Vermont does something few states do with a solar system: it fixes your adjustor values in the permit at enrollment, with the zero-or-positive siting and REC adjustors paying for 10 years from commissioning. That turns the date you sign into a durable asset, because Vermont has cut the adjustors for new entrants repeatedly and holders of an older vintage keep theirs for that decade. Under a lease, that asset belongs to the company.
The Enrollment Vintage Is the Asset
Free solar means a lease or a power purchase agreement, under which a company owns the system. Vermont permits both, which puts it outside the 17 states with no third-party providers. So the choice genuinely exists here, and the thing to weigh is unusual.
Vermont runs net metering statewide under Public Utility Commission Rule 5.100 and revisits the numbers on a two-year cycle under Rule 5.128. Compensation is a statewide blended residential rate adjusted for whether you keep or transfer the renewable energy certificates, and for where the system sits, with residential rooftop systems up to 15 kW in Category I. Green Mountain Power holds roughly 84% of the state’s net metering capacity.
The adjustor values that set your rate are fixed at enrollment: the zero-or-positive siting and REC adjustors pay for 10 years from commissioning, a negative REC adjustor runs for the system’s whole life, and the blended base underneath them moves with each biennial update. Adjustor cuts affect people joining rather than people already on, while the base moves for everyone. Whoever holds the enrollment holds something that gets more valuable each time the adjustors are cut for newcomers, and under third-party ownership that holder is the company rather than you.
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Two Deadlines Already Passed on June 30
Anyone quoting you Vermont figures from a page written in the spring is quoting a regime that has turned over. The net metering window known as NM 2.6, covering certificate of public good applications filed from July 1, 2024, closed on June 30, 2026. The Commission’s biennial update setting compensation for what follows is still pending, so rates for new applications are unsettled.
The last window’s numbers are on record: under NM 2.6, the statewide blended rate was 18.3¢ per kilowatt-hour, reduced by a 4¢ adjustor for rooftop systems up to 15 kW. On Green Mountain Power that worked out to 15.0¢ for self-consumed generation and 14.3¢ for excess.
Separately, the exemption from Vermont’s 6% sales tax on solar equipment, at 32 V.S.A. section 9741(15), was scheduled to expire on the same date. On a typical residential system that is worth well over a thousand dollars.
The rates for applications filed after June 30, 2026 await that pending update, and the sales tax exemption carried a June 30, 2026 expiry whose current status is a Department of Taxes question. Ask your utility for the rate applying to applications filed today, and the Vermont Department of Taxes whether the exemption still applies. Both answers are free and both change the price.
What Vermont’s High Rates Are Worth
Set the tariff arguments aside and look at the number underneath them. Vermont households pay around 23.52¢ per kilowatt-hour on statewide average, among the highest in the country. Every unit a roof produces and the house consumes displaces power at your own utility’s retail rate, and no biennial update touches that.
That matters for the lease comparison specifically. The export side is contested and moves on a two-year clock; the self-consumption side is worth your full retail rate (around the 23.52¢ statewide average) and is not up for review by anybody. A design that maximizes what the house uses directly is insulated from most of what this page describes, whoever owns it.
Vermont also exempts residential systems under 50 kW from property tax assessment under 32 V.S.A. section 3802, where the system is net-metered or off-grid and serves only the property it sits on. That one is structural rather than scheduled and does not expire.
You Likely Will Not Qualify If
- You were relying on rates quoted for the NM 2.6 window. It closed to new certificate applications on June 30, 2026, and the biennial update governing what follows is still pending.
- You wanted an off-site group net metering share. That closed to new projects on December 31, 2025.
- Your credit history does not clear the provider’s threshold. Third-party ownership is a long financing decision by the company and turns on credit rather than on your roof.
- You are counting on claiming the federal credit yourself. Section 25D is $0 for any homeowner-owned system whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025, and under third-party ownership the company may claim the Section 48E business credit, on terms that depend on the project’s federal deadlines, so do not assume it is priced into your lease. Vermont has no state income tax credit for solar either.
- You budgeted for the sales tax exemption without checking it. It carried a June 30, 2026 expiry, and 6% of a system price is not a rounding error.
Four Answers to Get Before You Sign
Vermont rewards a specific sequence, and none of it takes long. Ask your utility what compensation applies to an application filed today, since the biennial update is pending and post-June rates are unsettled. Ask the Department of Taxes whether the sales tax exemption survived June 30. If you are considering a lease, ask in writing who holds the enrollment and therefore the fixed adjustors. And ask for the annual payment escalator in writing: most lease and PPA contracts raise your payment 1 to 3% every year, and over a 25-year term that compounding increase can erase the savings the first-year quote suggests, so run the year-25 payment before you sign.
The enrollment question is the Vermont-specific one and it will not be volunteered. In a state that cuts the rate for newcomers every two years, the vintage attached to your roof is worth something real, and it is worth knowing whose it is. Our Vermont incentives guide covers the tariff structure and the deadlines, and the Vermont installer list covers who does the work.
Vermont Solar FAQs
Yes, in the sense that leases and power purchase agreements are both permitted, so a company can install a system at no upfront cost and own it. The Vermont-specific consideration is that the adjustor values are fixed at enrollment, with the positive ones paying for 10 years from commissioning, so whoever holds the enrollment holds a rate that becomes more valuable each time Vermont cuts the rate for newcomers. Under third-party ownership that holder is the company.
Two things. The net metering window known as NM 2.6, covering certificate of public good applications filed from July 1, 2024, closed to new applications, and the biennial update adjusting compensation for what follows is still pending, so rates for new applications are unsettled. Separately, Vermont’s 6% sales tax exemption on solar equipment carried an expiry on the same date. Confirm both with your utility and the Department of Taxes before signing.
Partly. Your adjustor values are fixed at enrollment: positive siting and REC adjustors pay for 10 years from commissioning, a negative REC adjustor runs for the system’s life, and the blended base rate they modify is recalculated every 2 years for everyone. That is why the enrollment vintage is a real asset in Vermont, and why it is worth establishing in writing who holds it if a company owns the system on your roof.
No income tax credit for residential solar. What Vermont has is a property tax exemption under 32 V.S.A. section 3802 for net-metered or off-grid residential systems under 50 kW serving only the property they sit on, which is structural and does not expire, plus a 6% sales tax exemption on solar equipment that carried a June 30, 2026 expiry and should be checked with the Department of Taxes.
The tariff debate obscures the number that matters most. Vermont households pay around 23.52¢ per kilowatt-hour on statewide average, among the highest in the country, and every unit the roof produces and the house uses displaces power at that price regardless of any biennial review. A design that maximizes direct self-consumption is largely insulated from the changes described here, whoever owns the system.
Ask who holds the enrollment before you sign. Enter your ZIP code to see who serves your address.
Get both June 30 answers before signing
References & Research Sources
The adjustor mechanics, window figures and program statuses above come from the records below. The biennial update is pending as of August 21, 2026 and will change the numbers for new applications. Sources accessed between June 10 and August 21, 2026.
- Vermont Public Utility Commission. Commission Rule 5.100 and the NM 2.6 program terms. The statewide net metering structure, the blended residential rate, the REC and siting adjustors (zero-or-positive adjustors paying for 10 years from commissioning, negative REC adjustors in perpetuity, over a blended base that resets biennially), Category I treatment of rooftop systems up to 15 kW, the NM 2.6 window (July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2026), and the pending biennial update under Rule 5.128 leaving post-June-2026 rates unsettled. Accessed August 21, 2026.
- Green Mountain Power. Net metering program page. The NM 2.6 window values behind this page: 15.0¢ for self-consumed generation and 14.3¢ for excess, derived from the 18.3¢ blended rate less the 4¢ rooftop adjustor. Accessed August 21, 2026.
- Vermont General Assembly. 32 V.S.A. section 9741(15). The 6% sales tax exemption on solar equipment and its June 30, 2026 scheduled expiry; confirm current status with the Department of Taxes. Accessed August 17, 2026.
- US Energy Information Administration. Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A: Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers. The Vermont statewide average residential rate of 23.52¢ 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 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.
