Written by Dean Mahmoud, CEO, and checked by Trevor Guilday, founder.Prices from the September 2026 Cost Index. Duke tariffs re-read October 14, 2026. Updated October 19, 2026.
A typical South Carolina home system is 8.45 kW and costs about $24,083 in cash at $2.85 per watt. The state gives 25% of that back, $6,021, as an income tax credit, but at most $3,500 a year. Before incentives, it pays for itself in about 12.3 years on Dominion Energy, 14.6 on Duke Energy Progress, 15.7 on Duke Energy Carolinas and 24.7 on Santee Cooper. Our cautious Duke Energy Carolinas example, with upkeep, takes 27.8 years with the full credit and 37.1 without it.
Free for you. Solar providers pay us when you ask for quotes. How we make money
The credit is 25% of what you pay to buy and install solar on a South Carolina home you own. It lowers the state income tax you owe. It is not a refund, and two yearly limits decide how fast it arrives.
$6,021 on the typical $24,083 system. The law has no end date for solar.
Per home system, whatever the size of the credit.
Each year’s use also stops at half your state income tax, if that is lower.
Unused credit carries forward up to 10 years, then it is lost.
| Tax year | You owe $7,000 or more | You owe $4,000 |
|---|---|---|
| First | $3,500 | $2,000 |
| Second | $2,521 | $2,000 |
| Third | Used up | $2,000 |
| Fourth | Used up | $21 |
Simple payback before incentives on the typical $24,083 system depends on who sends your bill. South Carolina has no single state figure.
Utility | Yearly saving | Simple payback before incentives |
|---|---|---|
Dominion Energy SC | $1,955 | 12.3 years |
Duke Energy Progress | $1,651 | 14.6 years |
Duke Energy Carolinas | $1,530 | 15.7 years |
Santee Cooper | $976 | 24.7 years |
York Electric Cooperative | $983 | 24.5 years |
Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative | $2,350 | 10.2 years |
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This illustration is ours and runs slower than the figures above. Duke’s Solar Choice plan values each kWh your panels make in one of two ways. Our cases assume 40% is used at home as it is made and 60% is sent to the grid.
| Case | Your cost | Year-one savings | After upkeep and solar charge | Simple payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You use the whole 25% credit | $18,062 | $949 | $649 | 27.8 years |
| You owe too little tax to use it | $24,083 | $949 | $649 | 37.1 years |
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These are the slow end. Power you send out and buy back in the same price period counts at Duke’s full price, so a home that uses more of its solar while the sun is up pays back sooner.
The 25% credit is the same across South Carolina. The credit for power you send out, the monthly minimum and Santee Cooper’s rebate depend on the name at the top of your electric bill.
Carolinas serves the Upstate, around Greenville and Spartanburg. Progress serves the Pee Dee, around Florence and Sumter. $30 monthly minimum, plus $0.45 or $0.49 a month per kW of solar. Duke keeps your RECs, the certificates that prove the power came from solar.
Next: ask for savings priced on Duke’s time-of-use plan.
Columbia, Charleston and much of the Midlands and the Lowcountry. Extra kWh are banked and cancel out power you buy later in the same time-of-day period at the full price. Whatever is left on your November bill is paid out at Dominion’s avoided cost, a wholesale-level rate, then the bank resets. $13.50 monthly minimum bill.
Next: size the system to your yearly use, not above it.
The state-owned utility, for homes billed by Santee Cooper itself. It nets hour by hour and adds a $10 monthly solar charge. A month that ends $50 or more in credit gets a check.
Next: apply for the rebate before November 30, 2026.
| Utility | Credit per kWh | What earns it | Extra cost for solar homes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Carolinas | 4.19¢ | Each month’s leftover, per price period | $30 minimum; $0.45 per kW a month |
| Duke Energy Progress | 4.01¢ | Each month’s leftover, per price period | $30 minimum; $0.49 per kW a month |
| Dominion Energy SC | 3.5¢ to 4.6¢ | The year’s leftover, paid in November | $13.50 minimum bill |
| Santee Cooper | 4.15¢ | Each hour’s net export | $10 a month |
| Berkeley Electric Cooperative | 6.03¢ | Every kWh sent to the co-op | $150 application fee |
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Berkeley Electric Cooperative serves Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. It caps a home system at your yearly kWh use divided by 1,800, so a home using 12,600 kWh a year may connect 7 kW AC. It updates its credit around March 1 each year. South Carolina’s other co-ops and city utilities set their own rates: ask yours for its solar rate sheet in writing.
On Duke’s and Dominion’s Solar Choice plans a home system may be at most 20 kW AC. Homes that applied for the older full-credit net metering between May 16, 2019 (Dominion: May 17) and May 31, 2021 keep it until May 31, 2029. Earlier systems lost it on December 31, 2025.
None of the other utilities on this page offers a rebate. Santee Cooper pays one once, to customers who own their system, while the money lasts.
A 5 kW AC system gets $4,750.
On up to 6 kW AC, or less if your home’s highest use in the past 12 months was lower.
By 5 p.m. on November 30, 2026, unless Santee Cooper extends the program.
Install within 90 days of the approval to connect, and apply within 90 days of installing.
A leased system gets nothing. Your installer must be a Santee Cooper Trade Ally, with a sign-off letter from a NABCEP-certified professional. Santee Cooper does not post how much money is left.
At the September 2026 benchmark of $2.85 per watt. These are modeled cash prices, not quotes we collected, with the 25% credit each size would earn.
Size (kW DC) | Cash price | Power made a year | 25% state credit |
|---|---|---|---|
5 kW | $14,250 | 7,345 kWh | $3,563 |
8 kW | $22,800 | 11,752 kWh | $5,700 |
8.45 kW (typical) | $24,083 | 12,413 kWh | $6,021 |
12 kW | $34,200 | 17,628 kWh | $8,550 |
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Beyond the 25% credit and Santee Cooper’s rebate, South Carolina helps in one more way: the system is not taxed as property.
On a system of 20 kW AC or less, including the inverter and a battery. You must file for it with the Department of Revenue.
Not on the state’s list of exemptions.
Not for a system you own placed in service after December 31, 2025.
A month, for letting Duke use your home battery 30 to 36 times a year.
| Way to pay | Who owns the panels | Who gets the credit | Check before you sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | You | You | Keep the invoice and interconnection agreement for Form TC-38 |
| Loan | You | You | Financed total vs. cash price; a dealer fee can cancel out the credit |
| Lease | The company | The company | It needs a certificate from the Office of Regulatory Staff; no Santee Cooper rebate |
| PPA | Not offered | The state lease law does not let a solar company sell you the power | |
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A to Z, not ranked. Facts from their own sites and the South Carolina license registry, read October 13 to 14, 2026.
Purelight Power has shut down, so it is not listed here. If you have a Purelight system, check the panel and inverter makers’ own warranties. How we make money.
Ask each installer to show the 25% credit against your own state tax bill, one year at a time.
Check your South Carolina roof and savingsEcoGen America does not sell or install solar. When you request quotes, we pass your request to solar providers serving your area, and they pay us for the introduction. Providers can include installers, solar marketplaces and lead exchanges, and more than one may contact you. You never pay us. Privacy policy
CEO of EcoGen America. Since 2021 he has connected homeowners with residential solar installers in all 50 states.
About Dean
Founder of EcoGen America. He has worked in residential solar since 2016 and maintains the EcoGen Solar Cost Index.
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