AEP Ohio, Duke Energy Ohio, FirstEnergy, and AES Ohio export credits and Ohio’s net-metering rule current as of July 2026, per OAC 4901:1-10-28 and EIA Table 5.6.B.
A 7.68 kW system in Ohio costs $21,425, produces 10,150 kWh a year, and pays for itself in 12.5 years. No federal credit cuts that price for a system you own. The 12.5 years holds whether AEP Ohio, Duke, FirstEnergy, or AES Ohio serves your house.
Ohio households pay 17.88¢/kWh for electricity, which ranks 16th nationally and sits 0.2% under the U.S. average. There is no state solar tax credit, no statewide rebate, and the SREC market collapsed after HB 6 removed the solar carve-out in 2019.
The return has to come from your own electricity use. Whether solar is worth it for your house depends on how much of your own power you consume, how long you stay, and how you pay for the system.
Solar Payback in Ohio: 12.5 Years Across Six Utilities
A 7.68 kW system priced at Ohio’s installed cost runs $21,425, and it returns $1,711 in first-year bill savings. Divide one into the other and the system pays for itself in 12.5 years. That payback holds year-one savings flat. Let rising prices do their work and cumulative savings cross the purchase price at the 10-year mark, which is the tenure to measure your own plans against.
Hold the system 25 years, with Ohio electricity prices rising at their five-year trend of 5.25% a year and panel output slipping 0.5% a year, and it nets $57,200. That return rests on 10,150 kWh a year, which a 7.68 kW array makes from Ohio’s 4.62 peak sun hours a day.
Your utility barely enters this. Ohio’s six investor-owned utilities credit exported power between 10.03¢ and 11.0¢/kWh, and exports account for 1,505 of those 10,150 kWh. All six come within a tenth of a year of 12.5, so your service territory does not change what you get back.
The one number under your control is the purchase price, so measure any quote against what a solar system costs in Ohio before you sign.
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| System size | 7.68 kW |
| Net cost in 2026, with no federal credit | $21,425 |
| Annual production | 10,150 kWh |
| First-year bill savings | $1,711 |
| Simple payback | 12.5 years |
| 25-year net savings (approx.) | $57,200 |
Ohio Net Metering Pays 16.86¢ per kWh Produced
Ohio is classified as a full-retail, one-for-one net-metering state, and that classification hides how the credit is worked out. Under OAC 4901:1-10-28, your generation offsets your consumption at the full retail rate inside each billing month. Only the excess left at the end of that month earns a credit, and the rule prices that credit at the energy component of your utility’s standard service offer, which is the generation piece by itself.
“the excess electricity shall be converted to a monetary credit at the energy component of the electric utility’s standard service offer that continuously carries forward as a monetary credit on the customer-generator’s future bills.”
That is Ohio Administrative Code 4901:1-10-28(B)(9), in force since April 8, 2024. That credit reduces your next bill, the utility does not cut you a check for it, and you lose it if you stop taking service.
How Monthly Netting Changes What Your Power Is Worth
A system sized to a year of usage does not produce evenly across that year. From March through September it makes more than the house uses, and the surplus banks at 11.0¢ at AEP Ohio. From October through February it makes less, and you buy the shortfall at the retail rate. No mechanism carries a July kWh into January at full value.
Across a year, 8,645 of the 10,150 kWh produced are used inside the billing month they are made, worth 17.88¢ each. The other 1,505 kWh leave as monthly surplus at 11.0¢. First-year value of $1,711 spread over 10,150 kWh works out to 16.86¢ a kWh, 5.7% under the retail rate.
Where the power goes | kWh a year | Credited at | Year-one value |
|---|---|---|---|
Used in the house within the billing month | 8,645 | 17.88¢ | $1,545.72 |
Monthly surplus exported | 1,505 | 11.0¢ | $165.55 |
Total produced | 10,150 | 16.86¢ effective | $1,711.27 |
A self-consumption percentage does not apply in Ohio. Monthly netting already settles which kWh earn retail and which earn the export credit, so the calendar does the sorting a percentage would only estimate.
Why Oversizing an Ohio System Barely Pays
Capacity added beyond your own usage costs 9¢ to 9.5¢ for every kWh it will make over its life. Those extra kWh leave the house as surplus and earn 11.0¢. A cent and a half of margin is not a reason to buy more panels, and at a utility whose energy credit sits lower, the extra capacity loses money.
Size the system to what the house uses, not to what the roof will hold. Ohio’s rule caps net-metered systems at 120% of your requirements, and AEP Ohio holds residential systems to 25 kW AC or your average 12-month peak demand, whichever is less. Treat your annual usage as the ceiling.
Check your own payback against the Ohio benchmark
When Solar Is Worth It in Ohio
Four conditions carry the return in Ohio, and a house needs all four.
- You use most of what you make, while you make it. Air conditioning, an EV charging at home, a heat pump, or a home office pull power during the hours the roof is producing, which keeps those kWh at the retail rate instead of the export credit.
- You are staying past ten years. Cumulative savings clear the purchase price at year ten, and the 15 years after that are where the return is.
- Your roof has 15 years of life left. The array has to stay put for the whole run to pay.
- You are paying cash or borrowing at a low rate. Every point of interest and every dealer fee comes out of a payback already measured in years.
Nothing outside your own bill is carrying this. Ohio SRECs trade at $3 to $5 a megawatt-hour, worth $30 to $50 a year for a system this size, and which Ohio solar incentives still pay is a short list once the federal credit is gone.
When a 10-Year Break-Even Means You Should Wait
Solar does not pay for a real share of Ohio households, and the same ten-year break-even that qualifies one house disqualifies another.
- You may move inside ten years. Savings do not clear the purchase price before then, and you would be counting on a buyer to pay you for the array.
- Your roof has under ten years left. Removing an array and resetting it after a re-roof runs $2,000 to $4,500, which pushes payback past 14 years. Re-roof first, then get solar quotes.
- Your bill is small. Below 500 kWh a month, a 3 to 4 kW system returns under $800 a year, and fixed delivery and customer charges take a large share of what is left.
- You rent, your roof is shaded, or you own a condo. Rooftop solar is not your answer. HB 303, the community energy bill, passed the Ohio House in November 2025 and sits with the Senate.
Paying Cash, Financing, or Leasing Solar in Ohio
Paying cash delivers the 12.5-year payback, because nothing sits between you and the bill savings.
A zero-down loan puts the same panels on the roof at a different price. Dealer fees on financed deals add 15% to 30% over the cash price, and that markup sits on top of a payback measured in years. Ask for the cash price and the financed price on the same quote, in writing.
Leases and power purchase agreements are both legal in Ohio. The federal residential credit ended for 2026 installations, so the only federal credit still reaching residential solar is the business credit, claimed by the company that owns the system. Whatever value reaches you arrives priced into the offer, never as a credit on your tax return. Escalators on these contracts run 1.9% to 2.9% a year, raising your payment on a schedule your utility rate may or may not follow. Read how zero-down solar offers work in Ohio before a door-to-door pitch reaches you.
Why a Home Battery Doesn’t Pay Off in Ohio
A battery in Ohio buys you backup power during an outage. The bill savings it adds do not cover its cost.
The difference it would work with is 6.88¢, the gap between the 17.88¢ you pay for a kWh and the 11.0¢ a surplus kWh earns. Storing the year’s entire 1,505 kWh of surplus for later use in the house would save $104 a year, against a 13.5 kWh battery that costs $15,228 installed.
Levelized over its working life, that battery delivers stored power at 32¢/kWh, against the 6.88¢ a shifted kWh saves. Ohio has no statewide virtual power plant payment and no bring-your-own-battery program, so no second revenue stream changes the result. Buy storage if outages matter to you, and price it as insurance.
How Switching Electricity Suppliers Affects Your Solar Credits
Ohio’s deregulated market can put a second contract between you and your export credit. Under OAC 4901:1-10-28(A)(2), a customer buying generation from a competitive retail electric service supplier is net-metered on the terms of that supplier’s contract rather than the utility’s standard service offer. Switching suppliers after the panels are up can change what your exports earn, or end the credit outright.
Get the export terms in writing from any supplier before you switch, and read them again at renewal. The credit also floats: each utility’s standard service offer is reset by auction, so the energy component behind your export credit resets with it. No cents figure quoted to you in 2026 is locked in for the life of the system.
Municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives sit outside the rule. OAC 4901:1-10-28 binds investor-owned utilities, so a co-op or municipal customer may receive little or nothing for exported power. Confirm the buyback terms with that utility before you size a system.
What to Ask an Ohio Installer Before You Sign
Ohio issues no statewide residential solar license. The state electrical license covers commercial work, and your local building department handles licensing and permits for residential installs, so the verification is local.
Ask for the local electrical license, NABCEP certification, the workmanship warranty term, the cash price beside the financed price, and the export credit the savings estimate assumed. An estimate that values every kWh at full retail is overstating your savings by 5.7%. Service records and coverage differ by region, which is where Ohio solar companies worth quoting narrows the list.
Who Should Go Solar in Ohio in 2026
Solar is worth it in Ohio for a household that uses most of what it makes, expects to stay past ten years, has a sound roof, and pays cash or borrows at a low rate. That household waits 12.5 years to get its money back and collects $57,200 over 25 years.
For everyone else, waiting costs nothing. No credit expires this year, no rebate is running out, and Ohio’s net-metering rule has no pending successor. Fix the roof, trim the usage, watch HB 303, and get quotes when the four conditions line up.
See What Solar Would Return on Your Ohio Roof
Enter your ZIP code to run your own usage, tenure, and utility against the benchmark on this page, and see how your house compares.
See what solar would return on your Ohio roof
Frequently Asked Questions
A 7.68 kW system at $21,425 pays for itself in 12.5 years on first-year savings of $1,711. With Ohio prices rising at 5.25% a year, cumulative savings cross the purchase price at year ten.
Within a billing month, yes. Any surplus left at the end of the month is credited at the energy component of your utility’s standard service offer, which is lower than retail, so each kWh produced is worth 16.86¢ on average.
No. The residential credit is $0 for systems you own that are installed in 2026. A lease or power purchase agreement provider can claim the business credit on a system it owns, and any value reaches you only through the price of the offer.
Not for bill savings. The spread between the retail rate and the export credit is 6.88¢/kWh against a battery cost of 32¢/kWh of stored power. Buy one for backup during outages, not for a return.
Yes. A customer on a competitive supplier is net-metered under that supplier’s contract terms, not the utility’s standard service offer, so a switch can change or end your export compensation.
An Ohio household using 846 kWh a month needs 7.68 kW to cover a year of usage. Going larger sends more power out at the export credit, and the state rule caps net-metered systems at 120% of your requirements.
Sources
References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed the sources below for this article. Sources were accessed August 5, 2026, unless another publication, release, effective, or update date is listed below.
- Ohio Administrative Code, Rule 4901:1-10-28, Net Metering. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B, 2026 YTD. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 Annual Electric Power Industry Report. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, PVWatts Calculator. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Congressional Research Service, Residential Clean Energy Credit Termination (IN12611). Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Energy Choice Ohio Apples to Apples Rate Comparison. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Xpansiv Market Signals, Ohio SREC Market Prices. Accessed August 5, 2026.
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Tracking the Sun. Accessed August 5, 2026.
