The Cut: How easy is to get your hands on plug-in solar panels?
The Cut: How easy is to get your hands on plug-in solar panels?
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Published on
10 September 2026
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Plug-in solar panels are available in the UK from £599
Argos has become the first retailer to stock them
There’s a long way for the UK to go to beat Germany for price
The answer to the questions: it’s getting easier and simpler to buy and use plug-in solar panels to cut your energy bills.
Regular readers of The Cut will know that at The Eco Experts, we’re really excited about plug-in solar panels and what they could mean for billpayers.
Current estimates suggest that savings could be £110 a year, but our sources from across the industry say that this is on the low side and is definitely the floor, not the ceiling. If households combine them with
Plug-in solar panels are currently on sale at Argos, with the cheapest one costing £599 and the most expensive being £1189. The UK still has a long way to go to slash the cost of plug-in solar as much as Germany has (you can buy a plug-in solar panel there for less than £200), but we’re moving in the right direction.
There is a lot more that could be done to bring down the price of plug-in solar, such as remove VAT or work out a discount with retailers. But plug-in solar panels will fall in price once they are distributed and sold in large numbers, as has happened in Germany.
We’re hoping that before long plug-in solar panels will be available in retailers across the country, at less than £599 they’re currently selling and many more households will be able to cut their bills with ease.
Max joined The Eco Experts as content manager in February 2024 and became deputy editor in 2025. He has written about sustainability issues across numerous industries, including maritime, supply chain, finance, mining, and retail. He has also written extensively for consumer titles like City AM, The Morning Star, and The Daily Express.
He has represented The Eco Experts on national television several times, including the BBC’s Sunday Morning Live and ITV Tonight .
In 2020, he covered in detail the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) legislation on sulphur emissions and its effects on the global container shipping market as online editor of Port Technology International.
He also explored the initiatives major container ports and terminals have launched in order to ship vital goods across the world without polluting the environment.
Since then, he has reported heavily on the impact made by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices on the supply chain of minerals, with a particular focus on rare earth mining in Africa.
As part of this, in 2022 Max visited mines and ports in Angola to hone in on the challenges being faced by one of the world’s biggest producers of rare earth minerals.
His most recent sustainability-related work came much closer to home, as he investigated the eco-challenges faced by independent retailers in the UK, specifically looking at how they can cut emissions and continue to thrive.
Max lives in South London and is an avid reader of books on modern history. He has also recently learned to play the game Mahjong and takes every opportunity to do so. He is also yet to find a sport he doesn’t enjoy watching.
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