Eversource and United Illuminating rates and RRES tariff values current as of July 2026, per PURA Docket 25-08-02, Eversource’s RRES program filings, and United Illuminating’s 2026 program update.
Connecticut has no state solar tax credit and no cash rebate, and the federal residential credit dropped to $0 for systems finished after 2025. What pays here is the tariff you elect at interconnection: Netting or Buy-All under the Residential Renewable Energy Solutions program, locked for 20 years, plus a battery incentive and two tax exemptions.
Several widely listed Connecticut solar incentives stopped paying years ago. The Residential Solar Investment Program closed to new applications in 2021 once it reached its 350 MW target, so those performance payments no longer exist for a new system. The 30% federal credit under Section 25D is gone as well for anyone who buys a system outright this year.
At interconnection you elect one of two tariffs, the election runs 20 years, and it cannot be reversed. Everything else here is smaller than that decision.
Connecticut Solar Incentives at a Glance in 2026
Eight things pay a Connecticut homeowner in 2026, and none of them is a rebate check. Two are tariff options you choose between, two are income adders on that tariff, one is a battery program, two are permanent tax exemptions, and one is a community-solar subscription for households that cannot host panels.
Incentive | What It Pays in 2026 | Who Collects It | How to Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
RRES Netting | Full retail credit on net excess, less $0.0402/kWh on all output | System owner | Elect on the RRES application at interconnection |
RRES Buy-All | $0.3289/kWh for 100% of output, REC value included | System owner | Elect on the RRES application at interconnection |
Low-income adder | $0.055/kWh on Buy-All, $0.035/kWh on Netting | Income-qualified owner | Claim on the same RRES application |
Distressed-municipality adder | $0.0275/kWh on Buy-All, $0.0175/kWh on Netting | Owner in a qualifying town | Claim on the same RRES application |
Energy Storage Solutions | $30 per kWh of capacity at enrollment, plus $300 to $550 per kW of power per year for 10 years | Battery owner | Enroll through an approved contractor while a tranche is open |
Sales and use tax exemption | 100% of the 6.35% sales tax, or $1,134 on a $17,853 system | Buyer | Give the installer Form CERT-140 at purchase |
Property tax exemption | 100% of the value the system adds to the home | Homeowner | Automatic in most towns; some require an assessor filing |
SCEF community solar | $0.025 for each kWh of average monthly use, as a fixed monthly credit for up to 20 years | Income-qualified subscriber | Enroll through Eversource or United Illuminating |
Only one of the two adders is paid per project. Who collects each line matters as much as what it pays. Under a lease or a power purchase agreement, the third party owns the equipment and holds the tariff relationship, so the RRES payments and the federal business credit go to that company.
You will also find Connecticut incentives summarized elsewhere as “$6,000 to $8,000 in average savings.” That range was built when the 30% federal credit still applied to a purchased system. Take the credit out and the 2026 stack contains no rebate and no lump sum at all. The money arrives as a tariff paid per kilowatt-hour across 20 years, as a battery payment spread over ten, or as tax you are never charged in the first place.
Connecticut Programs That No Longer Pay in 2026
The Residential Solar Investment Program (RSIP) is closed. It stopped accepting applications in 2021 after the state hit its 350 MW residential target, and RRES replaced it in January 2022. Systems already enrolled keep their payments; a system installed today cannot join.
Traditional net metering is closed too. It ended for new residential systems on December 31, 2021. Anything interconnected before January 1, 2022 stays grandfathered on the legacy terms.
The old $250/kWh battery incentive is retired. Energy Storage Solutions paid that rate upfront until April 1, 2026, when the program restructured.
ConnectedSolutions stopped taking new battery enrollments on December 1, 2023, though legacy customers continue through 2027.
Where the Federal Solar Credit Stands in Connecticut
A Connecticut homeowner who buys a system in 2026 gets nothing from the federal government. Nothing comes back from Washington, so the price you are quoted is the price you carry.
Section 25D Ended for Installations Completed After 2025
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act terminated the residential clean energy credit under Section 25D with no phase-down. For any host-owned system whose installation completed after December 31, 2025, the credit is $0.
The practical result is that gross price and net price are now the same number. A 6.45 kW system, the average size for a four-bedroom house, at Connecticut’s competitive installed pricing runs $17,853, which works out to $2.77 per watt, and $17,853 is what you finance or pay. There is no federal reduction underneath it.
Section 48E Belongs to the Lease or PPA Owner
Section 48E is a business-side investment credit. It is claimed by whoever owns the equipment, which under a lease or a power purchase agreement is the solar company, never the homeowner. There is no homeowner-claimable percentage under 48E, and any quote that presents one as a credit you will file is wrong.
Both leases and power purchase agreements are legal in Connecticut, so this structure is available here. The benefit reaches you only as it is priced into the monthly rate you were quoted, which is a different thing from money back on a return. If you are weighing that structure against ownership, start with zero-down solar options in Connecticut, which covers Smart-E financing and dealer-fee markups in full.
The RRES Tariff Election: Netting or Buy-All, Locked 20 Years
Most new residential systems in Eversource or United Illuminating territory elect one of two tariffs when they interconnect. The Residential Renewable Energy Solutions program is authorized by Conn. Gen. Stat. §16-244z, and its current rates come from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority’s Year 5 decision in Docket 25-08-02, issued December 17, 2025. In plain terms: the state sets two fixed prices each year, you pick one before your system energizes, and that price is yours for two decades. Eversource also lists Rate 980 as an alternative interconnection path, but it is not billed like the old net-metering program and is rarely the better choice for a residential project.
Residential enrollment caps at 25 kW, and the clock starts at first interconnection.
Feature | Netting | Buy-All |
|---|---|---|
What the utility pays you | Full retail credit, supply and delivery, on net excess | $0.3289/kWh on 100% of output |
Solar Energy Adjustment (charged on production) | $0.0402/kWh on every kWh generated | None |
What you buy from the grid | Only your net shortfall | All household consumption at retail |
Credit handling | Rolls indefinitely, no cash-out until the account closes | Paid against the account |
REC value | $0.00 | Included in the $0.3289 rate |
Rates shown are for 2026 enrollees. Both elections lock for 20 years from interconnection and cannot be changed afterward.
How Netting Credits Exports at Full Retail
Under Netting, electricity your array sends to the grid earns a credit at the full retail rate, supply and delivery together. That is a one-for-one trade, which means the split between what you use on site and what you export does not change the value of a kilowatt-hour. Credits roll forward indefinitely, and Connecticut does not cash them out or refund them until the account is terminated.
The REC rate under Netting is $0.00 in both Eversource and United Illuminating territory. Renewable energy certificates are not a separate income stream here.
How Buy-All Pays $0.3289 for Every kWh You Produce
Under Buy-All the utility purchases your entire output at the 2026 Buy-All rate of $0.3289/kWh, REC value included, and you buy every kilowatt-hour your household uses at the standard retail rate.
Eversource states the terms on its RRES page: “The Buy-All rate for approved applications submitting in 2025 is $0.3195 per kWh, and the Buy-All rate for approved applications submitting in 2026 is $0.3289 per kWh. This rate includes the REC value. Once enrolled, your incentive rate is locked in for a 20-year term.”
Connecticut is unusual on this point. Eversource’s all-in residential rate is $0.2785/kWh and United Illuminating’s is $0.3175/kWh, both effective July 1, 2026. Buy-All at $0.3289/kWh sits above both. The utility pays more for a kilowatt-hour than it charges for one, which reverses the export arrangement used in the rest of the country.
The trade-off is escalation. Your Buy-All price never rises, while the retail price you pay for household electricity does.
Which RRES Option Fits Your Household
Example: the representative Connecticut system. A 6.45 kW array sized to a household using 695 kWh a month produces 8,346 kWh a year. Under Buy-All that output earns $2,745 in tariff payments in year one, and the same $2,745 in year twenty, since the rate is fixed. Under Netting the same array earns $1,989 a year in Eversource territory and $2,314 in United Illuminating territory, after the $336 production charge comes out. Buy-All starts ahead in both. Netting’s credits follow the retail rate upward every year, while the Buy-All price stays exactly where it started.
Both Netting figures assume the household’s 8,340 kWh of annual usage closely matches the array’s 8,346 kWh of production, so the tariff’s value is the retail purchase it avoids plus the credit on whatever is left over. A household that uses far less than it generates would see a different result. Fixed monthly customer charges apply under either tariff and drop out of the comparison.
The question is not which tariff pays more today, but whether you expect Connecticut electricity prices to keep climbing, and whether you will still own the house long enough for that to matter. Buy-All rewards certainty and a shorter horizon. Netting rewards a long hold in a rising-rate state. For the full payback comparison, see whether solar pays off in Connecticut.
Treat this as a twenty-year commitment. You cannot switch tariffs after enrollment, and the compensation that applies after year twenty has not been set.
Connecticut has already started work on what follows. Public Act 26-127, signed in 2026, extends the state’s residential, commercial, and community solar framework toward 2035 and directs the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to open a proceeding by August 1, 2026 to establish a successor to RRES. The same law orders a study of consumer protections around solar leasing and sales, and legalizes qualifying portable plug-in systems from October 1, 2026. None of that changes the tariff you elect today. Your 20-year term runs on the rates above.
How to Enroll in RRES, and What It Costs
The paperwork is not the first step. Eversource requires you to sign up for a Home Energy Solutions assessment unless the home was built in 1980 or later, and the system must be sized to the property’s historical load as well as staying under the 25 kW ceiling.
You can request allowances above that load for planned electrification:
- 3,285 kWh for up to two electric vehicles
- 3,608 kWh for a whole-home air-source heat pump
- 2,458 kWh for a ground-source heat pump
Once sizing is settled, enrollment runs in four steps.
- Your installer files the RRES application. Eversource charges $163 for it; United Illuminating charges $200.
- You elect Netting or Buy-All on that application. This is the irrevocable choice, and it should be settled before the paperwork goes in.
- The utility installs the required meter. Eversource charges $183 for a Form 2S meter or $234 for a Form 12S; United Illuminating charges $348.
- You pass inspection and receive permission to operate. Your 20-year term begins at that first interconnection.
If you qualify for an income adder, it is claimed on this same application. There is no separate program to apply to.
What the Solar Energy Adjustment Costs a 2026 Netting Enrollee
A 2026 Netting enrollee pays $0.0402 for every kilowatt-hour the array produces, not only for the kilowatt-hours it exports. On a 6.45 kW system generating 8,346 kWh a year, that comes to $336 a year, every year of the 20-year term. The difference between charging exports and charging production is why a Netting quote and a Netting outcome can diverge.
The rate jumped eight times over in one year. A 2025 enrollee pays the Solar Energy Adjustment at $0.005/kWh and keeps that rate under protection through 2039. A 2026 enrollee pays $0.0402/kWh, locked for the same 20 years.
You may see $0.0325/kWh quoted instead. That figure comes from the 2025 legislative analysis of the increase. The rate the utilities actually implemented for 2026 enrollees is $0.0402/kWh, and that is what appears on the bill as “Solar Energy Adjustment.” Check any proposal against the utility figure, not the legislative one.
A battery cannot avoid it, and neither can higher self-consumption, a bigger load, or an EV charger. The charge follows generation, so where the electricity goes afterward is irrelevant to it. Any storage proposal that presents a battery as a way to reduce this charge is describing something that does not happen.
The charge should also change how you size the array. Under Netting, each kilowatt of capacity beyond your household’s real usage carries the adjustment without offsetting a purchase you would have made anyway. Size the system to the electricity you use. Buy-All carries no such charge, which pulls the sizing question back into the tariff decision.
Energy Storage Solutions After the April 2026 Restructure
Connecticut’s battery program remains one of the strongest in the country, and since April 1, 2026 it pays on entirely different terms. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority’s Year 5 decision in Docket 25-08-05 replaced a large upfront payment with a small one plus a decade of performance payments for letting the utility call on your battery.
What ESS Pays Now: Enrollment Plus Ten Years of Active Dispatch
Three customer categories set the dispatch rate. Standard covers everyone who does not qualify for the other two. Underserved covers households in designated distressed or environmental justice communities. Low-Income covers households at or below 60% of state median income, verified by pay stubs, a W-2, or enrollment in another income-qualified program.
Enrollment pays $30 per kWh of battery capacity in every category, or $130 per kWh on a grid-edge circuit. Only the Active Dispatch rate changes with income category.
| Customer category | Active Dispatch, per kW of power per year, for 10 years |
|---|---|
| Standard | $300 |
| Underserved | $450 |
| Low-Income | $550 |
Total ESS payments are capped at the lesser of $16,000 or 50% of system cost. On a 5 kW battery, ten years of Active Dispatch reaches that cap in the Underserved and Low-Income categories, so the higher rates may not produce a proportionally higher total.
A 13.5 kWh battery on a standard circuit earns $405 at enrollment under $30 per kWh, and the ten years of Active Dispatch payments that follow account for most of the total. Grid-edge circuits, where the utility most needs the support, pay more than four times that enrollment rate.
A battery of that capacity with a 5 kW power rating earns $300 per kW-yr on a standard circuit, or $1,500 a year, which comes to $15,000 across the ten-year term against $405 at enrollment. That sits just under the $16,000 ceiling, though the cap’s other leg, 50% of system cost, may bind first depending on what the battery costs. Check the power rating in kW on any quote, not just the capacity in kWh, because the dispatch payment is calculated on the former.
The Retired $250/kWh Structure and Who Holds It
Before April 2026, Energy Storage Solutions paid $250/kWh upfront with Passive Dispatch, capped at $16,000, and up to $600/kWh for low-income households. Those terms are closed to new enrollees.
Customers who enrolled before the change keep what they signed up for. If a contractor quotes you $250/kWh on a 2026 installation, they are working from retired program terms and the proposal will not hold.
ESS Funding Runs in Tranches and Can Pause
Energy Storage Solutions releases funding in tranches. When a tranche fills, enrollment pauses until the next one opens, which can leave a project that was budgeted around the incentive waiting for money that has not been released yet.
Confirm the current tranche status with your contractor and get it in writing before you sign anything priced on the assumption that ESS will pay.
Connecticut’s Sales and Property Tax Exemptions
Neither of these has a funding cap, a sunset date, or any dependence on a regulator’s next decision.
The 6.35% Sales Tax Exemption and Form CERT-140
Conn. Gen. Stat. §12-412(117) exempts solar energy equipment and its installation labor from the state’s 6.35% sales and use tax. Your installer does not charge you sales tax, so the saving shows up as a lower contract price, with nothing to file afterward.
You claim it by giving the installer Form CERT-140 at the point of purchase. There is no application, no waiting list, and no expiration date.
On a 6.45 kW system priced at $17,853, the exemption is worth $1,134, which is 6.35% of that contract price. A correct quote already has the tax removed rather than listing it as a charge you reclaim later. For how that fits into the full installed price, see what a Connecticut solar system costs.
The Property Tax Exemption on the Value Solar Adds
Connecticut exempts 100% of the value a residential renewable energy system adds to a property from local assessment. Solar raises what a home is worth; your assessment does not rise to match.
The exemption applies statewide, though some towns ask the owner to file with the local assessor. Call your assessor’s office before the install and ask which applies in your municipality, because a missed filing in a town that requires one is the kind of thing nobody catches until the next revaluation.
Income-Based Adders and Shared Clean Energy Facilities
Income-linked programs reach households the main incentive set does not.
The Low-Income and Distressed-Municipality RRES Adders
Qualifying low-income households receive an additional $0.055/kWh on Buy-All or $0.035/kWh on Netting, on top of the base tariff rate. Households in an economically distressed municipality receive $0.0275/kWh on Buy-All or $0.0175/kWh on Netting.
The two do not stack. Eversource and United Illuminating pay one additional incentive per project, so a household that qualifies on both counts receives the larger of the two, not the sum.
Low-income here means verified household income at or below 60% of Connecticut’s state median income, adjusted for family size. Participation in an income-qualified utility hardship program also qualifies you, including the Winter Protection Program, the Matching Payment Program, and a low-income or electric discount rate, as does having gone through Home Energy Solutions Income Eligible within the past three years. The distressed-municipality adder turns on your town’s place on the state’s economically distressed municipality list rather than on your income.
Both adders are paid by Eversource and United Illuminating, and both are paid even though the standalone REC rate is $0.00. On a Buy-All election, the low-income adder raises the effective rate to $0.3839/kWh, a premium on top of a rate that already exceeds retail.
Neither adder has its own application. Both are claimed on the RRES form your installer files, so confirm your eligibility early.
SCEF Community Solar for Renters and Shaded Roofs
Shared Clean Energy Facilities is Connecticut’s community solar program, and it sits entirely outside RRES. Subscribers receive a fixed monthly bill credit equal to $0.025 multiplied by their average monthly usage, for a term of up to 20 years.
The program is income-restricted, and enrollment runs through Eversource or United Illuminating. For a renter, a condo owner without roof rights, or a homeowner whose roof is too shaded to justify an array, this is the one Connecticut program that returns something.
Who Qualifies for RRES, and Where Connecticut’s Incentives Stop
Whether these programs reach you comes down to who owns the system, which utility bills you, and how large the array is.
Ownership. A host-owned system collects the RRES tariff, any adders, and both tax exemptions. Under a lease or a power purchase agreement the third party owns the equipment, claims the federal business credit, and holds the tariff. Your benefit is whatever was built into the rate you signed.
Utility territory. RRES runs through Eversource and United Illuminating only. Wallingford and Norwich operate municipal electric utilities and sit outside the program entirely, setting their own compensation terms locally. If you are served by either, confirm the terms directly with the utility before you assume any figure here applies.
System size. Residential RRES enrollment caps at 25 kW, a ceiling no Connecticut household of median usage will approach.
Some households should not buy a system at all.
Low household usage. The fixed costs do not scale down. RRES application and meter fees run $346 in Eversource territory and $548 in United Illuminating territory, and the monthly customer charge of $9.62 with Eversource or $13.02 with United Illuminating stays on the bill regardless of what the array produces. Below 200 to 250 kWh a month, those fixed costs absorb most of what a sub-2 kW system would earn. SCEF is the better fit.
A short stay, a tired roof, or no roof at all. The election stays with the system for its full 20-year term, so a move within five years leaves most of the tariff value behind, and a lease or power purchase agreement that transfers with the home is the more sensible structure for a household that expects to sell. A roof with under ten years of life should be replaced first, because removing and reinstalling an array during a re-roof adds $1,500 to $4,000. Renters and heavily shaded properties should look at SCEF.
One last check before you sign anything. Connecticut requires a PV-1 Limited Solar Electric Contractor license or an E-1 or E-2 electrical license for solar work, and every license can be verified at eLicense.ct.gov. Start with vetting Connecticut solar installers before you take a quote seriously.
See Which Connecticut Solar Incentives Apply at Your Address
Eligibility here turns on three local facts: which utility serves you, how much electricity your household uses, and whether your town appears on the economically distressed municipality list. Enter your ZIP code to see which RRES terms, adders, and storage incentives apply where you live, and what each would pay on a system sized to your usage.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Connecticut has never offered a state income tax credit for residential solar, and it does not offer a cash rebate either. The state’s tax support comes through the 6.35% sales tax exemption and the property tax exemption on added home value.
Not on a system you buy. Section 25D is $0 for any host-owned installation completed after December 31, 2025. Lease and power purchase agreement providers can still reach a federal credit, but that credit belongs to whoever owns the equipment.
Only homeowners who enrolled before it closed in 2021. The Residential Solar Investment Program stopped taking applications once the state reached its 350 MW residential target, and RRES replaced it in January 2022. A system installed in 2026 cannot receive RSIP performance payments.
Not for new systems. Traditional net metering closed to new residential customers on December 31, 2021, and RRES replaced it in January 2022. The closest equivalent today is the RRES Netting tariff, which credits net exports at the full retail rate but charges 2026 enrollees $0.0402/kWh on everything the system produces. Systems interconnected before January 1, 2022 remain on the legacy terms.
Buy-All pays $0.3289/kWh flat for 20 years, above both utilities’ current all-in rates, and that price never rises. Netting credits exports at whatever the retail rate happens to be, which grows over time, but charges $0.0402/kWh on all production. A long hold in a rising-rate state favors Netting; a shorter horizon or a flat-rate expectation favors Buy-All.
No. Eversource and United Illuminating pay one income-based adder per project, so a household that qualifies on both counts receives the higher of the two. On a 2026 Buy-All election that means $0.055/kWh, not $0.055 plus $0.0275. Both are claimed on the same RRES application your installer files.
No. The adjustment applies to every kilowatt-hour the system generates, whether that electricity goes to your home, to a battery, or to the grid. Storage changes when you use your own power; it does not change what you are charged for producing it.
Not for new enrollees. Energy Storage Solutions retired that structure on April 1, 2026 and replaced it with a $30/kWh enrollment incentive plus ten years of Active Dispatch performance payments. Customers who enrolled before that date keep the old terms.
That has not been decided. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority is studying the future of these tariff programs in Docket 25-02-14, and Public Act 26-127 requires it to open a proceeding by August 1, 2026 on a successor to RRES. No successor compensation has been set. Plan your project on the 20-year term in front of you, which is unaffected by whatever replaces the program for later enrollees.
Sources
References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed the sources below for this article. Sources were accessed August 5, 2026, unless another publication, release, effective, or update date is listed below.
- Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, Residential Renewable Energy Solutions Program. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Eversource, Connecticut Residential Solar Incentives (RRES). Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Eversource, Connecticut Residential Solar FAQ. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- United Illuminating, 2026 RRES Program Update for Developers. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service, One Big Beautiful Bill Act Provisions. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- U.S. Government Publishing Office, Public Law 119-21, Sec. 70513, Clean Electricity Investment Credit (Section 48E). Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Connecticut Department of Revenue Services, Special Notice 2010(9.1), Sales and Use Tax Exemption for Solar Energy Systems. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Connecticut DEEP, Shared Clean Energy Facilities. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Connecticut DEEP, Governor Lamont Announces Lower Electricity Rates. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, Solar Energy Work Licensing. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Energy Storage Solutions, Program Changes for April 1, 2026. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Connecticut Green Bank, Energy Storage Solutions Program Updates for 2026. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Eversource, Shared Clean Energy Facility Program. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 Annual Electric Power Industry Report. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- NREL, PVWatts Calculator. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S. Distributed Solar and Storage 2025 Data Update. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- DSIRE, Connecticut Property Tax Exemption for Renewable Energy Systems. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Connecticut General Assembly, Public Act 26-127 (House Bill 5340). Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Eversource, Am I Eligible for an Income-Based Incentive?. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- United Illuminating, Connecticut Residential Solar Incentives. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Energy Storage Solutions, Who Qualifies as a Low-Income Customer?. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Connecticut DECD, Distressed Municipalities. Accessed August 5, 2026.
