On 6 October 2026 the official register listed 135 plug-in solar entries, and 120 of them were marked Compliant. Ten days earlier it was 92 and 83. The other numbers you will see, 20, 70, 71 and 79, are mostly older readings or different ways of counting, and almost nobody says which they are using.
When we asked an AI answer engine how many compliant plug-in solar devices were on the register, on 28 September 2026, it gave “70 of 79” and “71 compliant complete-device entries of 79 assessed” in the same answer. A seller’s buying guide that search engines were still surfacing said 20. Our own tracker said 83, which was right for 26 September. Four numbers, all presented as the answer, none of them explained. Here is what each one actually counts.
What the register is, and what it says
Only a kit marked Compliant on the Energy Networks Association’s Connect Direct Type Test Register may be plugged in under the rules that took effect on 27 August 2026. The register has a Plug-in Solar category, and each entry has a status that reads either “Compliant” or “Non-compliant”.
We read that category in full on 26 September 2026 and saved the result, then counted it again by hand on 6 October 2026. Each reading was counted twice, with two separate methods, and both methods agreed:
| What is counted | 26 September | 6 October |
|---|---|---|
| Entries in the category | 92 | 135 |
| Marked Compliant | 83 | 120 |
| Marked Non-compliant | 9 | 15 |
| Different makers or registrants with any entry | 26 | 34 |
| Different makers or registrants with a Compliant entry | 21 | 26 |
| Kits we found on sale to UK households, all of them Compliant | 23 | 25 (7 October) |
Our counting basis, stated plainly: our count is every entry in the Plug-in Solar category whose status reads Compliant, one per register entry. That includes several entries from the same maker, and entries with no UK seller. The on-sale figure is our own research into which of the compliant kits a household in England, Scotland or Wales could actually buy: 23 on 26 September, and 25 when we rechecked every seller on 7 October. The two extra are single panel kits we had wrongly folded into their two-panel twins, not new arrivals; we have not yet searched the shops for the many entries added since 26 September.
Why “one per entry” matters
An entry is not the same thing as a product. The same kit sold with a ground frame and with a wall bracket can be two separate entries, each with its own reference. In our 26 September reading, three registrants held 36 of the 83 compliant entries between them, with 13, 13 and 10 each, while five registrants had just one. By 6 October a single registrant held 31 of the 120. Count products instead of entries and you get a much smaller number; count makers and you get 26.
Registered power varies too. On 6 October, 107 of the 120 compliant entries were registered at the full 0.8 kW and 13 were registered lower, mostly single-panel units (on 26 September it was 72 and 11). A site counting only full-size kits would get a different total again. None of these choices is wrong. Leaving them unsaid is the problem.
Where 20, 70, 71 and 79 come from
- 20. A seller’s guide, still live on 28 September, said: “As of 2 September 2026, 20 devices from five manufacturers hold that status.” By 26 September that was out of date by a factor of four. Interestingly, the entries in our 26 September reading whose published date is on or before 28 August come to exactly 20 compliant entries from five registrants, while those on or before 2 September come to 30. That suggests the figure may have been taken in the register’s first days, though we cannot be sure: entries can change status after they appear, and a published date is not proof of when an entry first became visible.
- 70 and 79. These are the register as it stood two days earlier. Our own reading on 24 September found 79 entries, 70 of them Compliant. Between then and the 26th the category grew by a net 13 entries, ten of them from a single maker, and one entry moved from Non-compliant to Compliant. 70 was right on the 24th. It was simply overtaken.
- 71. Another site gave “71 compliant complete-device entries of 79 assessed, 19 manufacturers” for 26 September. We could not reproduce it. Every entry in the category carries the same category and device type, so there is no field that separates “complete devices” from anything else, and we found no rule applied to our 26 September data that gives 71. Its 79 matches the 24 September total, so it may combine readings from different days. We do not know, and we would rather say so than guess.
The pattern is the important part. The register is growing fast: in the ten days to 6 October it gained 43 entries. A count without a date is out of date within days, and a count without a basis cannot be checked at all.
What this means for you
- The total does not decide anything for you. What matters is whether the exact kit you are about to buy is marked Compliant.
- Check the reference, not the name. Some makers have compliant and non-compliant entries whose model codes differ by a single character. Ask the seller for the System Reference and look up that exact reference.
- “On the register” is not “in the shops”. Of 83 compliant entries on 26 September, we found 23 on sale to UK households. The rest were registered but not yet stocked.
- Treat any count with no date as stale, including ours. The kit tracker shows the date we last checked, and links each kit to its own register entry.
Once you have a compliant kit, the law requires you to tell your network operator when you switch it on. If you are still deciding, how to choose from the kits on sale and the rules in plain English are the places to start.
Questions people ask
How many plug-in solar kits are compliant in the UK?
On 6 October 2026 the Plug-in Solar category of the ENA Connect Direct register held 135 entries, 120 marked Compliant and 15 Non-compliant, from 26 makers with a compliant entry. We count one per register entry. The register changes every week, so check the date on any figure you see.
Why do websites give different numbers of compliant kits?
Mostly because they were read on different days, and partly because they count different things: register entries, products, makers, or only full 800W kits. A figure of 20 dates from the register’s first days, and 70 was correct on 24 September 2026. Few sites state their counting basis or date.
Sources: the ENA Connect Direct Type Test Register, Plug-in Solar category, read in full on 26 September 2026 and compared with our reading of 24 September 2026, then counted again by hand on its public search page on 6 October 2026. Each reading was counted with two independent methods, which agreed. On-sale figures are our own research, checked on sellers’ own sites on 26 September 2026. The other counts were recorded from an AI answer engine and a seller’s guide on 28 September 2026. The register is the official record: check it before you buy. We name no retailers or makers and earn no commission from this article.