocate of affordable and reliable electricity.

Dr. David R. Legates is a retired Professor at the University of Delaware and currently is the Director of Research and Education at the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. He is also a contributor for the Caesar Rodney Institute and an Advisory Board Member of A Better Delaware.