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Every March 1, Rocky Mountain Power recalculates what it pays Utah homeowners for exported solar power. It has fallen in each of the last two recalculations. If you are weighing panels here, the useful question is how much of your decision depends on it, because only part of that exposure is inside your control.
A Rate That Resets Every Spring
Utah closed traditional net metering to new customers on October 31, 2020. Residential solar customers now sit on an export credit under Schedule 137, recalculated annually and effective each March 1. The most recent recalculation came through Docket 26-035-T03.
Weighing solar beyond Utah? Our national worth-it analysis runs the same math for every state.
Export credit period | Summer rate | Winter rate |
|---|---|---|
Previous year | 5.636¢ | 4.745¢ |
From March 1, 2026 | 4.855¢ | 4.033¢ |
Change | Down 13.9% | Down 15.0% |
Export credits carry forward within the annualized billing period and expire at your March meter read, so output past your own use is paid at about 4¢ or, if unspent by March, nothing.
Set that against Utah’s statewide average residential price of about 13.11¢ (EIA); Rocky Mountain Power’s own Schedule 1 residential rate differs by schedule and is the number your real payback runs on. Power your house uses the moment it is made is worth whatever you would otherwise have paid for it, roughly 13.11¢ on the statewide average. Power that leaves is worth roughly a third of that, and the third keeps getting smaller. Two consecutive cuts do not guarantee a third, and no proceeding has proposed the 2027 rate. What the table shows is how much it would matter if it fell again.
Enter your ZIP code to confirm whether Rocky Mountain Power sets your rate or a municipal utility does.
Confirm which utility sets your export rate
What a Utah Quote Should Show
A typical Utah system runs 6.09 kW at about $17,065, producing roughly 9,281 kWh a year; systems are small here because households use around 774 kWh a month. Here is what happens to that system at today’s export credit, and what happens if the next recalculation cuts it by the same proportion again.
Share your house uses directly | Payback at today’s export credit | Payback after another cut of the same size | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Around 90% | About 15.0 years | About 15.1 years | Under 2 months |
Around 75% | About 16.8 years | About 17.1 years | About 4 months |
Around 50% | About 21.0 years | About 21.8 years | About 10 months |
Paybacks are modeled at the 13.11¢ statewide average as a benchmark; run your own at Rocky Mountain Power’s Schedule 1 rate, or your municipal utility’s rate if Provo, St George or Lehi serves you. The right-hand column applies a further 14% reduction to the export credit purely as an illustration of sensitivity. That further cut is a stress test, not a forecast, and no proceeding has proposed it.
The right-hand column is the point. Which row is yours: without a battery most homes sit at or below the bottom row; the top row takes storage, daytime electric vehicle charging, or heavy daytime loads. Ask the installer to print the self-consumption share the design assumes; if the proposal cannot, it is not a model. A household using nine tenths of its own output barely notices another rate cut, because almost nothing it produces is being sold. A household using half of it loses the better part of a year. Direct use is not only the way to a shorter payback in Utah, it is also the way to make the annual recalculation stop mattering to you.
That reframes what a good Utah quote looks like. A proposal that maximizes system size is optimizing for a number that shrinks every March. A proposal sized tightly to daytime load, or paired with storage or a daytime electric vehicle charge, is buying insulation from a policy risk as well as electricity. A battery adds to the upfront cost and lengthens the simple payback; it pays for the insulation, not for itself.
Utah Has Cheap Installations and Modest Bills
Two Utah facts pull in opposite directions and both deserve stating plainly.
Installations here run about $2.80 per watt, roughly 3% below the US average, and the sun is strong at 5.52 peak hours giving 1,524 kWh per kilowatt each year. Those are favorable conditions.
Against that, Utah households use around 774 kWh a month and pay a statewide average of 13.11¢, about 27% below the US average. A small bill is a small thing to eliminate. Solar returns are proportional to the bill you were paying, which is why a state with strong sun and cheap power produces mid-teens paybacks instead of the single digits headline figures sometimes imply.
What Is Left on the Incentive Side
Less than most Utah homeowners expect, and this is the part that has changed most recently.
- The federal residential credit is $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025, under Public Law 119-21. Any Utah quote still showing 30% off is describing a world that ended. That applies to systems you buy. A lease or power purchase company 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.
- Utah’s own residential credit no longer applies to residential systems installed from 2024. Older material describing a state credit is describing the rules as they stood before 2024.
- The export credit is compensation, not an incentive. It is what you are paid for a product you produced, and it is the thing being reduced.
That means a Utah buyer today is paying the full installed price against a falling export rate. The case rests entirely on displaced consumption and on Utah electricity prices rising, which they have at about 3.28% a year over five years.
When to Say No in Utah
- If the house is empty through the day and storage is not on the table. Half your output sells at roughly 4¢ and the payback runs past twenty years.
- If the quote is sized above your usage. In Utah, extra capacity is capacity sold into a rate that has fallen twice. Bigger is worse here in a way it is not in a full retail netting state.
- If a proposal projects savings on the old export rate or on a state or federal credit that no longer applies. Ask for it to be rebuilt on the current rate and the current credits before you compare anything.
- If you are moving inside about fifteen years. Even the best Utah case in the table has not returned its cost before then, and a home exporting half its output needs past twenty.
Ask any installer to model your proposal at the current Schedule 137 credit and again with the export value cut, then compare. If the two answers are close, your design is sound. If they diverge sharply, you are buying exposure to a number Rocky Mountain Power resets without your input. Our Utah incentives guide covers Schedule 137 in detail, and the Utah installer list covers who works in the state.
Rocky Mountain Power Schedule 137: Both Seasonal Export Rates Belong in Your Quote
On Rocky Mountain Power, every kilowatt-hour that leaves the roof earns the Schedule 137 export credit of 4.855¢ from June through September and 4.033¢ from October through May, effective March 1, 2026, and reset every March 1. Any credit unspent at your March meter read expires. Power used at home as it is made avoids the Schedule 1 retail rate instead, about three times the export value at the 13.11¢ statewide average. Make the company model your Rocky Mountain Power rate and both seasonal export credits in writing, with the self-consumption share printed. Municipal customers in Provo, St George, or Lehi are outside Schedule 137 entirely.
Utah Solar FAQs
Are solar panels worth it in Utah?
For a household that uses most of its output directly, yes, at a simple payback around 15 years on our figures. For a house that is empty through the day, the payback stretches past 21 years and the case is weak. Most homes without storage sit between those two rows, so get the share in writing before you decide. Utah has strong sun and cheap installations at about $2.80 per watt, but households here use only around 774 kWh a month, and a smaller bill is a smaller thing to eliminate.
What does Utah pay for exported solar power?
Rocky Mountain Power pays an export credit under Schedule 137, recalculated annually and effective each March 1. From March 1, 2026 it is 4.855¢ in summer and 4.033¢ in winter, set through Docket 26-035-T03. Those figures are down 13.9% and 15.0% respectively from the previous year. Compare them against Utah’s statewide average residential price of about 13.11¢: power you use yourself is worth roughly three times what power you export is worth.
Will the Utah export rate keep falling?
No proceeding has proposed the 2027 rate, and no one quoting you knows what it will be. It has fallen at each of the last two annual recalculations, but two cuts do not establish a trend. The practical response is to reduce your exposure to it. Our modeling shows a household using 90% of its own output would see a further 14% cut change its payback by under two months, while a household using 50% would lose about ten.
Is there still a Utah solar tax credit?
Not for residential systems installed from 2024, when the state credit stopped applying to them. The federal residential credit under Section 25D is also $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21. A Utah buyer today is therefore paying the full installed price, and any proposal showing either credit is describing rules that no longer apply.
What size solar system should I get in Utah?
Size to your daytime load, not to your roof. Because exported power earns roughly a third of what consumed power saves, capacity beyond that load earns very little, and it is exactly the capacity most exposed to the annual March recalculation. Work out the load your house actually carries during daylight, then consider whether storage or daytime electric vehicle charging would let you justify going larger.
Enter your ZIP code to confirm your utility, then ask the installer to run the design at both rates.
Find out who sets your rate
Methodology: cost figures use the EcoGen Solar Cost Index for Utah, $2.80 per watt as of March 1, 2026; paybacks are simple payback at the 13.11¢ statewide average with exports blended across the 4.855¢ summer and 4.033¢ winter Export Credit Rates, no federal residential credit for owner-purchased systems, and before financing, the state 3.28% rate escalation and 0.5% annual degradation. The further 14% export reduction is a sensitivity test, not a forecast.
References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed Rocky Mountain Power’s Utah Schedule 137 export credit and the annual recalculation effective each March 1, together with Docket 26-035-T03 setting the rates of 4.855¢ in summer and 4.033¢ in winter from March 1, 2026 against the prior 5.636¢ and 4.745¢; the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency for the Utah residential renewable energy systems credit no longer applying to residential systems installed from 2024; EIA Electric Power Monthly for the 13.11¢ statewide average residential price and the five-year growth rate of roughly 3.28% 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 1,524 kWh per kilowatt per year, 5.52 peak sun hours, the 6.09 kW system size, the $17,065 installed cost, the $2.80 per watt figure and the 774 kWh monthly usage are EcoGen America figures at the state benchmark as of March 1, 2026. The payback figures are our own calculation from those inputs. Sources accessed between June 10 and August 17, 2026.
