Mississippi allows solar leases, while residential power purchase agreements are restricted here, so a no-money-down offer has to take one specific form. That is worth knowing. What matters more is that Mississippi’s best solar money is income-linked and attached to the household, not to the hardware, which raises a question most sales conversations will not raise for you: if a company owns the system, who receives the help that was aimed at you?
A Lease Is Available Here, a PPA Is Restricted
Both arrangements leave a company owning the panels. Under a lease you pay a monthly fee for the use of the equipment. Under a power purchase agreement you buy the electricity it produces at a contracted price per kilowatt-hour. Per the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, 23 states either ban residential power purchase agreements or have no known programs, and Mississippi sits in the small group of those where residential lease offers are active. Ask for the escalator clause before you ask for the price: most solar leases raise the monthly payment every year, often 2 to 3%, and a payment that grows for 20 or 25 years can quietly outrun the savings it was sold on. Get the annual increase in writing.
So an offer quoting you a price per kilowatt-hour rather than a monthly fee is describing a product that does not fit Mississippi’s rules. Ask what the contract actually is before discussing the number attached to it.
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The Help Here Is Aimed at Households, Not Roofs
Mississippi built its rules around income in a way almost no other state has. The Public Service Commission’s distributed generation rule credits exports at the utility’s avoided cost plus a flat 2.5¢ adder for every solar customer, plus a further 2.0¢ for low-to-moderate income households. On Entergy Mississippi that produces roughly 6.1¢ for a standard customer and about 8.1¢ for a qualifying one.
Qualifying households also have separate installation and battery incentives running through 2027 on a first-come basis, and those are the largest single sums Mississippi puts on the table.
Every one of those is defined by the characteristics of a household. A leasing company is not a household and cannot be income-tested. So before signing anything, ask in writing which party the adder credits and which party is named on any installation incentive application.
The income threshold itself is set in the tariff rather than by the installer, so get that from the utility rather than from a salesperson’s description of it.
Your Certificates Go to the Utility Either Way
One thing ownership does not buy you in Mississippi. Under the net metering schedule, the renewable energy credits your system generates transfer to the utility as a condition of participating. In Delaware those certificates are a genuine third stream of value that a homeowner can sell; here they are not yours in either arrangement.
That simplifies the comparison, because it removes a line from the ownership column that matters a great deal in other states. It also means any Mississippi proposal that assigns a dollar value to certificate income is describing something that does not exist here.
Two sizing conditions belong in the same conversation. Entergy Mississippi caps residential systems at 20 kW DC, and your system may not offset more than 110% of your prior year’s usage. That second rule binds more often than the first, and it is measured against the year you have had rather than the year you are about to have.
You Likely Will Not Qualify If
- You were offered a residential power purchase agreement. Mississippi permits leases; residential power purchase agreements sit outside what is available here.
- Your provider is a cooperative or a municipal utility. The Commission’s rule reaches Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power. Everyone else writes their own terms.
- You are counting on the 30% federal credit yourself. Section 25D is $0 for purchased systems from January 1, 2026, and Section 48E belongs to the business that owns the system, subject to the project meeting current federal deadlines.
- You expected to keep and sell the certificates. They transfer to the utility under the net metering schedule regardless of who owns the panels.
- You want a system sized for next year’s usage. The 110% rule measures against your prior year, so a new heat pump or electric vehicle does not count yet.
The Two Questions That Decide It
Mississippi is a state where the right answer depends on your household rather than on your roof, which is unusual and genuinely useful to know. If you might qualify on income, establishing that first is worth more than negotiating on price, because the difference between 6.1¢ and 8.1¢ on exports plus an installation incentive is larger than anything a salesperson will discount.
Then, and only then, compare a lease against buying, with the certificate question already settled and the income question answered in writing. Our Mississippi incentives guide covers the adders and the tariff conditions, and the Mississippi installer list covers who does the work.
Mississippi Solar FAQs
You can get a solar lease, which puts panels on your roof at no upfront cost with the company owning them. Residential power purchase agreements are different: they are restricted in Mississippi, so the lease is the arrangement companies actually offer. An offer quoting a price per kilowatt-hour rather than a monthly fee does not fit Mississippi’s rules.
That is the question to put in writing before signing. Mississippi credits exports at avoided cost plus a 2.5¢ adder for every solar customer and a further 2.0¢ for low-to-moderate income households, and qualifying households have separate installation and battery incentives through 2027. All of those are defined by household characteristics, and a leasing company is not a household. Ask which party the adder credits and which party is named on any incentive application.
The utility, under the net metering schedule, as a condition of participating. That holds whether you own the system or a company does. It simplifies the comparison by removing a line that matters a great deal in states like Delaware, and it means any Mississippi proposal assigning a dollar value to certificate income is describing something that does not exist here.
Entergy Mississippi caps residential systems at 20 kW DC, but the rule that usually binds first is that your system may not offset more than 110% of your prior year’s usage. Because it measures the year you have had rather than the year you are about to have, a household that has just added a heat pump or an electric vehicle is sized against a record that no longer describes it.
Not for a homeowner who buys. Section 25D is $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025. Section 48E is claimed by the business that owns the system, and its current terms depend on the project’s federal deadlines (in service by the end of 2027, or construction started by July 4, 2026), so whether your lease price reflects that credit is a question to ask the company, not something to assume.
Settle the income question first. Enter your ZIP code to see what Mississippi companies are offering.
Ask who receives the income-linked help
References & Research Sources
The rules, adders and program terms above come from the records below. Sources accessed between June 10 and August 17, 2026.
- pv magazine USA. States without residential solar third-party ownership may become holes in the market after 2025. Analysis drawing on DSIRE data: the 23-state count and the lease-permitting group Mississippi sits in. Dated July 22, 2025. Accessed August 17, 2026.
- Mississippi Public Service Commission. Distributed generator interconnection and net metering rules. The layered credit structure, the 2.5¢ adder, the 2.0¢ low-to-moderate income adder, the application to investor-owned utilities only, and the transfer of renewable energy credits to the utility. Which party receives the income-linked adder under a third-party arrangement depends on the tariff and the specific contract; ask the utility in writing. Accessed August 17, 2026.
- Entergy Mississippi. Net metering schedule. The resulting export values, the 20 kW DC residential ceiling, the 110% of prior-year usage limit, and the low-to-moderate income installation and battery incentives running through 2027. Accessed August 17, 2026.
- US Energy Information Administration. Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A: Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers. The Mississippi statewide average residential rate used on this page as labeled context. Accessed August 17, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. One, Big, Beautiful Bill provisions. The Public Law 119-21 termination of Section 25D for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025, and the availability of Section 48E to business owners of residential systems under current deadlines. Accessed August 17, 2026.
