We love solar power for being clean, saving on electrical bills and providing backup power during outages. Solar adoption can save you money in the long run, but it can take a while to break even due to the high initial expense, which is why Zoltux's Instant Solar Kit, showcased at CES 2025 as part of a Kickstarter project, has us so intrigued.
The company claims that its solar setup can be installed in just five minutes. The price for the 800-watt Instant Solar Pod, which includes mounts, solar panels, inverter and wiring, is just $1,199, not including the 30% solar tax credit (assuming it applies). According to Zoltux, this makes its payback period three to four years rather than the decade-plus it may take with traditional solar.
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Balcony solar in the US
On its face, plug-and-play solar offers a way to get solar power without a major installation process or regulatory hurdles, although there are caveats to this in the US. Essentially, instead of installing permanent solar panels to your roof, you install "balcony solar," a type of solar power generation popular in Germany and supported by the country's utilities. Think of it as being halfway between a portable solar panel and a rooftop solar panel. Connecting an inverter to this setup lets you feed the power directly to an AC plug to support your usage.
In Germany, balcony solar panels are much more common.
This is allowed in the US, but often requires an interconnection agreement and permission to operate anything that feeds power back into the grid. To get around this, Zoltux is using AI to ensure there's zero feedback into the grid, which, in theory, means you wouldn't be subject to these regulations. The company is also attempting to integrate a smart home energy system so the inverter can sync with a smart thermostat, Alexa and lights and optimize your home energy use.
After installing the solar panels yourself, you can hook them up to a standard 120-volt US outlet, which Zoltux says is inherently bidirectional, meaning it can both output electricity and receive it. It says the inverter also goes up higher than 120-volt and is UL 1741 SB compliant, although it's currently not certified. It's working on getting it before the Kickstarter launch.
The solar pod comes with panels, an inverter and wiring.
Safety and regulatory issues
That statement gives us some pause. Bidirectional charging is a feature available with some electric vehicles and EV chargers, but US AC outlets are not compliant with bidirectional charging by default. An inverter needs to be UL 1741 SA certified (SB is a slightly newer standard), but the US regulatory landscape hasn't caught up since UL will not list a product that violates the National Electric Code, which states that a branch circuit is solely for serving a load, while a generation circuit must be solely for generation.
According to Carl Lenox on Bluesky, plugging an inverter into a branch circuit means daisy-chaining multiple outlets, so you end up with load and generation on one circuit, which can be a legitimate safety issue. A fault in load or wiring between the two sources would not have trip protection from the circuit breaker. German electrical safety code, by contrast, requires that balcony solar be on a dedicated circuit, but running a new circuit doesn't exactly qualify as plug-and-play.
At $1,199, the solar kit is many times cheaper than a rooftop solar installation.
Launch and availability
Regulatory hurdles aside, Zoltux says it assembles its products in the US and doesn't get any material from China, making it resistant to tariffs. The company intends to launch in the US and Canada to begin with and says it supports both solar and battery input on its inverter and it will have a solar battery coming out, but any 48-volt is compatible.
As with every Kickstarter project, if crowdfunding falls through, it's possible that the solar kit doesn't see the light of day. Even if it is fully funded, it's still not guaranteed to come to market.