ACT Party leader and Minister for Regulation David Seymour is proposing legalising plug-in solar panels and streamline consenting for on-farm solar, changes he estimates will save $28 million to $50 million in red tape over the next 10 years.

Buying a solar panel and plugging it into a wall socket to feed the grid is currently illegal in New Zealand, but legal in other countries.

“We are going to legalise it here too,” he says.

He says solar installers are regulated by at least four agencies.

“Someone needs to go and knock all the heads together.”

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