Dean has connected tens of thousands of homeowners with residential solar installers across all 50 states since 2021, and works directly with installers on pricing and financing.
Arkansas shut its grandfather window in 2024. Hawaii replaced its export program twice. Kentucky legislated a cut. Idaho moved to net billing. Delaware has done none of that: full retail netting under 26 Del. C. section 1014, no successor tariff proceeding, and no closing deadline pending. That absence is the most valuable thing Delaware offers a homeowner, and it is worth more than most of the incentives other states advertise.
Nothing Here Is Scheduled to Get Worse
Element | Delaware position | Why it matters over twenty-five years |
|---|---|---|
Netting | One-to-one against consumption, monthly | Your output is worth what your power costs |
Month-end surplus | Carried forward as kilowatt-hours | Banked energy holds its value even if prices move |
Residential system cap | 25 kW | Far above anything a home needs, so not a real constraint |
Successor tariff or closing date | None pending | The arithmetic you run today is likely the deal you keep |
The second row deserves a moment, because it is a genuine technical advantage that rarely gets explained. Delaware carries your surplus forward as energy rather than as money. A kilowatt-hour banked in June is still a kilowatt-hour in January. States that bank a dollar credit instead leave you holding a fixed sum against a rising price, which quietly erodes every year. Delaware does not have that problem.
Delaware is one answer of fifty; the nationwide worth-it breakdown holds the rest.
For Delmarva Power customers, roughly 64% of Delaware households, the monthly excess credit has since January 2024 covered volumetric supply and distribution charges, which comes to effectively full volumetric retail value. The Delaware Electric Cooperative and the municipal systems in Dover and Newark set their own specifics under the same statute. The monthly one-to-one netting and the kilowatt-hour carry-forward are statutory for all three utilities under section 1014; what differs is how month-end surplus is valued. A system sized at or below your own usage runs the same arithmetic on your utility’s rate, so confirm the surplus valuation only before sizing above usage.
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The Rate Has Climbed 5.71% a Year for Five Years
The Delaware residential average is 16.75¢ per kilowatt-hour (EIA, statewide context; Delmarva files its own residential rate, and the cooperative and the municipals each set theirs), and that figure has risen about 5.71% a year over the past five years, among the fastest sustained climbs in the country.
Pair that with one-to-one netting and it produces an unusual combination. In most states, rising prices only help the share of output your house consumes directly, because exports are locked to a low fixed rate. In Delaware, rising prices lift the value of everything the roof makes, because every unit is measured against retail. The hedge works on the whole system.
A typical Delaware installation runs 7.8 kW at about $21,926, producing roughly 10,928 kWh a year against household use of around 911 kWh a month.
That system returns roughly $1,830 a year, giving a simple payback of about 12 years, or nearer 13 for a design that spills some output beyond what the netting absorbs. That figure values every netted kilowatt-hour at the statewide average, so treat it as the ceiling; your own payback runs on the rate printed on your bill, and a Delmarva customer should rerun the year-one saving with Delmarva’s filed residential rate before deciding.
Twelve years on equipment warranted for twenty-five is a strong result, and it is reached without a state tax credit, without a rebate and without an unusually strong solar resource. Delaware gets there on tariff design and electricity prices alone.
The Green Energy Program Is Not a Tax Credit
Delaware has no state income tax credit for residential solar. What it has historically offered instead is grant funding through the Green Energy Program, administered per utility rather than statewide. The distinction matters more than the name suggests.
Question | A tax credit | A Green Energy Program grant |
|---|---|---|
Who can get it | Everyone who qualifies | Applicants until the pool for that cycle runs out |
When you see the money | At tax time, after you have paid | Tied to the program’s own process and timing |
Does timing matter | Not really | Yes, because funds are finite each cycle |
So the one part of the Delaware picture that is time-sensitive is the grant. That is the reverse of most states, where the tariff is closing and the incentives are stable. Confirm current availability and terms with the program administrator for your utility before you build any number into a decision, because a grant pool that has been exhausted for the cycle is worth nothing to you this year.
The federal residential credit is $0 for host-owned systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21, so it plays no part in the figures above. Leases and PPAs are both legal in Delaware, and the company that owns a third-party system may qualify for the separate Section 48E business credit under current deadlines; whether any of that value reaches your payment depends on the contract, so ask for both in writing. The twelve-year payback above assumes no credit of any kind and no certificate income; the Delaware incentives guide covers the certificate market.
The Exceptions Worth Naming
A strong state case makes it more important to be clear about the exceptions.
- Shading or a poor roof aspect. At 4.92 peak sun hours Delaware is unremarkable for sunshine, so it has less margin to absorb a shaded roof than a southwestern state would.
- A roof due for replacement inside twelve years. Removing and refitting an array is a real cost arriving before the system has paid for itself.
- Moving before the system pays back. At about 12 years simple payback, selling inside that window means leaving before the savings have caught up with the cost, and any recovery through the sale price is not something these figures count.
- A cooperative or municipal customer who has not checked the specifics. The Delaware Electric Cooperative, Dover and Newark set their own credit details under section 1014, so confirm yours rather than assuming the Delmarva treatment.
- Any quote showing a 30% federal credit. That credit does not exist for a purchased system whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025, and a proposal still using it is overstating your return by thousands.
Delaware asks less of a homeowner than most states do. The tariff is durable, the arithmetic is simple, and the main thing to get right is confirming your own provider’s terms and checking whether grant funding is currently open. Our Delaware incentives guide covers the program detail, and the Delaware installer list covers who works here.
Ask for quotes from installers who handle Green Energy Program pre-approval, then enter your ZIP code to see who works in Delaware.
Get quotes from installers who handle Green Energy Program pre-approval
Delaware Solar FAQs
Are solar panels worth it in Delaware?
For a household near the 911 kWh-a-month typical usage, on an unshaded roof with more than twelve years of life left, that plans to stay past the payback, the math works: simple payback about 12 years on a typical 7.8 kW system costing around $21,926 at the statewide average rate, assuming no tax credit of any kind. Small bills, heavy shade, a roof due for replacement, or a move inside the payback window change the answer. Delaware credits your output one-to-one against consumption under 26 Del. C. section 1014, and household electricity prices have risen about 5.71% a year, among the fastest sustained climbs in the country, which lifts the value of everything the roof produces.
Does Delaware still have net metering?
Yes, and unusually there is no successor tariff proceeding and no closing deadline pending. Net metering runs under 26 Del. C. section 1014 for Delmarva Power, the Delaware Electric Cooperative and the municipal utilities, with residential systems up to 25 kW netted one-to-one each month. For Delmarva customers the monthly excess credit has since January 2024 covered volumetric supply and distribution charges, which is effectively full volumetric retail value.
What happens to my extra Delaware solar production?
Month-end surplus carries forward as kilowatt-hours, which is a real advantage. Energy banked in summer is still energy in winter, so its value keeps pace with electricity prices. States that bank a fixed dollar credit instead leave you holding a set sum against a rising price, and that erodes quietly every year. Delaware does not have that problem.
Does Delaware have a solar tax credit?
No state income tax credit for residential solar. What Delaware has historically offered instead is grant funding through the Green Energy Program, administered per utility rather than statewide. A grant differs from a credit in a way that matters: it comes from a finite pool for each cycle rather than being available to everyone who qualifies, so timing affects whether you get it. Confirm current availability with the administrator for your utility.
Can I still get the federal solar tax credit in Delaware?
Not for a system you buy. Section 25D is $0 for host-owned systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21. Leases and PPAs are both legal in Delaware, and the company that owns a third-party system may qualify for the separate Section 48E business credit under current deadlines; whether any of that value reaches your payment depends on the contract, so ask for both in writing. The roughly 12-year payback above already assumes no credit at all, so it does not depend on one. Any Delaware quote still showing a 30% federal credit is describing rules that no longer apply and is overstating your return by thousands of dollars.
Methodology: simple payback before financing, rate escalation, degradation and certificate income, with no federal residential credit for host-owned systems, on the EcoGen Solar Cost Index benchmark of $2.81 per watt as of March 1, 2026 and 1,401 kWh per kW per year; the 25-year view in the Delaware cost guide uses 4% escalation against the state’s 5.71% five-year average and 0.5% annual degradation.
References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed Delaware Code Title 26, chapter 10, specifically 26 Del. C. section 1014, for the net metering structure covering Delmarva Power, the Delaware Electric Cooperative and the municipal utilities, the residential limit of 25 kW, the monthly one-to-one netting and the carry-forward of excess as kilowatt-hours, and for the absence of any successor tariff or closing deadline; the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency record for Delaware net metering for the Delmarva monthly excess credit valuation effective January 1, 2024 covering volumetric supply and distribution charges but excluding societal-benefit charges, following Senate Bill 298 of 2022, and for the absence of a Delaware state income tax credit for residential solar; Delaware’s Green Energy Program for the per-utility grant structure and its finite funding cycles, where award amounts and windows are set per utility and revised by cycle, so confirm the current cycle’s terms with your utility; EIA Electric Power Monthly for the 16.75¢ residential price and the five-year growth rate of roughly 5.71% a year; and IRS guidance on the Public Law 119-21 termination of Section 25D for systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025. Output of 1,401 kWh per kilowatt per year, 4.92 peak sun hours, the 7.8 kW system size, the $21,926 installed cost and the 911 kWh monthly usage are EcoGen America figures for Delaware dated March 1, 2026. Utility shares of residential customers are from EIA-861 2024. Sources accessed between June 10 and August 18, 2026.
