Is solar worth it in Utah in 2026?

How Utah pays for your solar power

Net billing (exports credited below retail). Rocky Mountain Power pays a fixed export credit (4.033 to 4.855 cents per kWh in 2026), set each March 1, for solar customers who interconnected after Oct. 30, 2020.

In the calculator, 40% of your solar output is used at home at the retail price and the rest is exported at about 33% of retail, so each solar kWh is worth 60% of the retail price on average. Change it if your utility pays more or less. Method

How exports are credited

Most Utah homes are served by Rocky Mountain Power, and its rooftop solar customers who signed an interconnection agreement after October 30, 2020 are on Schedule 137, Net Billing Service. Under it, power the system sends to the grid is not credited at the retail price. It earns a fixed export credit that is reset every March 1 under a Public Service Commission of Utah process.

The rates in force since March 1, 2026 are 4.855 cents per kWh for billing months June through September and 4.033 cents per kWh for October through May. For comparison, the Schedule 1 residential energy charge on the same tariff is 8.7020 cents per kWh for the first 400 kWh in October through May (9.8332 cents in June through September), and 11.0852 cents (12.5263 cents in summer) for each kWh beyond that. A kWh used at home therefore avoids a much higher charge than a kWh exported earns.

Other Schedule 137 terms worth knowing:

• Export credits are applied against the power and energy charges on the monthly bill, and excess credits carry over from month to month only within the annualized billing period. Unused credits expire at the regularly scheduled March meter reading.
• Utah Clean Energy describes the netting of exports against purchases as happening instantaneously, in contrast to the monthly netting that older customers had.
• The schedule applies to residential systems of up to 25 kW. Interconnection review fees run from $60 (Level 1) up to $150 plus $3.00 per kW (Level 3).
• Batteries are listed as an eligible renewable generating facility in the tariff.
• Customers who interconnected earlier are on closed programs: Schedule 135 net metering (before November 15, 2017, grandfathered to January 1, 2036) and Schedule 136, the Transition Program (November 15, 2017 to October 30, 2020, to January 1, 2033), according to Utah Clean Energy.

Co-ops and municipal utilities set their own solar rules, so a home outside Rocky Mountain Power territory should check with its utility.

State incentives in 2026

No Utah state income tax credit is available for a rooftop solar photovoltaic system. The state’s residential renewable energy systems tax credit (Utah Code 59-10-1106) steps down the credit cap for solar PV to $0 for systems installed on or after January 1, 2024, per the text of H.B. 264 (2025). The same bill repealed the separate individual credit for qualifying solar projects (Section 59-10-1024) and left the remaining clean energy system credits open only for systems placed in service before January 1, 2028, which matters for non-solar technologies such as geothermal heat pumps, not for solar panels.

The federal 30% residential solar credit also ended for systems installed after December 31, 2025, so a system installed now has no state or federal income tax credit behind it. There is no statewide Utah rebate for rooftop solar; ask your utility about local programs.

What it means for payback

A fixed export credit that is a fraction of the retail price makes self-consumption the main source of savings. Panels pay back faster in homes that use most of their output as it is produced, for example through daytime air conditioning, an EV charged at midday, or a battery that moves midday output into the evening. A system sized to cover annual use but exporting most of its output will recover less per kWh than the same system under full retail net metering. Because the credit is recalculated each year, the value of exports can move up or down after installation.

Other rules worth knowing

• Rocky Mountain Power’s tariff requires an executed interconnection agreement for Net Billing Service before the system operates.
• Customers are billed the minimum monthly amount of their standard tariff whether or not they export (Schedule 137). Schedule 1 lists a $12.00 customer charge for a single-family home on single phase.

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