Octopus Energy Is Selling Plug-In Solar Kits From £450. Its Only Register Entry Is Non-Compliant

Octopus Energy started selling plug-in solar kits on 28 August 2026, the day after the law changed, at £450 for one panel and £650 for two. Its product pages give no ENA register reference, and the only Octopus device on the register's Plug-in Solar list was assessed Non-compliant. OVO says its own offer follows within months.

Both facts matter to anyone about to order. Since 27 August a plug-in solar device can be sold and used in Great Britain only if it meets the interim product specification and has been verified as compliant on the ENA Type Test Register; we track every record on the certification tracker. An unverified kit is lawful to own, but because the plug-in route covers verified devices only, it needs an electrician to connect it, like the kits that were on sale before the rules changed. So the question with the Octopus bundle isn't whether it works. It's which side of that line it's on.

What Octopus Is Selling

Octopus describes itself in its 28 August release as the first major UK energy supplier to sell plug-in solar to customers as the new rules come into force. The landing page takes a postcode before it shows a price; the two bundle pages show the prices without one.

The panels are all-black N-type TOPCon modules, double-glass, rated up to 22.8% efficiency, 1,762 by 1,134 mm and 22 kg each, with a 25-year product guarantee. The Fox ESS microinverter is quoted at up to 96% conversion efficiency, IP67, with per-panel control and app monitoring, and Octopus says it supports up to two panels at the 800W home limit. The floor mount is 1,054 by 895 by 507 mm and 7.5 kg; the wall mount is sold as a DIY fit. Delivery is estimated for the end of September in one kerbside shipment. The instruction that matters is on the bundle page: plug the system into a suitable weatherproof outdoor socket, and do not use an extension lead. That is the specification's rule, not just Octopus's, and it's the one most often broken.

On price, Octopus sits in the middle of the verified field rather than below it. Its £450 single-panel bundle is a pound above PatioSun's Lite at £449, the cheapest verified kit with a listing. Its £650 two-panel bundle sits between PatioSun's Duo and Max at £549 and £599, both on pre-order, and Thunder Energy's Bolt 920W at £749.99, with the two-panel UKSOL bundles at Argos starting at £849. What Octopus does have is a single-panel price inside the £400 to £600 band the government modelled, and a big-supplier name behind it.

The Register Question

We read the landing page and both bundle pages looking for an ENA reference, a mention of the interim product specification, or the word compliant. None appears. The bundle pages name the microinverter only as a Fox ESS unit, with no model number.

When we first reported this on 7 September the register had one Octopus device under the Plug-in Solar Type: the M1-800-E, reference OCTOQ/21124/V1/A3, published on 2 September 2026 and assessed Non-compliant. As at 8 September 2026 that record is no longer returned and nothing has replaced it. We can't tell from either side whether the M1-800-E is the device in the bundle: Octopus doesn't say, and the record didn't describe a kit. We also checked every record under the Type for Fox ESS. There is none. Fox ESS does have Compliant records on the register, but they are its PQ1 series of energy storage inverters, listed under a different Type, and they have nothing to do with an 800W microinverter.

What that means for a buyer is simple to state. If Octopus publishes a Compliant reference before the late-September deliveries, the kit becomes what it is being sold as. If it doesn't, what arrives is a well-priced pair of panels and a microinverter that needs an electrician and a G98 notification to connect, which is a different product at a different total cost. We asked the same question of every kit on the tracker; the 47 that pass are the ones with a reference you can read.

Octopus's Savings Claim

The release puts savings at up to £150 a year, depending on sunlight and energy use, and gives a 5.5-year payback for the two-panel system on a smart export tariff. Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, Octopus's chief product and marketing officer, is quoted saying Britons love solar: generate your own green power, cut bills, and get energy independent, “what's not to love”.

Two points of context. The government's own estimate for a plug-in kit is £70 to £110 a year, and the top of that range models a south-facing install at a 30 degree tilt; a balcony sits at the bottom of it. And the export half of the payback depends on a tariff that pays for exported electricity, which for a self-installed kit is far from automatic. Our guide to the Smart Export Guarantee without MCS explains why, and the savings calculator will give you a figure for your own balcony rather than a national one.

OVO: Five Kits Now, an Offer to Follow

OVO marked 27 August with a giveaway rather than a launch. Its release says it is giving five plug-in solar kits away for free to OVO Beyond members in Great Britain, with entries open until 17 September 2026, and that it “will launch a full plug-in solar offer to customers in the coming months”. The numbers OVO uses are around £500 for a kit and about £100 a year saved, which is closer to the government range than Octopus's figure. Scott Duncan, OVO's head of domestic exports, said that for years getting solar has meant being a homeowner able to finance a sizeable investment, and that plug-in solar opens clean energy to a much bigger audience.

OVO doesn't name a kit, a maker or a price for the offer to come, so there's nothing to check against the register yet. We have looked at the two suppliers with announcements this fortnight; this isn't a survey of every supplier in the market.

The Battery Question, and Why It Is Not Settled

Octopus says its Nook Cube plug-in battery will pair with the solar kit early in 2027. That is the part of the announcement most likely to run into the rules as written. The statutory definition of a plug-in microgenerator excludes a device with battery storage, because a battery can charge from the grid, and the interim specification is written for a generator only. A kit plus a battery is therefore not a plug-in device under the current law, however it is plugged in, and would need an electrician to connect it. Our report on the battery rules sets out the wording. If the rules are amended before 2027, that changes; nothing announced so far says they will be.

What to Do If You Want One

• Ask Octopus for the register reference before you order, and check it yourself on ENA Connect Direct under the Plug-in Solar Type. A Compliant record with a model that matches the bundle is the only answer that makes it a plug-in kit.
• Plan for the outdoor socket. The kit plugs into a weatherproof outdoor socket, no extension leads. If you don't have one, an electrician to fit it is part of the real price.
• One device per household. G98 still restricts a household to one plug-in device unless and until it is amended, whatever the bundle size.
• Notify your network operator once it is connected. The G98 guide covers each operator.
• Renters and leaseholders: permission to fix panels to the building is a separate question from the electrics. Our renters' section covers it.

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