Photo: Jason Villanueva, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Texas · Houston
Houston solar in 2026
Written by the Solar Learning Lab research deskUpdated August 17, 202610 min read
Ask what the electric rate is in Houston and the honest answer is: which contract did you sign? This city sits in the deregulated ERCOT market. CenterPoint owns the wires and the meter, but the price of energy, and the value of every kWh your panels export, comes from whichever retail electric provider plan is on your kitchen counter. That makes Houston the one big city where reading a contract carefully is worth more than any solar incentive.
16.4¢
Texas average residential rate per kWh; your retail plan sets your actual number
$2.21/W
Average cash price in Texas, so a 7 kW system runs about $15,470
1,454 kWh
Annual output per kW installed, from our PVGIS run for Houston
Price a Houston roof against your plan
Four questions, run with CenterPoint delivery math and our Houston production model. Bring your Electricity Facts Label and the answer gets sharper.
Get my Houston estimateYour bill is two businesses stapled together
Every Houston bill has a delivery half and a supply half. The delivery half is regulated and identical no matter which provider you pick. Per the state utility commission's rate report effective October 1, 2025, CenterPoint charges:
| CenterPoint delivery charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Customer charge | $2.11 per month |
| Metering charge | $2.79 per meter |
| Volumetric delivery | 5.9027 cents per kWh |
| Delivery-only bill at 1,000 kWh | $63.93 |
| Delivery-only bill at 2,000 kWh | $122.95 |
Source: PUCT CenterPoint rate report, effective 10/1/2025, verified August 17, 2026. That volumetric nickel-nine per kWh is itself a stack: base distribution 2.324 cents, transmission cost recovery 1.617, distribution cost recovery 0.494, plus efficiency, resiliency and two storm restoration charges (CenterPoint). CenterPoint has six rate filings pending that can move these numbers.
Why solar buyers should care: most buyback plans credit exports against the supply half only. You usually keep paying delivery charges on every kWh you pull at night. A plan that quotes a juicy buyback rate but loads the delivery passthrough or the base fee can quietly hand the savings back.
The contract is the solar policy
Texas never passed statewide net metering for competitive territory. What exists instead is a shelf of buyback plans that change like phone plans. Two houses on the same Heights block with identical arrays can earn wildly different export credits because one signed a solar plan and one is on a default fixed rate.
- Reliant's Simple Solar Sell Back Flex plan published 13.9 cents for February through May 2026 in the CenterPoint area, 14.0 cents in January. One caveat we will not bury: the page presents these as plan prices, and does not itself label them as the export credit rate (Reliant historical pricing).
- TXU sells three buyback plans, Solar Buyback System Flex, Plus and Saver, with credits accumulating in a rollover "Buyback Bank." TXU publishes no rates on the plan page at all; you get the number when you get the contract (TXU).
- Before signing anything, pull the Electricity Facts Label and find three numbers: the buyback rate, whether it is capped at your monthly consumption, and the base charge. In practice the cap clause moves more money than the headline rate.
Grid power, CenterPoint gas, and solar, priced together
Houston households pay a retail provider for electricity and, in most older neighborhoods, CenterPoint for natural gas. Texas gas is the expensive surprise on this table: per unit of heat it now costs more than a kWh from an owned rooftop system, and it is the priciest residential gas of our five study states.
| Energy source | Type | Average price | What that means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail electric plans | Electricity | 16.44¢ per kWh | Texas residential average, May 2026, per EIA. Your contract sets the real figure, and CenterPoint's 5.9 cent delivery charge rides inside every plan. |
| CenterPoint Energy | Natural gas | $30.48 per Mcf | Texas residential average, May 2026, the latest month EIA reports. Per unit of raw heat that is roughly 10.0 cents per kWh equivalent. |
| Rooftop solar, owned | Electricity | ~6.1¢ per kWh | Our estimate: $2.21 per watt cash spread across 25 years of PVGIS output for Houston. Excludes financing and maintenance. |
Electricity: EIA Electric Power Monthly, Texas residential, May 2026. Gas: EIA natural gas prices, Texas residential, May 2026; 1 Mcf holds about 304 kWh of thermal energy. Solar figure is our own calculation, method on the methodology page.
A Houston roof, month by month
Here is the counterintuitive part of Houston solar: October beats July. Our PVGIS run shows 137.1 kWh per kW in October against 126.2 in July, because Gulf humidity, summer cloud build-up and heat derating shave the months when the sun is technically strongest. Houston is a good solar city at 1454 kWh per kW per year, but it is not Phoenix, and quotes that assume desert production are padding the math.
October, highlighted, is the best month of the year here. Clearer skies and cooler panels beat the brute force of July sun. Plan for a production dip in exactly the months your air conditioning runs hardest.
Method: PVGIS v5.2, NSRDB radiation database. PVGIS v5.2 model run by Solar Learning Lab on August 17, 2026, NSRDB radiation database. Fixed south facing mount, 30 degree tilt, 14 percent losses, downtown Houston coordinates. Your roof will differ.
What solar costs in Houston by system size
Texas cash pricing averages $2.21 per watt, cheaper than California and barely above Florida. The table below pairs four common sizes with our Houston production run and values year one output at the 16.44 cent state average. Treat that last column as a ceiling: what you actually keep depends on your buyback plan and its cap clause.
| System size | Cash price | Year 1 output | Year 1 value at 16.44¢ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 kW | $11,050 | 7,270 kWh | ~$1,195 |
| 7 kW | $15,470 | 10,177 kWh | ~$1,673 |
| 8 kW | $17,680 | 11,631 kWh | ~$1,912 |
| 10 kW | $22,100 | 14,539 kWh | ~$2,390 |
Our calculations: size times $2.21 per watt from EnergySage Texas cash averages, August 2026; output from our PVGIS run of 1454 kWh per kW; value at the EIA Texas residential average. Estimates, not quotes. No federal credit applies to cash purchases in 2026.
Your contract changes this math
The calculator below swaps the state average for your actual bill and plan rate.
Jump to the calculatorPermits: two permits, one project number, zero flat fees
The City of Houston requires at minimum a structural permit and an electrical permit for every rooftop system, issued under one project number. Submittal is electronic through iPermits, plans go through ProjectDox, and the plan review fee is due before your installer can even upload drawings. Separately, an interconnection application must be approved by CenterPoint before installation.
The 2026 fee schedule has no solar line item. Fees are computed from valuation and electrical components: a minimum permit fee of $91.06, a non-refundable $33.56 administrative fee, plan review at 25 percent of the estimated permit fee, and per-item electrical charges such as $94.00 for a meter loop and service up to 50 kW. Translation: your permit cost is a stack of small line items, so ask for it as a single written number on the quote.
Sources: City of Houston CE-1198 solar permit guide; 2026 permit fee schedule; Houston Permitting Center. Solar desk: solarpanels@houstontx.gov.
The house behind the meter
Houston homes lean electric: 64.5 percent heat with electricity, per Census ACS data, and nearly every one of the city's 917 thousand households runs air conditioning through the long cooling season. Texas households average 1,096 kWh a month, roughly double California's 503, which is exactly why a mid-sized array can move a Houston bill even at ordinary rates. Homeownership sits at 42 percent and 47.9 percent of units are single family, so the addressable roof base here is real.
Sources: US Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates, 2023, Houston city; EIA Table 5A, 2024 state averages. Median household income $62,894.
The highest rated solar installers in Houston
Google Maps results for Houston solar installers, screened to a 4.4 rating floor with a review base big enough to trust. Houston's list is competitive at the top: the leader by volume carries 453 reviews, and in a contract driven market like this one, ask every bidder which buyback plans their proposals assume.
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)
Ratings and review counts are Google Maps ratings for Houston local results, retrieved August 17, 2026 via the DataForSEO SERP API. We list the highest rated established companies we found. No company paid to appear here, and appearing here is not an endorsement. Check current reviews and licensing before you sign anything.
Run your own numbers
Preloaded with the EIA Texas average rate and our Houston PVGIS production run. Set the rate to your actual Electricity Facts Label price for a sharper answer.
The top of the slider is our south facing PVGIS run for Houston. The lower bound approximates an east or west facing roof, which typically gives up 10 to 15 percent.
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 for cash purchases in 2026 and Texas has no state income tax to credit against. Your export value depends entirely on which retail electric provider plan you sign, so shop the buyback plans as hard as you shop the install price.
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. In 2026 this is the only path that captures any federal incentive.
Estimates, not quotes. Houston has no single electricity rate because supply is competitive; the rate input uses the EIA Texas residential average (Table 5.6.A, May 2026) as a stand in for a mid market REP plan. Production comes from our PVGIS run for Houston, cost from EnergySage Texas data, August 2026. We are a solar installer and we also partner with other solar companies. See our disclosures.
Houston solar questions, answered from the data
Answers built from the sources cited above on this page, not from a generic Texas explainer.
Does Houston have net metering?
How much does solar cost in Houston in 2026?
What does a Houston solar permit cost?
Why does October out-produce July here?
Is solar worth it when Texas power averages 16 cents?
What we could not verify
As of August 17, 2026: no primary source publishes a single all-in Houston residential rate, because none exists in a competitive market. Reliant's published figures are plan prices, not confirmed export credit rates. TXU publishes no buyback rates at all. No City of Houston or CenterPoint residential solar rebate appears on any page we fetched, and Houston has no instant SolarAPP+ style permitting. When any of that changes in print, this page changes with it.
Get your Houston estimate
Four questions, answered against this page's PUCT, EIA and PVGIS data. 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).