Is Solar Still Worth It in Florida in 2026, Now That the 30% Federal Tax Credit Is Gone?
Is Solar Still Worth It in Florida in 2026, Now That the 30% Federal Tax Credit Is Gone? Short answer: yes, solar can still be worth it in Florida in 2026 — but the math has changed, and anyone quoting you a “30% federal tax credit” on a home solar purchase is working from stale information. The federal residential clean energy credit (Internal Revenue Code §25D) was terminated for expenditures made after December 31, 2025. What has not changed: Florida still charges no sales tax on residential solar equipment, your property taxes do not go up when panels add value to your home, and Florida’s largest utilities — FPL, Duke Energy Florida, and TECO — still credit the solar power you export at the full retail rate today. Add one of the strongest solar resources in the continental United States and hardware prices that are far lower than a decade ago, and the honest 2026 answer is: it depends on your utility, your electric usage, your roof, and how long you plan to stay in the home. For some Florida households the numbers still work clearly; for others they no longer do. This article walks through exactly what expired, what survived, and how to run the math for your own house — without the marketing gloss. What exactly expired on December 31, 2025 The federal incentive most homeowners knew about was the residential clean energy credit under Section 25D of the tax code — commonly called “the 30% solar tax credit.” Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, that credit was terminated for residential expenditures made after December 31, 2025. In practical terms: if you are a homeowner buying a solar system outright or with a loan in 2026, there is no federal tax credit on that purchase. This is not a phase-down or a reduced percentage — for homeowner-purchased residential systems, the credit is gone. Two things to watch for as a Florida consumer: Outdated sales pitches. Plenty of websites, ads, and even AI chatbot answers still repeat the 30% figure. If a salesperson builds a 2026 quote around a federal credit you will not receive, that is a red flag about everything else in the quote. The business credit is a different animal. A separate federal credit for businesses (Section 48E) continues to exist for commercial and certain third-party-owned systems, with its own eligibility rules and construction deadlines. What did NOT change for Florida homeowners The federal credit was never the whole story in Florida. Three state-level fundamentals are still in place in 2026: 1. No Florida sales tax on solar Solar energy systems are exempt from Florida’s 6% state sales tax. On a typical residential system this is a four-figure saving that comes off the price automatically — no forms, no waiting for tax season. 2. No property-tax penalty for going solar Florida law excludes 100% of the value a residential renewable-energy device adds to your home from your property-tax assessment. Your panels can raise what your home is worth without raising what you pay the county each year. 3. Full-retail net metering at the big investor-owned utilities — today FPL, Duke Energy Florida, and TECO still credit the kilowatt-hours you export to the grid at the full retail rate. That one-for-one credit is the backbone of solar economics in Florida: it means a kilowatt-hour your system sends out in the afternoon offsets a kilowatt-hour you pull back at night. Two honest caveats belong next to that sentence. First, a phase-down of these credit rates has been discussed for years and is widely expected at some point — but as of mid-2026 no date is set and no rule has been finalized. (The 2022 legislation that would have changed net metering, HB 741, was vetoed by Governor DeSantis.) Second, several municipal utilities and electric cooperatives already credit exports at less than full retail — JEA in Jacksonville and OUC’s newer-customer export rates in Orlando are examples — so the specific utility that serves your address matters. We keep utility-by-utility details current in our FPL net metering guide and the rest of our Florida utility series. One planning implication is worth spelling out: historically, when net-metering rules change, existing solar customers have been grandfathered under the rules in place when they interconnected. Nobody can promise that, but it is one reason some homeowners prefer to interconnect under today’s full-retail rules rather than wait for a rule change to be announced. How to actually run the 2026 math Without the federal credit, roughly 30% of the effective discount homeowners enjoyed in 2025 is off the table. That does not make solar a bad deal — it makes lazy math a bad deal. Here is the framework we use when we model a system for a Florida home, and the same one you should demand from any installer: Start with your actual usage, not an average. Twelve months of kilowatt-hour history from your utility bill is the foundation. A system sized to a “typical Florida home” instead of your home will miss on both cost and savings. Get the real net price. Gross system cost, minus Florida’s sales-tax exemption, with no federal credit line item. If a 2026 quote shows a federal credit for a homeowner purchase, stop and ask why. Model production against your utility’s actual tariff. Full-retail net metering at FPL, Duke, or TECO is a different economic picture than a municipal utility crediting exports below retail. The export rate determines how much a south- or west-facing array is really worth. Count the financing honestly. If you finance, the interest cost belongs in the payback math. A low advertised monthly payment with a large dealer fee baked into the principal is not a low cost. Match the horizon to your plans. Payback periods are longer without the federal credit. If you expect to sell the house in two years, the calculation leans on how much value the system adds at
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