Kansas Solar Incentives (2026): A Size Formula, Monthly Bill Credits and One Tax Break

What does Kansas law give a solar home in 2026?

Three things, all set by statute. None of them is a cash payment for panels.

Your utility’s name is at the top of your electric bill. If it is not Evergy or Liberty, the second row is your rule.

How big a solar system can you connect in Kansas?

Kansas does not leave this to you and your installer. State law limits your export capacity: the most power your system may send to the grid at one moment. The limit comes from your own electricity use.

Your bills show the kWh for each month. Add up the last 12 months. If the home has no usable history, the law counts 7.15 kWh per square foot of heated and cooled floor space instead. Example: a 2,000 square foot home counts as 14,300 kWh.

1. Divide your yearly kWh by 8,760. That is the number of hours in a year.
2. Divide the result by 0.144. In a co-op or city utility area, divide by 0.288 instead. That cuts the result in half.
3. Round up. With Evergy or Liberty net metering, round up to the next 2 kW for results up to 20 kW. Under parallel generation, round up to the next 1 kW.

Sizes are in AC power, the kind your home uses. The average Kansas home uses about 10,510 kWh a year, which gives 10 kW or 5 kW. The typical home system in Kansas is 6.71 kW. The law’s upper limit for net metering is 150 kW.

Watch out: Your system may make more power than it sends out, but not much more. Under net metering, for systems connected since January 1, 2026, generating capacity (the most the system can make) may be at most 50% above export capacity. Example: an export limit of 10 kW allows up to 15 kW of generating capacity. You then own and maintain the device that holds exports down.

What is your solar power worth on an Evergy or Liberty bill?

Evergy and Liberty are investor-owned utilities: companies owned by shareholders. The Kansas net metering law applies only to them. Its current terms cover systems that started on or after July 1, 2014, so every new one.

Each billing period, the utility compares the power you took from the grid with the power you sent out. You pay for the difference. Example: you take 900 kWh and send out 300 kWh. You are billed for 600 kWh.

If you sent out more than you took, the extra is not saved as kWh for a later month. It becomes a dollar credit at no less than 100% of the utility’s monthly system average cost of energy: what the utility paid for power that month, per kWh it sold. That leaves out the cost of delivery, so it is lower than the price on your bill.

We found no cents figure for this credit in the statute or in Evergy’s rate sheets. Ask your utility for last month’s figure in writing.

• Time-of-use plans: on an optional rate where the price changes by time of day, a system that started on or after July 1, 2024 is netted inside each time period, not across the whole month.
• The cap: each utility takes net metering customers first come, first served until their systems reach 4% of its peak demand, the most power its customers used at one time in the past year. The limit rises to 5% on July 1, 2027. Ask if room remains before you sign.
• Buying a home with older panels: a system that started before July 1, 2014 keeps older terms until January 1, 2030, also after a sale. Its extra kWh carry over from month to month, and any credit left on March 31 expires.

Watch out: Evergy Kansas Central customers who connected after October 1, 2018 must take a separate rate for solar homes, called Residential Standard Distributed Generation. Ask Evergy for that rate sheet. Liberty’s posted Kansas net metering sheet still showed older, smaller limits when we checked. Ask Liberty to confirm the current limits in writing.

What if a Kansas electric co-op or city utility sends your bill?

Then the net metering law does not cover you. A second law does: parallel generation. It applies to every Kansas electric utility. Evergy and Liberty customers may also choose it, in writing, in place of net metering.

The utility must let you connect and must pay for every kWh you send out. The price is no less than 100% of its monthly avoided cost: what that power would have cost the utility to make or buy. Until July 1, 2030 it may use a market price or its average energy cost instead. Power you take from the grid is billed at your normal rate.

The utility must confirm your application within 30 days and decide within 90 days, unless it needs a study. It may charge an application fee, study costs and needed upgrades.

Example for Midwest Energy: 100 kWh sent out at the 2025 average price earn about $3.21. The 2024 average was 2.300 cents per kWh.

Watch out: BPU warned its customers on January 14, 2026 about scam calls that claim a BPU net metering program. If a seller promises net metering in a co-op or city utility area, ask for the utility’s own rate sheet.

How do you get the Kansas property tax exemption for solar?

Kansas exempts property used mainly to make electricity from solar and other renewable sources. The law is K.S.A. 79-201 Eleventh. For a request filed after December 31, 2016, the exemption runs for the 10 years after the year your installation is finished.

It is not automatic. You file a first request with your county appraiser on the Board of Tax Appeals’ TX Application Form. The appraiser adds a recommendation and sends it to the Board, which decides. While the request is pending, the tax on that property is not due.

After approval you claim the exemption with the county by March 1 of each year.

• The fee: the Board charges a filing fee. Its schedule lists $400 per parcel for a real property exemption and $100 for other personal property exemptions. Ask your county appraiser which line applies to a home system.
• Ask this first: does your county add value to a home for its solar system? The exemption only saves money if it does.
• Batteries: the law covers property used mainly to generate electricity. It does not name batteries. Do not count on it for a battery.
• Sales tax: the Kansas list of sales tax exemptions, K.S.A. 79-3606, has no item for home solar equipment. Ask your installer to show sales tax as its own line in the quote.

Evergy Solar Subscription and BPU panel leases: solar without a roof

These are for renters and shaded roofs. Evergy’s version raises your bill.

• Evergy Solar Subscription: you pay for a share of an Evergy solar array. Evergy says it does not lower your bill. In Evergy’s Kansas Central area a share costs $29.63 a month, or about $10 a month more after the kWh it takes off your bill. It has been full since October 30, 2020, with a waitlist.
• Kansas City BPU Community Solar Farm: BPU customers, renters included, can lease 1 to 10 panels for about $330 each until 2042. BPU says each panel earns about $3.20 a month in bill credits, or about $38.40 a year.
• Neighbors and associations: a solar easement is a written deal with a neighbor that keeps sunlight to your panels open (K.S.A. 58-3801). It is voluntary and must be recorded with the county. We found no Kansas law that stops a homeowners association from restricting panels, so read your covenants first.

Five Kansas solar quotes that promise more than the law delivers

• The quote uses summer surplus to pay winter bills. New systems do not bank kWh. Extra power is settled each billing period at the utility’s energy cost.
• The system is larger than the formula allows. With 12,000 kWh of yearly use, the export limit is 10 kW with Evergy or Liberty and 5 kW with a co-op or city utility.
• The quote shows net metering, but a co-op or city utility sends your bill. Those utilities only have to offer parallel generation at avoided cost.
• Your utility has reached its cap. Net metering stops at 4% of peak demand and parallel generation at 7%. On July 1, 2027 the limits rise to 5% and 8%.
• The quote counts a sure property tax saving, or a free Evergy battery. The exemption needs a request, a fee and a yearly claim. Evergy’s home battery pilot is full and ends at the end of 2026.

Kansas solar paperwork: the utility first, the county appraiser after

1. Before any sales call: add up 12 months of kWh. Run the size formula and bring the result to every quote.You.
2. Before you sign: read the disclosure document. Since July 1, 2025 a solar seller must give you a separate disclosure document. It shows the total cost over the whole contract and a guarantee of how much power the system will make, with a remedy if it falls short within one year of switch-on. You sign it at least one calendar day after the contract. Without it the contract is void, and the seller can owe up to $10,000.The seller writes it. You sign it.
3. Before installation: apply to your utility. This is the interconnection application, the request for permission to connect. Wait for approval before work starts.Your installer files. The utility approves.
4. After switch-on: check your first bills. Look for the kWh you sent out and the cents figure used for any extra.You.
5. For the tax exemption: file with the county appraiser. Use the TX Application Form and pay the Board of Tax Appeals fee. Then claim the exemption with the county by March 1 each year.You. The county appraiser forwards it to the Board.

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