Texas
Texas solar in 2026
Nobody in Austin is going to mandate what your surplus solar power is worth. That is the single most important thing to understand about going solar in Texas. In most of the state you choose your electricity seller, and you also choose, plan by plan, what happens to the kilowatt hours your roof exports. Pick well and solar works. Pick badly and you gave the grid free power.
Wires companies sell delivery, REPs sell power
The deregulated Texas market splits your bill in two. A transmission and distribution utility owns the poles and meters: Oncor around Dallas and Fort Worth with over 4.1 million meters, CenterPoint around Houston with about 2.69 million residential meters. You never choose them. What you choose is the retail electric provider, the REP, and there are dozens. Austin and San Antonio sit outside all of this with city owned utilities.
Why this matters for solar: the REP decides your buyback terms. Some pay retail rate for exports, some pay a wholesale rate that floats, some pay nothing. The plan you were on before solar is almost never the plan you want after solar. Power to Choose, the state comparison site, lets you filter for renewable buyback plans.
| Market | Lowest advertised rate | Average rate |
|---|---|---|
| Houston (CenterPoint territory) | 6.10 c/kWh | 12.17 c/kWh |
| Dallas-Fort Worth (Oncor territory) | 6.70 c/kWh | 13.19 c/kWh |
| Statewide residential average (EIA) | 16.44 c/kWh, up from 15.53 a year earlier | |
Sources: ChooseEnergy Houston rate board and Dallas rate board, August 2026 snapshots; EIA Table 5.6.A. Advertised teaser rates carry usage tiers and fees. The gap between the teaser and the average is the marketing.
What your exports actually earn
In practice Texas solar owners land in one of three buckets. REP buyback plans in the deregulated cities, where terms range from full retail credit to spot market rates and can change at renewal. Austin Energy's Value of Solar, which currently credits 9.91 cents per kWh for all solar production while you buy your power at standard rates, with a rate reset under discussion for November 2026. And CPS Energy in San Antonio, which runs its own buyback. None of these are guaranteed by state law. Austin can reset VoS. A REP can change terms when your contract rolls.
The defensive play is the same one that works in every low export value market: size the system to what you actually consume, especially the air conditioning load that drives those 1,096 kWh months, and treat export revenue as gravy rather than the plan.
Sources: Austin Energy residential solar rates; Power to Choose. We could not verify current CPS Energy buyback figures from primary documents, so we quote none here.
The Texas incentive stack is short and honest
| Item | Value | Fine print |
|---|---|---|
| Property tax exemption | 100 percent of the value solar adds to your home is exempt | Tax Code Section 11.27, file Form 50-123 with your county appraisal district once (Texas Comptroller) |
| State income tax credit | None | Texas has no state income tax to credit against |
| HOA protection | HOAs cannot prohibit solar | Property Code 202.010, extended to solar shingles and roof tiles by HB 431, effective May 29, 2025 (Texas Legislature Online) |
| Utility rebates | Vary by territory | Oncor and some municipal utilities run limited programs that open and exhaust; verify live funding before assuming one |
| Federal 48E (lease/PPA only) | Provider claims it | The 25D homeowner credit ended December 31, 2025 (CRS) |
Production across the state, and the El Paso outlier
Our own PVGIS runs, August 17, 2026, identical assumptions in every city. The triangle of big metros clusters within 6 percent of each other. Then there is El Paso, out in the Chihuahuan Desert, producing 31 percent more than Houston. Same state, very different sun.
| City | kWh per kW per year | Annual output, 13 kW system |
|---|---|---|
| El Paso | 1,902 | 24,726 kWh |
| Dallas | 1,536 | 19,968 kWh |
| San Antonio | 1,523 | 19,799 kWh |
| Austin | 1,511 | 19,643 kWh |
| Houston | 1,454 | 18,902 kWh |
Method: PVGIS v5.2, NSRDB database, south facing, 30 degree tilt, 14 percent losses. The 13 kW example mirrors the EnergySage Texas average of 13.47 kW, one of the biggest typical systems in the country because Texas homes burn through power.
Model a Texas system
Texas installs are among the cheapest anywhere at $2.21/W cash median. The catch is the other side of the ledger: 16 cent power takes longer to offset than 30 cent power, which is why EnergySage puts average payback at 9.72 years despite the low price. We default the calculator to Houston production. If you are in El Paso, drag the slider to the top and watch what happens.
Slider bounds come from our PVGIS runs across five Texas cities. Houston sits at the bottom of the range, El Paso far above everyone else.
National cash median was $3.50 per watt for 2024 installs (LBNL). Massachusetts quotes often run higher. Use your quote.
Assumptions you can change
Use the rate on your actual lease or PPA quote. There is no published statewide average we trust enough to hardcode.
Cash purchase
$18,122 after state credit
- Year 1 benefit
- $163/mo
- Payback
- 9 years
- 20 year net position
- $29,444
No federal credit, no state credit, and Texas has no income tax to credit against. Your return comes from avoided kWh, the property tax exemption, and whatever buyback plan you choose.
Solar loan
$251/mo 15 yr payment
- Year 1 net
- -$88/mo
- Upfront
- $0
- 20 year net position
- $2,327
We price loans at $3.41 per watt: the EnergySage Texas cash figure plus the $1.20 national loan-over-cash spread LBNL documents, since dealer fees get built into loan pricing.
Lease / PPA
$0 down you buy the power
- Year 1 net
- -$75/mo
- Upfront
- $0
- 20 year net position
- -$18,536
The provider keeps the federal 48E business credit and prices some of it into your rate. Check whether your retail plan pays anything for exports before signing.
Estimates, not quotes. Inputs use the Texas average rate from EIA (Table 5.6.A, May 2026), our own PVGIS production runs, and EnergySage August 2026 cost data. Texas has no statewide export mandate, so what your surplus earns depends entirely on your retail plan. We are a solar installer and we also partner with other solar companies. See our disclosures.
Worth knowing before you sign anything
- The statewide average rate climbed almost 6 percent in a year, 15.53 to 16.44 cents (EIA). Deregulation did not make Texas immune to rate inflation.
- Austin Energy's Value of Solar rate is scheduled for review in late 2026. If you are in Austin, the rate you sign up under is not guaranteed forever (Austin Energy).
- Your buyback plan and your solar install are separate decisions. Installers sell panels, not electricity plans. Do your own plan comparison on Power to Choose after the panels go up.
- Free nights plans and solar rarely mix. Those plans recover their cost with high daytime rates, exactly when your panels already cover you. Run the math on a standard or buyback plan instead.
Strong installer reviews start in Houston
In a deregulated market the installer carries more of the outcome than usual, because system sizing has to match a buyback plan the installer does not control. We pulled Google ratings for the Houston metro, the largest residential market in the state, as the anchor sample. Before you sign with any of them, or with anyone in Dallas, Austin or San Antonio, make the bid name the REP plan it assumes and rerun the payback if that plan dies at renewal.
Freedom Power
Houston, TX
4.4(453 Google reviews)
Solstice Solar
Houston, TX
4.9(418 Google reviews)
Ready Solar
Houston, TX
4.5(262 Google reviews)
Sunshine Renewable Solutions
Houston, TX
4.8(163 Google reviews)
Texas Direct Solar
Houston, TX
4.9(58 Google reviews)
Review data reflects Google Maps as of August 17, 2026, gathered via DataForSEO. No placement fees, no rankings for sale, no endorsement implied. TECL license checks are on you before any contract gets signed.
Go deeper: Houston
Houston is where the deregulated market gets concrete: CenterPoint's delivery charges line by line, which REP buyback plans publish rates and which hide them, and a city permit process with no flat solar fee. We put it all in one place: Houston solar in 2026.
Get a Texas specific estimate
Four questions, savings range from the same EIA and PVGIS data on this page. We are a solar installer and we also partner with other solar companies. Details in our disclosures.
What does your monthly electric bill look like?
Texas average is $167 per month (EIA, 2024).