Bright Saver co-founder Rupert Mayer installs plug-in solar panels in the backyard of a home in Berkeley in September. In theory, the savings start after the panels are set up and the system is plugged into a standard outlet.

A year ago, my husband and I joined the clean energy revolution and evicted fossil fuels from our home. They didn’t go quietly.

We cashed in rebates and tax credits — thanks, President Biden! — and swapped out our gas-powered appliances for electrics. With all those new, efficient appliances, I expected cheaper utility bills. 

Instead, they doubled.

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Only later did I learn that heating your home with electricity costs nearly twice as much as using gas. Besides making life more expensive, the complicated reasons for that price gap help explain why we’re not moving faster to curb greenhouse gas emissions that are endangering life on Earth.

Rooftop solar could have softened the blow if our roof weren’t so shaded and the price (up to $30,000) wasn’t so high. So we turned down our thermostat, bundled up and fumed over reports of record profits for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in a state with the nation’s second-highest electricity rates. 

Recently, however, I’ve been thrilled to learn about a potentially game-changing development: The rapidly emerging market of plug-in solar panels that are cheaper, quicker to deploy and accessible to homeowners with shady roofs or renters with no roofs at all.

Vendors say you can simply set up the panels facing the sun, plug them into a standard outlet and start saving. Systems sell for about a 10th of the cost of rooftop solar. Theoretically, you treat them like appliances, with no need to deal with contractors, permits or inspections.

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“People can take action who haven’t been able to take action,” Cora Stryker, a co-founder of Bright Saver, a Bay Area-based nonprofit vendor, told me.

Hundreds of Californians have bought plug-in systems from vendors, including Bright Saver, which is running limited pilots, and CraftStrom, a more established, Houston-based firm that........

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