Is solar worth it in Wyoming in 2026?

How Wyoming pays for your solar power

Net metering at the retail rate. Wyoming law (W.S. 37-16-101 to 104) nets solar exports against use each month at the retail rate for systems up to 25 kW; surplus credit left on January 1 is bought at avoided cost, 1.418 cents/kWh for Rocky Mountain Power in 2026.

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

How exports are credited

Wyoming’s rule comes from state law, not from a utility decision. W.S. 37-16-101 through 37-16-104 apply to every electric utility in the state: investor-owned companies, electric cooperatives and irrigation districts. Municipal utilities are excluded from the statute’s definition of “electrical company”, so a city-owned utility sets its own terms.

A qualifying net metering system uses solar, wind, biomass or hydropower, is no larger than 25 kilowatts, sits on the customer’s premises and is meant mainly to offset the customer’s own use.

The utility measures net electricity over each billing period. If the home draws more than it generates, it pays for the difference as usual. If it generates more than it draws, the surplus is credited in kilowatt-hours on the next month’s bill, and the credit applies to all of the customer’s metered locations supplied by that utility. Because the credit is in kWh and offsets later usage, exports are effectively worth the retail energy rate.

Rocky Mountain Power’s Schedule 135 puts it this way: when the company supplies more than the customer generates, the energy charge of the customer’s standard rate applies to the net balance owed. Schedule 135 took effect with service on and after June 1, 2025.

The year-end step is where the value drops. Under W.S. 37-16-103(b), at the start of each calendar year any unused kWh credit from the previous year is sold to the utility at its filed avoided cost. Rocky Mountain Power’s Schedule 37, effective April 30, 2026, lists unused net metering credit prices by technology. For fixed solar the 2026 price is 1.418 cents/kWh, for tracking solar 1.545 cents/kWh, and the 2027 prices are 1.358 and 1.647 cents/kWh. A surplus left over at year end is therefore worth a small fraction of retail.

Black Hills Energy serves Cheyenne and other areas. Its own net metering tariff could not be opened, so the Rocky Mountain Power numbers above should not be assumed for Black Hills customers; the statute’s monthly netting and year-end avoided-cost purchase apply to it as well.

State incentives in 2026

No Wyoming statewide residential solar rebate, grant or state tax credit was found in the statutes checked. Wyoming has no state personal income tax, so there is no state income tax credit to claim either way. Ask your utility, co-op or county about any local program.

The federal residential credit ended for systems installed after December 31, 2025, so it does not reduce cost in 2026. See the federal credit explainer.

What it means for payback

Monthly netting at retail rewards a system sized to the household’s yearly use. Production in a month offsets that month’s consumption, and any excess carries forward as kWh credit, so summer surplus can cover winter shortfalls within the calendar year. That favors a larger system than instantaneous crediting would.

The risk is overbuilding. Credit left unused when the year turns is paid at avoided cost, 1.418 cents/kWh for Rocky Mountain Power fixed solar in 2026, instead of retail. A system sized to roughly your annual kWh, with the credit balance drawn down by the end of December, avoids that loss.

Because surplus carries over without a time-of-day penalty, a battery has a weaker case here than in states that pay less than retail for exports. See are solar batteries worth it and net metering vs net billing for the difference. Wyoming’s output per installed kilowatt is high in the calculator, which helps the payback, but the 2025 and later tariff rates are the numbers to check before signing.

Other rules worth knowing

The 25 kW cap is a hard definition in the statute. A utility may not charge a net metering customer a fee that raises the minimum monthly charge above that of other customers in the same rate class (W.S. 37-16-102).

The customer pays for the system and for any changes the utility requires for safety and reliability, and must provide lockable switching equipment, approved by the utility and accessible to it at all times, to isolate the system. Equipment must meet National Electrical Code, IEEE and UL standards.

Wyoming’s Solar Rights Act (W.S. 34-22-101 and following) treats beneficial use of solar energy as a property right. Sun before 9:00 a.m. or after 3:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time is treated as de minimis, and no right attaches to a collector shaded by a ten-foot wall on the property line on the winter solstice. Local governments may set up solar permits under the Act.

Co-op and municipal customers should ask their own utility for its tariff, since the statute sets the minimum framework but not the dollar rates.

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