Is solar worth it in Florida in 2026?

How Florida pays for your solar power

Net metering at the retail rate. Investor-owned utilities credit monthly exports against your next bill at the kWh rate under PSC Rule 25-6.065; unused credits are paid out once a year at a lower avoided-cost rate.

In the calculator, 40% of your solar output is used at home at the retail price and the rest is exported at about 100% of retail (our default for this kind of rule), so each solar kWh is worth 100% of the retail price on average. Change it if your utility pays more or less. Method

State or utility incentive	What it is worth
Sales tax exemption on solar energy systems	Solar systems and components exempt from Florida sales tax
Property tax exemption for renewable energy devices	Added home value from solar is ignored in property assessment (installed on or after Jan 1, 2013)

How exports are credited

The Public Service Commission (PSC) set the rules in Rule 25-6.065 of the Florida Administrative Code, which applies to investor-owned utilities. The state statute behind it, section 366.91, told the PSC to create standard interconnection and net metering programs, and told municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives to build their own.

Under Rule 25-6.065(8), a utility meters the difference between the power it supplies and the power the customer sends back. In any billing cycle, excess generation delivered to the grid is credited against the customer’s energy use in the next month’s bill. Those credits can accumulate for no more than twelve months. At the end of each calendar year, the utility pays for any unused credits at an average annual rate based on its COG-1 as-available energy tariff, which is an avoided-cost rate and is lower than the retail price. The same payout applies when a customer leaves the system.

Customers still pay the applicable customer charge and any demand charge whether or not they export, so the bill never falls to zero.

The rule covers the investor-owned utilities, which include the large ones such as Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida and Tampa Electric. Municipal utilities and electric cooperatives write their own net metering terms under section 366.91(6), so the credit rate and rules for those customers can differ. Check your utility’s tariff before relying on the figures on this site.

Interconnection under the rule is tiered by system size: 10 kW or less, over 10 kW up to 100 kW, and over 100 kW up to 2 MW. For the smallest tier, the rule bars extra fees beyond what other customers without self-generation pay, including application fees. A system cannot exceed 90% of the customer’s utility distribution service rating.

State incentives in 2026

Florida has no state income tax, so there is no state solar tax credit. Two tax exemptions remain open:

• Sales tax. Section 212.08(7)(hh) exempts solar energy systems and their components from sales tax. The Florida Solar Energy Center certifies the list of qualifying equipment.
• Property tax. Section 193.624 says that for residential property, the increase in just value attributable to a renewable energy source device may not be considered when assessing value. It applies to devices installed on or after January 1, 2013. The statute states that subsections (2) and (3), which hold this residential rule, expire on December 31, 2037, and revert to the text that existed on December 31, 2017.

The federal 30% residential credit ended for systems installed after December 31, 2025, so neither a federal nor a state credit lowers the price of a system installed now.

What it means for payback

Because monthly exports offset the next bill kilowatt-hour for kilowatt-hour, a system that produces more than the home uses in some months and less in others loses little value, as long as the surplus is used within the year. Credits that pile up unused at the end of the year are paid at the lower avoided-cost rate, so oversizing a system beyond annual consumption earns far less than sizing it to the home’s yearly use. The sales tax exemption lowers the up-front price, and the property tax exemption means the system does not raise the tax bill.

Other rules worth knowing

• Solar access. Section 163.04 bars local ordinances from prohibiting solar collectors. It also bars deed restrictions, covenants and homeowner association declarations from prohibiting them on residential buildings. An association may specify where on the roof the panels go, within an orientation to the south or within 45 degrees east or west of due south, if that does not impair how well they work. The prevailing party in a dispute is entitled to costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.
• Third-party ownership. The rule allows a customer to contract for the purchase, lease, operation or maintenance of a system with a third party, as long as the terms do not include the retail purchase of electricity from that party.
• Renewable energy certificates. Rule 25-6.065(9) addresses who keeps the certificates tied to the power the system produces.