Missouri had 302 MW of rooftop solar at the end of 2024 on US Energy Information Administration data, the second-largest total among the states with no free-solar providers at all, and grew 21.2% in that series’s twelve months. Every panel of it was bought. What keeps the leasing companies out is not indifference; it is a billing design that resets every month and expires every year, which is very hard to build a twenty-year contract on top of.
A Large Market With Nothing to Lease
Free solar means a lease or a power purchase agreement, under which a company owns the equipment on your roof. Per the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, Missouri is one of 17 states with no current residential third-party ownership offerings. Only Washington has more installed rooftop capacity inside that group.
Curious how $0-down offers work outside Missouri? See our nationwide free solar overview.
So the useful question in Missouri is not how to obtain a product that nobody sells here. It is why 302 MW of households concluded that buying works, and whether that conclusion still holds now that the federal credit has gone.
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Netting That Resets Every Month, and Expires Every Year
Missouri is usually described as a full retail net metering state, and that is accurate for exactly one billing period at a time. The Net Metering and Easy Connection Act, at section 386.890, requires every retail electric supplier to net your production against your consumption within each billing period, for systems up to 100 kW. Inside that window the exchange is genuinely one for one, against Missouri’s statewide average residential rate of about 12.36¢ per kWh; your supplier’s own rate is the one your netting runs on.
Past the monthly boundary, two things happen that no advertisement mentions.
- Surplus is repriced to avoided fuel cost. Not avoided cost, which is what most states use, but the fuel component on its own, which strips out the capacity value that avoided cost normally includes.
- The resulting credits expire without compensation at the earlier of twelve months after issuance, or the moment you disconnect or end the net metering relationship.
Put those together and you can see the leasing problem. A company financing a system over twenty years needs predictable revenue from the power it produces. In Missouri, anything the household does not consume in the month it is made is worth a fuel-cost fraction, and anything left over evaporates twelve months later. That is a difficult asset to lend against.
Avoided fuel cost is set per supplier and changes as fuel prices move, so no single statewide figure exists. Ask your supplier for its current figure in writing.
The Same Rules Point to a Smaller System
The design implication runs against the industry’s usual instinct. Where surplus is cheap and perishable, the value sits in matching generation to consumption month by month rather than year by year, which usually means a slightly smaller array than an annual-offset calculation would suggest.
It also makes any load you can move into daylight hours worth more than an extra panel. Running the dishwasher, the laundry or an electric vehicle charger at midday converts a fuel-cost export into a full-retail saving, which is the largest single lever a Missouri household controls.
When you compare proposals, ask each installer to show monthly production against monthly usage rather than an annual total. An annual figure can look like a perfect match while concealing six months of surplus sold at fuel cost and six months of shortfall bought at retail.
Co-ops and City Utilities Are Inside the Rule Here
One genuinely good piece of news, and it is the opposite of what several neighboring states do. The Missouri Act binds retail electric suppliers generally, and the statute’s own definition of avoided fuel cost refers to the governing body with jurisdiction over a municipal utility, a rural electric cooperative or an electrical corporation. All three are covered.
In Kansas the equivalent law reaches investor-owned utilities only. In Iowa it names two companies. A Missouri cooperative member has a statutory right to net metering that a Kansas cooperative member simply does not, which matters if you are reading advice written for the region rather than for the state.
You Likely Will Not Qualify If
- You are answering a national free solar advertisement. Missouri is among the 17 states with no current residential third-party ownership providers. If an out-of-state or online offer does reach you, read the payment schedule first: most solar leases and PPAs raise the monthly payment every year on an escalator clause, typically 2 to 3%, so a payment that starts low can grow by half or more over a 20-year term.
- You are counting on the 30% federal credit. Section 25D is $0 for purchased systems from January 1, 2026, and Section 48E is claimed by a business owner rather than by you, through arrangements Missouri does not have providers for.
- You are planning to bank summer output for winter. Surplus is repriced to avoided fuel cost every month and the credits expire twelve months after issuance.
- You expect a payout when you move. Credits expire without compensation the moment you disconnect or end the net metering relationship.
- You are expecting a Missouri state solar tax credit. There is not one at the state level.
Redoing the Arithmetic 302 Megawatts Already Did
Most of that installed capacity went up while a homeowner could claim 30% back federally. Section 25D is $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21, so a purchase made today is not the same purchase those households made.
That is a reason to redo the numbers rather than to assume the same answer, and the numbers are more favorable than the missing credit suggests, because Missouri’s retail netting inside the month is worth a great deal to a correctly sized system. Our Missouri incentives guide covers the statute in detail and the Missouri installer list covers who does the work.
Missouri Solar FAQs
No company currently offers them. Missouri is among the 17 states with no current residential third-party ownership providers, though federal energy data puts it at 302 MW at the end of 2024, the second-largest installed rooftop capacity in that group, up 21.2% in a year. All of it was purchased rather than leased.
The billing design makes it hard to finance. Netting is one for one only inside a billing period; surplus beyond that is repriced to avoided fuel cost, the fuel component alone rather than the broader avoided cost most states use, and the resulting credits expire without compensation twelve months after issuance. A company lending against twenty years of output has little predictable revenue to lend against.
To monthly consumption rather than annual, because the netting window is a billing period and surplus beyond it loses most of its value. Ask each installer to show monthly production against monthly usage instead of an annual total, since an annual figure can look like a perfect match while concealing months of surplus sold at fuel cost and months of shortfall bought at retail.
Yes, and that distinguishes Missouri from several neighboring states. The Act binds retail electric suppliers generally, and the statute’s definition of avoided fuel cost refers to municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives and electrical corporations alike. In Kansas the equivalent law covers investor-owned utilities only, and in Iowa it names two companies.
It is worth redoing the arithmetic rather than assuming either answer. Most of Missouri’s 302 MW went up while a homeowner could claim 30% back, and Section 25D is $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed on or after January 1, 2026. Against that, retail netting inside the billing period is worth a great deal to a correctly sized system, which is why the market grew here without any leasing industry at all.
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References & Research Sources
The statute mechanics and figures above come from the records below. Per-supplier avoided fuel cost values change as fuel prices move; ask your supplier for its current figure in writing. Capacity figures are 2024 data. 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 and US Energy Information Administration data: the 17-state count including Missouri, and Missouri’s 302.0 MW installed residential base at the end of 2024 with 21.2% twelve-month growth, second only to Washington within that group. Dated July 22, 2025. Accessed August 17, 2026.
- Missouri General Assembly. Missouri Revised Statutes section 386.890, the Net Metering and Easy Connection Act. The obligation on all retail electric suppliers, the 100 kW ceiling, netting within each billing period, crediting of net excess at at least avoided fuel cost applied to the following period, and the expiry of credits at the earlier of twelve months or termination of service; 20 CSR 4240-20.065 carries the Commission rule. Accessed August 17, 2026.
- US Energy Information Administration. Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A: Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers. The Missouri statewide average residential rate of 12.36¢ per kWh 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.
