October 1, 2026 · 3 min
Solar math in 2026, after the homeowner credit ended
The 30% residential credit stopped for systems placed in service after 2025. The bill savings did not.
For years, Florida solar proposals subtracted 30% at the bottom of the page and called the remainder your price. That subtraction was the federal residential clean energy credit, Section 25D. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in 2025, ended it for homeowner-owned systems placed in service after December 31, 2025.
If your system was finished and operating in 2025 or earlier, this page is not your problem. Talk to a tax preparer about Form 5695 and any carryforward. If you are buying in 2026, do not let a proposal show a 30% federal credit in your name.
What a lease is doing
A lease or a power-purchase agreement can still involve a commercial credit claimed by the company that owns the equipment. You do not claim that credit. You are buying power, or renting a system, under a contract. Read the escalation clause and what happens when you sell the house. It is a different product from owning the array.
What is left in the math
Production is still real. Central Florida is a strong sun region, until shade says otherwise. The dollar value of that production is your utility’s retail rate for the kilowatt-hours you use on site, plus whatever they credit you for export. Those are not always equal. A battery can move more solar into the evening. It also costs real money. Florida has no state income-tax credit to replace the federal one. Property-tax and sales-tax treatment of residential solar equipment has been favorable; confirm both before you rely on them.
How this site calculates it
The solar calculator defaults to no federal credit. There is a switch if your system really was placed in service by the end of 2025. You pick the utility, the orientation, the shade, the share you use while the sun is up, and the export credit as a percent of retail. Payback is net cost divided by the path of those savings, with a modest rate escalation and a half-percent production decline each year. Change the assumptions. If the sale only works when the assumptions are flattering, it does not work.
Pair it with the roof. Reroof before solar is the other half of the invoice. Which utility is why the city matters.