Missouri is usually described as a full retail net metering state, and the description is accurate for exactly one billing period at a time. Inside a month, a kilowatt-hour you send out cancels a kilowatt-hour you pull back. Past that, two things happen that the headline never mentions: the surplus is repriced to one of the narrowest rates in American utility regulation, and whatever is left of it disappears twelve months later without payment.
Retail Netting That Only Lasts a Month
The full Missouri inventory and where each piece stands:
To weigh Missouri against the country as a whole, start with our national rebate and credit guide.
Program | What it pays | Status in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
Net metering (RSMo 386.890) | Monthly 1:1 netting at your supplier’s retail rate; surplus repriced to avoided fuel cost | Active at every retail electric supplier, systems up to 100 kW |
Surplus credit expiry | Unused credits expire without compensation 12 months after issuance | Statutory |
Missouri state tax credit | None | No program exists or is pending |
Federal 25D credit | $0 | Ended for systems you buy and own whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 |
Federal 48E credit | Reaches you only as lease or PPA pricing | Third-party owners only |
The Net Metering and Easy Connection Act, at section 386.890 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, requires every retail electric supplier to net a customer-generator’s production against consumption within each billing period, for systems up to 100 kW. Within that window the arrangement is genuinely one for one at your supplier’s retail rate, and against Missouri’s statewide average residential rate of about 12.36¢ (your supplier’s rate will differ) that is worth having.
The monthly boundary is the whole design. A Missouri system sized to annual consumption spends spring and autumn generating surpluses that never meet the winter demand they were meant to cover, because the accounting resets before winter arrives. A system sized closer to monthly usage keeps more of its output inside the window where it is worth full retail.
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Avoided Fuel Cost Is Narrower Than Avoided Cost
When your generation exceeds your consumption in a billing period, the statute credits the surplus at at least the avoided fuel cost of those kilowatt-hours, applied to the following bill. Read that phrase carefully, because the word doing the work is fuel.
What a kilowatt-hour can be valued at | What it includes | Where Missouri sits |
|---|---|---|
Full retail | Fuel, generation capacity, transmission, distribution | Inside the billing period only |
Avoided cost | Fuel plus avoided capacity | Not the standard used here |
Avoided fuel cost | The cost of the fuel alone | Applied to every monthly surplus |
Most states that have moved away from retail netting land on avoided cost. Missouri’s statute reaches past that to the fuel component on its own, which strips out the capacity value that avoided cost normally includes. The statute defines it as the current average cost of fuel for the entity generating the electricity, so it moves with fuel prices and differs from one supplier to the next.
There is no single statewide figure. Each supplier sets its own avoided fuel cost and restates it as fuel prices change. Ask your supplier for its present avoided fuel cost in writing, and treat any quote that assumes retail value on surplus as wrong by construction.
Your Credits Expire Twelve Months After You Earn Them
The second haircut is a clock. Credits granted under the Act expire without any compensation at the earlier of twelve months after they were issued, or the moment you disconnect or end the net metering relationship.
Two consequences worth holding on to. A credit earned in May must be used by the following May or it is gone, so banking output across seasons only works within a rolling twelve months. And if you sell the house or leave the arrangement, any balance is forfeited on the spot rather than settled, which makes an unused credit balance a reason to time a move rather than ignore it.
Set beside the monthly repricing, the effect is that Missouri rewards a system you consume and penalizes one you export. That is not an argument against solar here. It is an argument against buying more of it than your own house will use.
Co-ops and City Utilities Are Covered Here
One genuinely good piece of news, and it is the opposite of what several neighboring states do. The Missouri Act binds retail electric suppliers generally, and the statute’s own definition of avoided fuel cost refers to the governing body with jurisdiction over a municipal utility, a rural electric cooperative or an electrical corporation. All three are inside the rule.
In Kansas the equivalent law reaches investor-owned utilities only. In Iowa it names two companies. A Missouri co-op member has a statutory right to net metering that a Kansas co-op member does not, which is worth knowing if you are comparing advice written for the region rather than for the state.
You Likely Will Not Qualify If
- You want a system over 100 kW. That is the statutory ceiling for net metering in Missouri, well above any normal rooftop system.
- You are planning to bank summer output for winter. Surplus is repriced to avoided fuel cost every month and the resulting credits expire twelve months after issuance.
- You expect a payout when you move. Credits expire without compensation the moment you disconnect or end the net metering relationship.
- You are expecting a Missouri state solar tax credit. There is not one at the state level.
- You are counting on the 30% federal credit. Section 25D is $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21.
Sizing Against a Monthly Reset
Put the two rules together and Missouri’s design points somewhere specific. The value is in matching generation to consumption month by month, not year by year, which usually means a slightly smaller array than an annual-offset calculation would suggest, and which makes any load you can shift into daylight hours worth more than an extra panel.
When you compare proposals, ask each installer to show monthly production against monthly usage rather than an annual total. An annual number can look like a perfect match while hiding six months of surplus being sold at fuel cost and six months of shortfall bought at retail. Our Missouri cost guide covers pricing and the Missouri installer list covers who does the work.
Missouri Solar FAQs
Yes. The Net Metering and Easy Connection Act at section 386.890 requires every retail electric supplier to net production against consumption within each billing period for systems up to 100 kW. Inside that month the exchange is one for one at your supplier’s retail rate; the statewide residential average is about 12.36¢. Anything beyond your monthly usage is repriced to avoided fuel cost.
At least the avoided fuel cost of the excess kilowatt-hours, applied to the following bill. That is a narrower measure than the avoided cost standard most states use, because it counts the fuel alone and excludes avoided capacity. The statute defines it as the current average cost of fuel for the entity generating the electricity, so it moves with fuel prices and differs by supplier.
Yes. Credits expire without any compensation at the earlier of twelve months after issuance, or when you disconnect service or end the net metering relationship. A credit earned in May must be used by the following May, and any balance is forfeited rather than settled if you sell the house or leave the arrangement.
Yes, and that sets Missouri apart from several neighboring states. The Act binds retail electric suppliers generally, and the statute’s definition of avoided fuel cost refers to municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives and electrical corporations alike. In Kansas the equivalent law covers investor-owned utilities only, and in Iowa it names two companies.
To monthly consumption rather than annual, because the netting window is a billing period and surplus beyond it loses most of its value. Ask each installer to show monthly production against monthly usage instead of an annual total, since an annual figure can look like a perfect match while concealing months of surplus sold at fuel cost and months of shortfall bought at retail.
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References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed RSMo 386.890, the Public Service Commission’s implementing rule, federal energy data, and IRS guidance for this page. Each supplier’s avoided fuel cost is set and restated by that supplier; ask yours for its current value in writing. Sources accessed between June 10 and August 20, 2026.
- Missouri Legislature. RSMo section 386.890, the Net Metering and Easy Connection Act. The obligation on all retail electric suppliers, the 100 kW ceiling, netting within each billing period, crediting of net excess at at least avoided fuel cost, the statutory definition of avoided fuel cost, and the 12-month credit expiry. Accessed August 20, 2026.
- Missouri Public Service Commission. 20 CSR 4240-20.065. The Commission’s implementing net metering rule. Accessed August 20, 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Electric Power Monthly. The Missouri statewide average residential price used for scale. Accessed August 20, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS). One, Big, Beautiful Bill Provisions. Guidance on the Public Law 119-21 termination of the Section 25D residential credit for systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025. Accessed August 20, 2026.
