Is solar worth it in Mississippi in 2026?

How Mississippi pays for your solar power

Net billing (exports credited below retail). Mississippi's PSC rule bills solar homes at retail and credits every exported kWh at avoided cost plus a 2.5 cent adder: 6.1 cents/kWh from Entergy Mississippi in 2026, with 1-to-1 netting only at the instant of use.

In the calculator, 40% of your solar output is used at home at the retail price and the rest is exported at about 40% of retail, so each solar kWh is worth 64% of the retail price on average. Change it if your utility pays more or less. Method

State or utility incentive	What it is worth
Entergy Mississippi Low-to-Moderate Income Energy Independence Incentive	One-time $3,000 for households at or below 225% of the federal poverty level (4 kW DC minimum system; first-come, first-served annual budget; ends after 2027)
Entergy Mississippi Residential Demand Response Battery Incentive	One-time $2,000 for a battery of at least 8 kWh enrolled in the utility's demand response program (first-come, first-served annual budget; ends after 2027)

How exports are credited

Mississippi’s rule comes from the Public Service Commission (PSC), which adopted its Distributed Generation and Interconnection rules in 2022. Each investor-owned utility files a tariff under them. Despite the name “net metering”, netting happens only at the instant of use.

Entergy Mississippi’s Schedule NEM-2 shows how it works. The bidirectional meter records two flows. Energy the utility supplies is billed at the customer’s normal retail rate. Energy the system sends to the grid in any metering interval is valued in dollars and credited on the bill. The credit cannot reduce the fixed customer charge or minimum bill, and any leftover credit carries to the next billing cycle.

The value per exported kilowatt-hour has three parts:

• Avoided cost of wholesale power: 3.6 cents/kWh
• Distributed Generation Value: 2.5 cents/kWh
• Low-to-moderate income adder (qualifying households only): 2.0 cents/kWh

For bills from February 2026 that is 6.1 cents/kWh, or 8.1 cents for qualifying households. Entergy files a new value every November 15 and the PSC approves it. Against the 15.19 cents/kWh EIA average residential price used on this site, 6.1 cents is about 40% of retail.

Mississippi Power’s Schedule RENM-3 follows the same structure. Solar exports earn its avoided energy cost plus the 2.5 cent adder: 5.75 cents/kWh from July to October and 5.39 cents/kWh from November to June, with 2.0 cents more for low-to-moderate income customers. The 2.5 cent adder lasts 25 years from installation. Mississippi Power customers also give the utility the renewable energy credits. See net metering vs net billing for why this differs from retail netting.

State incentives in 2026

No statewide state tax credit, rebate or solar tax exemption turned up in the utility tariffs or PSC reporting checked. Two utility programs are written into Entergy Mississippi’s tariff:

• A one-time $3,000 incentive for low-to-moderate income households (at or below 225% of the federal poverty level) that install at least 4 kW DC of solar, after an energy efficiency audit.
• A one-time $2,000 incentive for a battery of at least 8 kWh enrolled in Entergy’s Battery Demand Response program, for customers not taking the $3,000 incentive.

Both are first-come, first-served against an annual budget ($6 million and $2 million) that does not roll over, and the tariff ends them after 2027. The PSC suspended these programs in April 2024 and voted unanimously to reinstate them in April 2025, according to Mississippi Today. Check with Entergy that money remains this year before counting on either.

The federal residential credit ended for systems installed after December 31, 2025. See the federal solar tax credit has ended.

What it means for payback

An exported kilowatt-hour earns roughly 40 cents on the retail dollar with Entergy Mississippi, and roughly 35 to 38% with Mississippi Power. Energy used in the home at the moment it is produced saves the full retail rate. That favors a system sized to daytime consumption, plus shifting flexible loads such as water heating or EV charging into sunny hours.

Because export credits cannot cut the customer charge or minimum bill, those charges remain after solar. The credit values also reset each year, so the export value can move up or down.

A battery stores midday output for the evening instead of exporting it at about 6 cents. Whether that pays back depends on its price, and the $2,000 Entergy incentive can shorten that. See are solar batteries worth it.

Other rules worth knowing

• Residential size limit: no more than 20 kW DC and sized to offset no more than 110% of the prior year’s usage (Entergy NEM-2); Mississippi Power uses the lesser of 20 kW or 110% of annual peak demand.
• Participation cap: each utility’s net metering schedule is limited to 3% of system peak demand, first-come, first-served. After that, new customers fall under the utility’s small power purchase rate.
• Metering and fees: Entergy charges $135 for a new meter or $95 where an advanced meter is already installed, plus any interconnection fees.
• Batteries paired with solar do not count against the size cap if they cannot discharge at the same time as the solar system (Entergy).
• Installers must hold a Mississippi solar and wind construction license and be registered with the PSC under its distributed generation rule.
• Co-op and municipal customers are outside these two tariffs. Ask your utility for its terms.

Berkeley Lab does not publish a Mississippi median from enough systems, so the calculator starts from the U.S. median of $3.60/W. Put your own quote in.