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Louisiana households use more electricity than those in almost any other state, around 1,202 kWh a month, which is exactly the profile solar should suit. What complicates it is that the state answers the solar question in two different ways depending on whether your bill comes from a utility regulated by the state or by a city council. New Orleans is not on the same arrangement as the rest of Louisiana, and it is the first thing to establish.
Most of Louisiana Buys Your Surplus at Wholesale
Since January 1, 2020, under Louisiana Public Service Commission General Order 09-19-2019, utilities under LPSC jurisdiction bill what you import at the full retail rate and credit what you export at avoided cost, calculated from a trailing twelve-month average of wholesale market prices and updated every year. Credits carry forward and are cashed out on a final bill.
Louisiana is one answer of fifty; the national payback picture holds the rest.
Provider | 2026 export credit per kWh | In force from |
|---|---|---|
Entergy Louisiana | 3.86¢ | April 1, 2026 |
Cleco | 3.85¢ | March 1, 2026 |
SWEPCO | 3.66¢ | April 1, 2026 |
Entergy New Orleans | Monthly net metering under New Orleans City Council rules, residential up to 25 kW | Outside the 2020 Commission order |
Set the first three rows against the 13.07¢ statewide average residential rate, about 27% below the US average, and the shape is familiar from every net-billing state: power your house uses is worth roughly three and a half times what you export.
One thing genuinely moved in homeowners’ favor this year. Those credits were around 2.59¢ to 2.9¢ in 2025, so the 2026 figures are up roughly half at Entergy Louisiana and Cleco and about a quarter at SWEPCO. That is not a policy decision anyone made on your behalf; it tracks wholesale prices, and it can fall again next year on the same mechanism.
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New Orleans Is Regulated by the City Council
Entergy New Orleans is the one part of Louisiana that never moved to avoided cost, and the reason is who regulates it.
Entergy New Orleans is regulated by the New Orleans City Council, not the Commission, and the Council’s rules require it to offer net metering for residential systems up to 25 kW, with monthly offset and excess credited forward. The Commission order that moved the rest of Louisiana to avoided cost on January 1, 2020 never reached it. Confirm your own account’s terms with the utility in writing before signing anything.
Why that matters on the bill: monthly kilowatt-hour netting means generation at midday offsets consumption that evening at full value, which is roughly the difference between the top and bottom rows of the table further down.
What a Louisiana System Returns
A typical installation here runs 9.68 kW at about $25,942, among the largest in the country because household consumption is high, producing roughly 14,423 kWh a year. The residential cap is 25 kW, well above anything a home needs.
Household pattern | Share used on site | Annual value | Years to break even |
|---|---|---|---|
Home most of the day, heavy daytime cooling | About 85% | $1,686 | 15.4 years |
Mixed occupancy (typical AC-heavy Louisiana home) | About 60% | $1,354 | 19.2 years |
Out during the day, evening-heavy | About 40% | $1,088 | 23.8 years |
Methodology: EcoGen America calculation from the EcoGen Solar Cost Index for Louisiana, $2.68 per watt as of March 1, 2026, with no federal residential credit for host-owned systems, exports at Entergy Louisiana’s 3.86¢ avoided-cost credit effective April 1, 2026, self-used power at the 13.07¢ statewide average. Simple payback before financing, rate escalation and degradation; our 25-year horizon assumes 0.5% annual degradation.
Self-used power is valued at the 13.07¢ statewide average, which is a benchmark rather than a billed rate. Your bill comes from Entergy Louisiana, Cleco or SWEPCO at that utility’s own filed rate, which is the number to put in this table. To place yourself, compare your summer daytime usage with your bill: a house that runs air conditioning through the afternoon lands in the top two rows; a house empty until evening lands in the bottom one. The Louisiana cost guide’s two-thirds case, about $1,420 a year and around 18 years, sits between the top two rows.
Orleans Parish is the exception. On monthly netting nearly every kilowatt-hour offsets retail, so an Orleans Parish household sits near the full-retail ceiling: about $1,885 a year and about 13.8 years on the same 9.68 kW system, valued at the 13.07¢ statewide average. Entergy New Orleans files its own residential rate. Louisiana electricity has risen about 3.66% a year over five years, which would pull every row in.
Louisiana summers do the heavy lifting in the top row. Cooling load peaks in the afternoon, which is when the roof produces, so a household that is actually home through a Louisiana August absorbs far more of its own output than the state average suggests.
If Your System Predates 2020, You Have a Date to Diarize
Systems interconnected before the 2020 change keep full retail netting through December 31, 2034, and drop to avoided cost after it.
That is an unusually clear piece of information to hold. It means an older Louisiana system is running on an arrangement worth roughly three and a half times the current one, with a known expiry rather than an open question, and it means the value of that house carries a dated asset a buyer can check. If you are buying a Louisiana home with existing panels, ask for the interconnection date; if it predates 2020, ask what happens to your bill in 2035 and plan on that number rather than today’s.
When Louisiana Solar Does Not Pay
- An empty house through the day on an avoided-cost account. Twenty-four years uses up nearly all of a 25-year equipment life, and no amount of sizing fixes it.
- A quote sized to fill the roof. Capacity above your own consumption earns 3.86¢ instead of 13.07¢, so a larger Louisiana array returns less per dollar.
- Any projection built on this year’s export credit holding. It is recalculated annually against wholesale prices and moved about half in one year. Ask to see the same design at a materially lower figure.
- A proposal showing a federal or state credit. Section 25D is $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21, and Louisiana’s old 50% residential credit is closed with nothing replacing it. A lease company that owns the system may qualify for the separate Section 48E business credit under current deadlines, and whether any of that value reaches your payment depends on the contract, so ask for both in writing.
- A roof that will not survive twenty years of Gulf weather. Removing and refitting an array arrives well before break-even in every row above.
Louisiana works for a household that is home during the day and staying put past year 15, and it works considerably better inside New Orleans, where monthly netting applies. Our Louisiana incentives guide covers the tariff detail, and the Louisiana installer list covers who works in the state.
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Louisiana Solar FAQs
Are solar panels worth it in Louisiana?
For a household that is home during the day, yes, at a simple payback around 15.4 years on our figures. For a house that is empty through the day it stretches to about 23.8 years and the case fails. Louisiana households use a lot of electricity, around 1,202 kWh a month, which helps, but most of the state credits exported power at avoided cost of roughly 3.86¢ against the 13.07¢ statewide average.
Is New Orleans different for solar?
Yes, and it is the most valuable question an Orleans Parish homeowner can ask. Entergy New Orleans is regulated by the New Orleans City Council, not the Louisiana Public Service Commission, and the Council’s rules require it to offer net metering for residential systems up to 25 kW, with monthly offset and excess credited forward. The Commission order that moved the rest of Louisiana to avoided cost on January 1, 2020 never reached it. Confirm your own account’s terms with the utility in writing before signing anything.
What does Louisiana pay for exported solar power?
Under Louisiana Public Service Commission General Order 09-19-2019, in force since January 1, 2020, imports are billed at retail and exports are credited at avoided cost calculated from a trailing twelve-month average of wholesale prices and updated annually. For 2026 that is 3.86¢ at Entergy Louisiana from April 1, 3.85¢ at Cleco from March 1 and 3.66¢ at SWEPCO from April 1. Those figures are up roughly half at Entergy Louisiana and Cleco and about a quarter at SWEPCO, from the 2025 range of about 2.59¢ to 2.9¢.
What happens to older Louisiana solar systems in 2034?
Systems interconnected before the 2020 change keep full retail netting through December 31, 2034, then move to avoided cost. That makes an older Louisiana system roughly three and a half times better off than a new one until that date, with a known expiry rather than an open question. If you are buying a home with existing panels, ask for the interconnection date and plan your own numbers on the post-2034 rate rather than today’s.
How big should a Louisiana solar system be?
No larger than your own consumption, and the residential cap of 25 kW is far above what any home needs. Because exported power earns about 3.86¢ against the 13.07¢ statewide average, capacity beyond what the house uses returns roughly a third as much per dollar. A bigger Louisiana array is a worse investment unless something raises your daytime consumption to match it.
References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed the Louisiana Public Service Commission net metering pages and General Order 09-19-2019, effective January 1, 2020, for the structure under which imports are billed at retail and exports credited at avoided cost from a trailing twelve-month average of wholesale prices, for the annual update cycle, the carry-forward and final-bill cash-out treatment, the 25 kW residential cap, and the preservation of full retail netting for pre-2020 systems through December 31, 2034; the Commission’s 2026 avoided-cost rate schedule for the residential figures of 3.86¢ at Entergy Louisiana effective April 1, 2026, 3.85¢ at Cleco effective March 1, 2026 and 3.66¢ at SWEPCO effective April 1, 2026, against a 2025 range of roughly 2.59¢ to 2.9¢; EIA Electric Power Monthly for the 13.07¢ residential price and the five-year growth rate of roughly 3.66% a year; and IRS guidance on the Public Law 119-21 termination of Section 25D. Entergy New Orleans net metering documentation: City Council rules requiring net metering for residential facilities up to 25 kW, monthly offset with excess credited forward. Accessed August 20, 2026. Output of 1,490 kWh per kilowatt per year, 5.36 peak sun hours, the 9.68 kW system size, the $25,942 installed cost and the 1,202 kWh monthly usage are EcoGen America figures from the state cost benchmark. Sources accessed between June 10 and August 20, 2026.
