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The federal credit is gone. Your electric rate does the heavy lifting now.
Most solar calculators still bake in the 30% federal tax credit — it ended December 31, 2025 under OBBBA, and a homeowner system installed in 2026 gets nothing from Washington. This calculator runs the honest 2026 math: net cost after state and utility rebates, year-1 savings from your actual electric rate and net-metering terms, then payback with utility escalation and panel degradation over the system's 25-year life.
Homeowners holding an installer quote use it to check the pitch: with the federal credit gone since January 2026, the honest drivers are the electric rate, net-metering terms, and state rebates — and the gap between a 9-year and a 21-year payback is exactly those three inputs.
No. The 30% Residential Clean Energy Credit (IRC §25D) ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. A homeowner who buys with cash or a loan in 2026 gets no federal credit. If an installer's quote shows a "30% federal credit," that is the lease/PPA provider's commercial §48E credit — they claim it, not you — so ask them to put the basis in writing.
It depends almost entirely on your electricity rate. Example: a $24,000 system with a $2,000 state rebate producing 9,000 kWh/yr. At the US average 18.8¢/kWh with 90% offset, year-1 savings are $1,523 and payback lands around year 13 with escalation — about $30,000 net over 25 years. At 30¢/kWh (California, Northeast), the same system pays back in about 9 years. At 12¢, payback stretches past year 20 and the case is thin.
Net metering. Full retail-rate netting (offset near 100%) makes solar a bill-eraser; reduced-rate or avoided-cost netting (offset 50–75%, common after California's NEM 3.0 and similar moves) can add 5+ years to payback and shifts the value toward self-consumption and batteries. Check your utility's current tariff before trusting any payback number, and look up remaining state incentives on DSIRE.