AEP Ohio, Duke Energy Ohio, AES Ohio, and Ohio Edison net-metering terms, ECO-Link financing, and federal credit status current as of July 2026, per Ohio Administrative Code 4901:1-10-28, the Ohio Treasurer, and the Congressional Research Service.
No Ohio program gives away solar panels. Every “free solar” offer in the state is a financing contract: a loan, a lease, or a power purchase agreement that recovers the full cost of the system from you over 20 or 25 years. In Ohio that cost runs $21,425 for a typical 7.68 kW rooftop array.
No public money sits behind the offer in Ohio. There is no statewide residential solar rebate, there is no state income-tax credit, and the certificate market that once paid Ohio system owners collapsed after House Bill 6 in 2019.
One federal tax credit is still live, and it belongs to whichever company owns the array. That single fact is why a salesperson at your door can say $0 down and mean it, and why every claim made on the porch needs to appear in the signed contract.
See who pays for a $0-down system in Ohio
Why No One in Ohio Is Handing Out Solar Panels
Zero dollars upfront is not zero dollars total. The panels, inverters, racking, wiring, permits, and labor on an Ohio rooftop system add up to that $21,425 figure before anyone finances anything, and the total does not shrink because the offer is called free.
In some states a public program absorbs part of that bill. Ohio has none. Nothing in the state budget reduces what a company has to recover from you, so the entire amount comes back through your payments.
The one thing Ohio used to offer is gone. House Bill 6 removed the solar carve-out from the state renewable standard in 2019, and Ohio solar renewable energy certificates now trade at $3 to $5 per MWh. That is $27 to $60 a year on a residential roof, and no serious offer is built on it. The items that do still carry value here are set out in the Ohio solar incentives that still exist.
Who Claims the Federal Solar Credit on an Ohio Roof in 2026
Start with the credit that no longer applies. Section 25D, the 30% residential credit homeowners claimed through 2025, pays $0 on a system you own and install in 2026.
The Congressional Research Service states it plainly: P.L. 119-21 terminates the RCEC at the end of 2025, and the credit “shall not apply with respect to any expenditures made after December 31, 2025.”
RCEC is the Residential Clean Energy Credit, the line an Ohio homeowner used to claim on a federal return. In plain terms, buying panels this year subtracts nothing from the price.
Section 48E is what remains, and it is a business credit. A leasing company or a power purchase provider that owns the equipment on your roof can claim it. There is no homeowner-claimable percentage attached to 48E, no form you file, and no refund you receive.
Whatever that credit is worth reaches you only if the company priced its offer lower because of it. Ask who owns the equipment, then ask who files for the federal credit. A salesperson who tells you that you will collect 30% on a system they are financing is describing a credit that ended for homeowners on December 31, 2025.
Loan, Lease, and PPA: The Three Ways To Start at $0 Down in Ohio
All three arrangements are available in Ohio. Leases are legal and power purchase agreements are authorized, so a provider can own a system on your roof and bill you for it. Three things differ across them: who owns the array, who holds the 48E credit, and how the payment behaves over two decades.
The $0-Down Loan: You Own It and You Carry the Markup
A solar loan finances the purchase, and you own the system from the first day. The net-metering account stays in your name, you keep what the array saves you, and you carry the repair bills once the workmanship warranty runs out.
The cost of that ownership in 2026 is that no federal credit reduces the balance. A loan written against the Ohio example starts at the full amount. Lenders and dealers also price $0-down products above the cash price, which is the hardest thing to see in a quote.
The Lease: A Fixed Monthly Fee for Someone Else’s System
A lease puts a provider-owned array on your roof for a set monthly payment. The provider handles monitoring and repairs on the terms written into the agreement, and the provider claims the 48E credit because the provider owns the equipment.
Two clauses decide whether a lease is worth signing. The first is the escalator, which raises your payment every year. The second is the transfer term, which governs what happens when you sell: your buyer either qualifies to assume the lease or you buy the system out at closing.
The PPA: Paying by the Kilowatt-Hour for Twenty Years
A power purchase agreement bills you for the electricity the array produces, at a set price per kilowatt-hour. The opening rate is set below what you pay your utility today, so the first-year comparison looks easy.
Escalators of 1.9% to 2.9% a year are typical of the market. Over twenty years that compounding is where the real money in the contract sits, so ask for the per-kWh rate in year 1, year 10, and year 20 in writing before you take the offer seriously.
Comparing the Three Ohio Contracts by Owner, Credit, and Risk
One row below describes the offer in front of you. Find it, then confirm every cell against the signed paperwork.
Contract | Who Owns the System | Who Holds Section 48E | Main Ohio Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
Solar loan | You, from day one | No one, on a homeowner-owned 2026 system | A financed price set above the cash price |
Solar lease | The provider | The provider | A yearly escalator, plus transfer terms at sale |
Power purchase agreement | The provider | The provider | A compounding per-kWh rate over 20 years |
Ownership keeps the value inside the house and leaves the repairs with you. A lease or a power purchase agreement removes the upfront cost and the maintenance duty, and the provider recovers its equipment cost, its financing cost, and the value of its 48E credit through the fee or the rate you pay.
Who Qualifies for $0-Down Solar in Ohio
Approval turns on three things: your credit, your roof, and your homeowner’s insurance.
Solar loans in this market are written against a credit score in the 640 to 700 range. Lease and power purchase providers set a lower bar, so a homeowner declined for a loan gets steered toward a contract the provider owns.
Roof age decides the rest. Insurers want a roof under 15 to 20 years old and may surcharge an older one, and a provider signing a 20-year agreement on your roof asks that same question before it commits. Confirm with your carrier that a roof-mounted array stays covered under your policy.
Some Ohio households cannot use these offers at all. Renters, condo owners without control of the roof, and homes under heavy shade sit outside every $0-down structure sold here.
The Ohio Export Questions Your Contract Has To Answer
Ohio’s net-metering rule lives in Ohio Administrative Code 4901:1-10-28 and binds the state’s investor-owned utilities: AEP Ohio, Duke Energy Ohio, AES Ohio, and FirstEnergy’s Ohio Edison, Illuminating Company, and Toledo Edison. A contract signed in 2026 and running to 2046 has to survive three conditions that rule creates.
Ohio is a retail-choice state. If you buy your electricity supply from a competitive retail electric service supplier instead of the utility’s standard offer, your net-metering terms come from that supplier’s contract. Switching suppliers partway through a 20-year lease can change what your exports earn, so ask how the agreement handles a supply switch.
Municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives sit outside the rule. If your meter belongs to a city system or a co-op, 4901:1-10-28 does not reach you and your buyback terms are whatever your provider sets. Get those terms in writing before you sign a solar contract of any kind.
Banked credits die with the account. Monetary credits carry forward on future bills and are lost when you stop taking service from the utility. Moving out or closing the account can end a balance you spent years building.
Under a lease or a power purchase agreement, the value those exports produce does not vanish. It is priced into the fee or the per-kWh rate you were quoted, so ask the provider to show in writing how export value was reflected in your price.
Pink Energy, Door-To-Door Sales, and How To Vet an Ohio Installer
Ohio has a named case for what goes wrong here. In 2022 the Ohio Attorney General sued Pink Energy, formerly PowerHome Solar, in Cuyahoga County under the Consumer Sales Practices Act and the Home Solicitation Sales Act. The action described misrepresented tax-credit eligibility, aggressive door-to-door selling, and defective installations affecting hundreds of Ohio homeowners. The company folded soon after.
The misrepresentation at the center of that case is the same one being made at Ohio doors today, except the credit it invokes no longer exists for homeowners. Door-to-door selling is the pattern worth treating with suspicion, because its whole design is to remove the days you would otherwise spend comparing written offers.
Verification is harder in Ohio than in most states because there is no statewide residential solar license. The electrical license issued by the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board covers commercial work, and residential electrical licensing is handled by local building departments. A company can sell across the state without holding any Ohio credential specific to residential solar.
Three checks close that gap. Confirm the installer holds the electrical license your city or county building department requires. Ask for NABCEP certification, the industry credential Ohio does not mandate. Check the company against the Ohio Attorney General’s consumer complaint records before you sign anything. The same three checks apply when you compare Ohio solar companies side by side.
Ask for the Cash Price and the Financed Price Side by Side
One document settles the dealer-fee question, and it is your own quote. Ask the company for the cash price of the system and the financed price of the same system, written on the same page, on the same day. The gap between the two is the finance cost you are being charged.
Zero-down loan products add a dealer fee to the principal, and industry-typical markups run 15% to 30% over the cash price. No one has measured that range for Ohio specifically, so the pair of prices on your own quote is the reliable test.
Ohio does have one financing option with no dealer-fee structure behind it. ECO-Link, run by the Ohio Treasurer, buys down the interest rate on a home-improvement loan made through a participating bank. You borrow from the bank on ordinary lending terms and the state reduces your rate, so no solar company sits between you and the money.
Start from the cash figure in every case, because what solar costs to buy outright in Ohio is the benchmark a financed offer should be measured against.
When $0-Down Solar Doesn’t Pay in Ohio: Moving Soon, a Co-Op Meter, or a Tired Roof
Some Ohio homes should turn these offers down, and the reasons are specific.
You expect to move within five years. A loan balance has to be paid off when you sell, and a lease or power purchase agreement has to be assumed by your buyer or bought out. Five years is not long enough for an owned system to return what it cost, and a third-party contract on the roof narrows your pool of buyers. The ownership horizon is worked through in whether Ohio solar pays off over time.
Your meter belongs to a municipal utility or a co-op. Those providers set their own buyback terms and are not bound by the state net-metering rule. A 20-year contract priced on assumptions about export value is a poor bet when the export value is undefined.
Your electricity use is low. The Ohio example is sized against 846 kWh a month of household consumption. A home using half that gets a smaller array, smaller savings, and the same fixed utility charges, which leaves little room for a monthly solar payment to fit underneath.
Your roof needs work. Panels come off and go back on when shingles are replaced, at your expense under most third-party agreements. Re-roof first, then sign.
See Which Ohio Utility Rules Apply to Your Address
Your utility decides whether the state net-metering rule protects your exports at all, and your electricity supplier decides how those exports are credited. Enter your ZIP code to identify the utility serving your address and the contract terms worth checking before you discuss a $0-down offer with anyone.
Check the Ohio math for your ZIP
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Ohio has no program that hands a homeowner a rooftop system with no payments attached. “Free solar” describes $0 due at installation, with the cost recovered through loan payments, a monthly lease fee, or a per-kWh charge under a power purchase agreement.
Not to homeowners. Section 25D pays $0 on a system you own and install in 2026. A salesperson who tells you that you will claim 30% on this year’s purchase is describing a credit that has ended.
The company that owns the equipment. Section 48E is a business credit with no homeowner-claimable share, so you cannot file for any part of it. Its value reaches you only through the price the provider quoted.
Your terms change with the contract. Ohio is a retail-choice state, and a customer buying supply from a competitive retail electric service supplier is net-metered under that supplier’s contract. Ask how your lease or PPA handles a supply switch before signing.
Not under the state rule. Ohio Administrative Code 4901:1-10-28 binds investor-owned utilities. Municipal systems and rural electric cooperatives set their own buyback terms, and some pay little or nothing for exported power.
Contact your city or county building department, since residential electrical licensing in Ohio is local. The state electrical license covers commercial work, so it is not proof of residential qualification. Ask for NABCEP certification and check the Ohio Attorney General’s complaint records.
Sources
References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed Ohio administrative code and legislative materials, federal guidance, state program resources, utility data, market data, and reporting on the Pink Energy case for this article. Sources were accessed July 2026, unless another publication, release, effective, or update date is listed below.
- Ohio Administrative Code. Rule 4901:1-10-28, Net Metering. The state rule binding investor-owned utilities on export crediting. Accessed July 2026.
- Ohio General Assembly. House Bill 6, 133rd General Assembly. Legislation that removed the solar carve-out underlying Ohio’s SREC market. Effective 2019. Accessed July 2026.
- Congressional Research Service. Termination of the Residential Clean Energy Credit (IN12611). Federal analysis confirming Section 25D pays $0 on expenditures after December 31, 2025. Accessed July 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Clean Electricity Investment Credit (Section 48E). Federal guidance on the business credit available to system owners. Accessed July 2026.
- Ohio Treasurer of State. ECO-Link Program. State linked-deposit program reducing interest rates on qualifying home-improvement loans. Accessed July 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Electric Power Monthly. Federal statistics resource covering residential electricity prices. Accessed July 2026.
- Dayton Daily News. Ohioans’ Complaints Against Defunct Solar Company Pink Energy. Reporting on the Ohio Attorney General action and consumer complaints. Accessed July 2026.
- Xpansiv Market Signals. Ohio SREC Market Data. Market data source for Ohio SREC trading values. Accessed July 2026.
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Tracking the Sun. Federal laboratory dataset on installed solar pricing. Accessed July 2026.
