Freedom Solar Power, Longhorn Solar, Momentum Solar and Palmetto are the four installers in our vetted Texas network for 2026. Texas pays for exported solar through retail buyback plans rather than statewide net metering, so the right pick is the company that models your buyback plan honestly before it sizes your roof.
Texas retail electricity market structure, TDU territory notes, hail and heat design factors, and federal credit status reviewed August 2026.
Texas is the only large solar market where the company that installs your system does not control what your system earns. In most of the state your electricity is sold by a retail provider you chose, not by the wires company that reads your meter, and the buyback plan that decides what your production is worth is a competitive product you shop separately.
An installer who never asks who your retail provider is has left the single largest variable in your return unmodeled. That is the thing to test first here, ahead of price per watt.
The Texas Buyback Plan Test
There is no statewide net metering in Texas. What you get for power you export to the grid depends entirely on the buyback plan attached to your retail electricity contract, and those plans are not equivalent.
Buyback structure | How you actually get paid | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
Full kilowatt-hour credit | Exported power credited at, or close to, the rate you pay for what you buy | Households whose production regularly exceeds daytime use, if the underlying energy rate is competitive |
Credit capped at your monthly usage | Credits offset your bill but stop at zero, so surplus beyond consumption is lost | Households sized close to their own load, where surplus is small |
Below-retail buyback | Exports earn a lower stated rate than you pay to import | Households that consume most production on site, often paired with storage |
No buyback on the plan | Exported power earns nothing at all | Nobody with a grid-tied system, and this is the plan people land on by accident |
Note the trap in the first row: a generous buyback attached to an expensive energy rate can cost more than a modest buyback on a cheap one. Compare the whole contract, not the buyback line. Program and rate detail is in Texas solar incentives.
Four Texas Companies, Ordered by TDU Territory Coverage
Ordered by depth of Texas operating history and coverage across the Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, and TNMP territories, which is the criterion this page argues decides outcomes here. Ranking is not influenced by any commercial relationship, and no company pays for placement or position.
Freedom Solar Power
Texas-founded, with one of the longest residential track records in the state. A company whose home market is Texas has worked every major TDU interconnection queue rather than one of them.
Longhorn Solar
The entire business is this state, which in a market defined by retail choice means the buyback conversation is routine rather than occasional.
Momentum Solar
A large multi-state residential installer with an established Texas presence among roughly ten states.
Palmetto
Operating in Texas among fifteen states, with 25-year panel and inverter warranties and 10-year workmanship coverage.
Company | Home Base | Footprint | Warranty Highlights | TX Depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Freedom Solar Power | Texas | TX + FL | Published per project | All four TDU queues |
Longhorn Solar | Texas | TX only | Published per project | Austin, San Antonio, DFW |
Momentum Solar | Multi-state | ~10 states | 25-yr workmanship | Established presence |
Palmetto | National | 15 states | 25-yr panel/inverter, 10-yr workmanship | Texas among 15 states |
Two Texas-anchored companies and two multi-state operators is a sound shape for a quote set. Texas is competitive enough that a fourth quote genuinely moves the price, which is not true in a thin market.
A note on who is not here. ESD Solar appeared on this page previously. Its own site, now published under the ESD Roofing Solar brand, lists licensing in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina, with no Texas credential. We removed it from this page and from the Texas assignment in our installer database on August 4, 2026.
The Quote That Ignores Your Retail Provider
Texas has a characteristic bad proposal, and it is convincing precisely because it looks thorough.
It models production carefully, applies a single cents-per-kilowatt-hour figure to the whole annual output, and presents the difference as your savings. Every number in it can be internally consistent and the conclusion still be wrong, because the figure it applied belongs to a buyback plan you may not be on, and may not be able to get.
Three questions that expose it:
- Which retail provider and which plan did you model, and is that plan currently available to me at my address? Plans are withdrawn and repriced constantly.
- What did you assume exported power is worth, stated separately from what I pay to import? Two numbers, not one.
- What happens to my payback if my contract ends and the plan I signed for no longer exists? Retail contracts run on their own terms, and yours will expire long before the panels do.
Then compare cash price beside financed price for the identical system. A 6.45 kW system, roughly the average size for a four-bedroom house, priced both ways is what makes a dealer fee visible inside a low advertised rate.
Benchmark against what solar costs in Texas, settle the purchase question with whether solar is worth it in Texas, and for no-upfront-cost offers read how zero-down solar works in Texas first.
Hail, Heat, and What a Texas Warranty Actually Covers
Texas asks more of the hardware than almost any other state, and warranty language is where that shows up.
Hail is the live risk, not a theoretical one. Much of the state sits in a corridor that takes damaging hail regularly. Ask what hail rating the panels carry, what the warranty says about hail specifically, and whether your homeowners policy covers a roof-mounted array or treats it as a separate scheduled item. Get the insurance answer before installation, not after a storm.
Heat reduces output, and the derate belongs in the estimate. Panel output falls as cell temperature rises, and Texas summers are the extreme case in the months that dominate the annual production figure. A model with no heat derate is optimistic exactly when it matters.
Workmanship coverage is the clause that ages badly. Panel and inverter warranties come from manufacturers. The roof penetration warranty comes from the installer, and it is only as good as the installer still being there. Ask for the workmanship term in years, and ask who honors it if the company is sold.
Backup is a separate purchase from savings. After the 2021 grid failure many Texas homeowners want outage protection, which is legitimate and has nothing to do with payback. A standard grid-tied array shuts down in an outage unless it is designed with storage to island. If backup is why you are buying, say so, and require it priced as its own line.
Match a Buyback Plan to My Texas Usage
The buyback plan decides what your production earns, and it is the part of a Texas solar purchase nobody hands you. Enter your ZIP code to see your TDU territory and what a correctly modeled proposal has to account for before you compare prices.
Where Retail Choice Does Not Apply
Not all of Texas is deregulated, and the advice above changes if you are one of the exceptions.
Austin Energy, CPS Energy in San Antonio, and the state’s electric cooperatives and other municipal utilities operate outside retail choice. Customers there do not shop providers or buyback plans. Their utility sets both the rate and the solar compensation terms directly, and several run their own solar incentive programs that the deregulated market does not have.
If you are served by one of these, the question changes from “which plan should I shop” to “what does my utility pay for exported power, and does it offer a rebate I should be claiming?” Ask any company quoting you whether it has completed projects under your specific utility’s program, because the paperwork differs from an ERCOT retail project.
How We Rank Solar Companies
Rankings are built from what we can verify, never from who pays us. Five weighted factors:
Frequently Asked Questions
Not as a statewide policy. In the deregulated market, compensation for power you export to the grid comes from a buyback plan attached to your retail electricity contract, and terms vary by provider and plan. Municipal utilities and cooperatives such as Austin Energy and CPS Energy set their own terms instead.
No company is best for every home. The four in our network are Freedom Solar Power, Longhorn Solar, Momentum Solar, and Palmetto, ordered by depth of Texas TDU territory coverage. Anyone comparing solar companies in TX should ask each which retail buyback plan its savings model assumed, because that assumption moves the return more than the price gap between them.
The transmission and distribution utility owns the wires, reads your meter, and handles interconnection. Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, and TNMP are the major ones. Your retail provider sells you the electricity and sets the buyback terms. Solar involves both, which is why a company needs experience in your specific TDU territory.
Ask your installer to model it both ways, and check the terms of your current contract for early termination costs. What matters is that the plan you end up on has a buyback structure suited to how much you will export, which you cannot know precisely until the system is designed.
It depends on the panel warranty and on your homeowners policy, and the two are separate questions. Ask what hail rating the panels carry and what the manufacturer warranty says about hail, then confirm with your insurer how a roof-mounted array is treated before installation.
Not for a purchased system. The federal residential credit ended for installations completed after December 31, 2025. A lease or power purchase agreement provider may access a business-side credit, but the homeowner does not claim it.
Sources
References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed Public Utility Commission of Texas resources, the state’s retail electricity plan comparison materials, transmission and distribution utility interconnection resources, municipal utility solar program materials, installer service-area and licensing disclosures published by the companies themselves, and federal tax guidance for this article. Sources were accessed August 4, 2026, unless another publication, release, effective, or update date is listed below.
- Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). Retail Electric Competition and Customer Resources. State regulatory resource covering retail choice, provider obligations, and customer protections. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- Power to Choose. Texas Electricity Plan Comparison. State-operated resource listing retail electricity plans, including plans with solar buyback terms. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- Oncor Electric Delivery. Distributed Generation Interconnection. Transmission and distribution utility resource covering residential interconnection process and requirements. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- CenterPoint Energy. Distributed Generation Resources. Transmission and distribution utility resource covering residential solar interconnection. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- Austin Energy. Residential Solar Program. Municipal utility resource covering solar compensation and rebate terms outside the deregulated market. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- CPS Energy. Solar Resources. Municipal utility resource covering residential solar program terms in San Antonio. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- Freedom Solar Power. Company Locations and Service Area Resources. Installer-published Texas and Florida coverage information. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- Longhorn Solar. Company Service Area Resources. Installer-published Texas coverage information. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- Momentum Solar. Company Service Area Resources. Installer-published multi-state coverage information. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- Palmetto. Locations and Solar Protection Terms. Installer-published multi-state coverage and warranty information. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- ESD Roofing Solar. Company Licensing Disclosures. Installer-published state licensing information listing Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina credentials. Accessed August 4, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS). FAQs for Modification of Sections 25C, 25D, 25E, 30C, 30D, 45L, 45W and 179D under Public Law 119-21. Federal guidance confirming termination of the residential clean energy credit for installations completed after December 31, 2025. Accessed August 4, 2026.
