Nevada changed something in 2025 that sounds technical and is not. For new solar customers in the northern half of the state, the period over which your generation is measured against your consumption shrank from a month to fifteen minutes. Southern Nevada kept the month. Same regulator, same parent company, two arrangements that produce materially different bills from the same roof.
Which Half of the State You Live In Decides Your Netting Window
NV Energy operates as two utilities. Sierra Pacific Power serves the north, Reno, Sparks and Carson City among others. Nevada Power serves the south, including Las Vegas. The Public Utilities Commission’s decision in the consolidated rate cases, Dockets 25-02016 and 25-03006, treated them differently.
Where you are | Utility | How generation is matched to use |
|---|---|---|
Northern Nevada | Sierra Pacific Power | Per 15-minute interval, for applications approved on or after October 1, 2025 |
Southern Nevada | Nevada Power | Monthly netting, unchanged |
Anywhere, existing customers | Either | Keep their existing tier and monthly netting |
The Commission issued its order on September 16, 2025 and a modified final order on November 20, 2025. A challenge argued the shorter window was unlawful because state statute requires monthly netting; the First Judicial District Court in Carson City denied that petition in February 2026, so the arrangement stands.
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What a Fifteen-Minute Window Does to a Bill
Under monthly netting, a cloud passing over your roof at 2pm is invisible. Everything you generate in the month is set against everything you use in the month, and only the difference is priced. Under 15-minute netting, that same afternoon is chopped into 96 separate settlements a day, and each one is resolved on its own.
The consequence is arithmetic rather than opinion. Any quarter-hour where your panels run ahead of the house sends the difference out at the export rate, and any quarter-hour where the house runs ahead of the panels buys the difference back at full retail. Over a day of ordinary fluctuation, a household that nets to zero across the month can still export a large amount and import a large amount, paying the spread on both.
This is what makes a battery a different proposition in northern Nevada than in southern Nevada. Storage smooths the quarter-hour mismatches that the new window prices, so it recovers value that monthly netting never charged you for in the first place. A quote written for Las Vegas and reused in Reno will understate that.
If you are in the north and comparing proposals, ask each installer to model against interval data rather than monthly totals. A model built on monthly production and monthly usage cannot show you the effect of the rule you are actually being billed under.
Tier 4 Pays 75% of Retail, Locked for 20 Years
Nevada’s export rate comes from Assembly Bill 405, which replaced full retail net metering with a set of declining tiers. Each tier opened as the previous one filled, and the earlier and more generous ones are long gone.
Tier | Export credit | Status |
|---|---|---|
Tier 1 | 95% of retail | Closed |
Tier 2 | 88% of retail | Closed |
Tier 3 | 81% of retail | Closed |
Tier 4 | 75% of retail | Open to new residential systems |
Tier 4 credits exports at 75% of your own utility’s retail rate. Against Nevada’s statewide-average residential price of 14.16¢, that works out to roughly 10.6¢ as a benchmark; your exact credit follows the Sierra Pacific or Nevada Power rate on your bill. That is a good deal more than the wholesale avoided-cost rates several other states have moved to, and worth saying plainly: 75% of retail is not a bad export rate by 2026 standards.
The rate is locked for 20 years at the original location, and residential systems are capped at 25 kW. The lock attaching to the location rather than to you is worth knowing when buying or selling: the tier stays with the address.
A Demand Charge Arrives in January 2027
The same rate case approved a residential demand charge, a bill component based on your single highest burst of usage rather than on your total consumption. Its start was postponed to January 1, 2027.
Demand charges are unusual on residential bills and they interact badly with solar, because a solar system reduces the energy you buy without necessarily reducing the moment you buy the most of it. A cloudy evening peak sets your charge regardless of how much the panels produced at noon. This is the second reason storage matters more in Nevada from next year than it did last year.
Treat any 25-year projection that ignores the 2027 demand charge as incomplete. It is approved, dated and known, which is more than can be said for most future rate changes, and there is no excuse for a model to leave it out.
You Likely Will Not Qualify If
- You were hoping for Tier 1, 2 or 3. All three closed between 2018 and 2020. New residential systems enter at Tier 4 and 75% of retail.
- You are expecting a Nevada state solar tax credit. Nevada has no state income tax, so there is no return for a credit to reduce. This is structural rather than a policy choice that might change.
- 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. Third-party owners (lease and PPA companies) can still claim the separate 48E business credit, which can show up as a lower lease payment.
- You want a residential system above 25 kW. That is the cap for these terms.
- You are in the north and were quoted using monthly netting. Applications approved from October 1, 2025 in Sierra Pacific territory settle every 15 minutes, and a monthly model will overstate what you keep.
No Income Tax Means No Credit to Claim
Nevada is one of a handful of states with no personal income tax, which settles the most common question on this page before it is asked. There is no state solar tax credit here and there cannot be one in the usual form, because a credit works by reducing income tax owed and Nevada residents do not file a state return.
That is not the disadvantage it sounds like. What Nevada gives instead is a 75% export rate held for two decades, which several states with income taxes and no credit would struggle to match. The trade to understand is that Nevada’s support arrives through the tariff rather than through the tax code, which makes rate cases, not legislative sessions, the thing worth watching. Our Nevada cost guide covers pricing and the Nevada installer list covers who does the work.
Nevada Solar FAQs
Not in its original form. Assembly Bill 405 replaced full retail net metering with declining tiers, and new residential systems enter at Tier 4, which credits exports at 75% of the retail rate. Against Nevada’s statewide-average residential price of 14.16¢ that benchmarks at roughly 10.6¢ per exported kilowatt-hour; your exact credit follows your own utility’s rate. The rate is locked for 20 years at the original location and residential systems are capped at 25 kW.
It is the period over which your generation is measured against your consumption, and in northern Nevada it is now a quarter of an hour rather than a month. For applications approved on or after October 1, 2025 in Sierra Pacific Power territory, each 15-minute interval is settled on its own, so any short mismatch between panels and household exports at 75% of retail and imports at full retail. Nevada Power in the south still nets monthly.
Yes. The Public Utilities Commission approved it on September 16, 2025 and issued a modified final order on November 20, 2025. A court challenge arguing the shorter window conflicts with the monthly netting required by statute was denied in February 2026, so the arrangement stands.
No, and it cannot have one in the usual form. Nevada has no personal income tax, so there is no state return for a credit to reduce. Nevada’s support for solar arrives through the tariff instead, in the form of a 75% export rate locked for 20 years, which means rate cases rather than legislative sessions are what to watch here.
A bill component based on your single highest burst of usage rather than your total consumption, approved in the same rate case and postponed to January 1, 2027. It interacts badly with solar, because panels reduce the energy you buy without necessarily reducing the moment you buy the most of it. Any 25-year projection that ignores it is incomplete, since it is approved and dated.
North and south are priced differently now. Enter your ZIP code to see what Nevada installers are quoting.
Get quotes modeled on interval data
References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada’s net metering record and rate-case orders, court reporting, federal energy data, and IRS guidance for this page. Sources accessed between June 10 and August 20, 2026.
- Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. Net metering record. The Assembly Bill 405 tier structure, the closure of Tiers 1 to 3 at 95%, 88% and 81% of retail, the current Tier 4 rate of 75% of retail, the 20-year lock at the original location, and the 25 kW residential cap. Accessed August 20, 2026.
- Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. Consolidated rate case Dockets 25-02016 and 25-03006; order of September 16, 2025; Modified Final Order of November 20, 2025. The shift to 15-minute interval netting for Sierra Pacific applications approved on or after October 1, 2025, monthly netting retained for Nevada Power, preservation of existing customers’ terms, and the residential demand charge postponed to January 1, 2027. Accessed August 20, 2026.
- Vote Solar. Reporting on the First Judicial District Court’s denial of the petition for review. The February 2026 denial that left the Commission’s netting arrangement standing. Accessed August 20, 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Electric Power Monthly. The Nevada statewide average residential price used as the Tier 4 benchmark. 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.
