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Straight answers on what a California homeowner can and cannot claim, why every company is suddenly pushing leases, and the two deadlines that are real. No asterisks, no wishful thinking.
Where every incentive actually stands
Tell us who you are and we will show you only the things that could apply to you. Tap any row for the detail, including the part most companies leave out.
NEM 3.0, net billing, the Solar Billing Plan
California replaced net metering for new solar customers in April 2023. The rules are officially the Net Billing Tariff, Edison brands its version the Solar Billing Plan, and almost everyone still calls it NEM 3.0. Three things actually changed.
Power you send to the grid is credited at an hourly avoided-cost value rather than at the retail rate, and most hours that is well below what you pay for the same kilowatt-hour. On a few late-summer evenings it can be worth more than retail.
When exporting pays little and evening power costs a lot, the savings come from using your own production instead of selling it. That is arithmetic, not a sales pitch, and it is why we design the solar and the storage together rather than quoting the battery afterwards.
Interconnect before 1 January 2028 and your export rates are fixed for nine years. There is also a per-kilowatt-hour adder tied to the year you apply, and it shrinks every year until it disappears in 2029. Waiting is not free.
Pick the one that matches your system.
If you are on NEM 1.0 or NEM 2.0 you keep those terms for 20 years, unless you enlarge the system. Add more than the greater of 1 kilowatt or 10 percent of your original size and the entire account moves onto today's plan. Adding a battery counts toward that limit. We have met people who gave up years of far better export credit for a battery nobody warned them would trigger it. Ask before you add anything, even if you ask someone other than us.
Two things nobody volunteers
Net billing is a CPUC tariff, so it governs Edison, SDG&E and PG&E territory. If your power comes from a municipal utility or an irrigation district, that utility writes its own solar rules, sets its own export credit and runs its own interconnection process. These cities are in exactly that position, and quoting Edison numbers to a homeowner in one of them is simply wrong.
Edison's Base Services Charge is a fixed monthly amount that arrives whether or not you generate a single kilowatt-hour. Per-kilowatt-hour rates came down roughly ten percent when it was introduced in November 2025. It belongs on this page for one reason: anyone promising you a zero-dollar electric bill is not telling you the truth. Solar can take a very large bite out of what you pay. It cannot delete a fixed charge.
Monthly, as of November 2025
Check your own bill. Other utilities set their own fixed charges.
The questions we actually get
Yes. Public Law 119-21, signed on 4 July 2025, ended the residential credit for anything installed after 31 December 2025. There is no 2026 version of it, and no California credit replaced it.
No. The IRS treats the expense as made when the installation is completed, not when you signed the contract and not when the money left your account. It is a harsh rule and a lot of people were caught by it, including customers of companies that promised otherwise.
Because the commercial credit survived and the homeowner credit did not. When a company owns the panels on your roof it can still claim roughly thirty percent under Section 48E; you cannot claim anything. That is why the whole industry pivoted almost overnight. Most of what it pivoted to is a conventional lease or PPA, and those are still a poor deal: a second bill that escalates every year, a 25-year contract attached to your house, and nothing you own at the end. We have never sold one of those and we never will. Our prepaid PPA is a different arrangement in every respect that matters. You pay once, up front, with no monthly payment and no escalator. HDM Capital owns the system for six years so that it can claim the incentive, and passes that value straight to you as a 25% discount on day one rather than as a tax form you may not have the liability to use. After six years the system transfers to you at no cost. It is a cheaper route to owning your system, not a substitute for owning it.
Often, but not always, and the honest answer depends on your rate, your usage, your roof and how long you plan to stay. What has not changed is that California electricity keeps getting more expensive and a system you own keeps working for 25 years or more. What has changed is that there is no longer any margin for a badly designed or overpriced system. If the numbers do not work for your house, we will say so.
It can. Going more than the greater of 1 kilowatt or 10 percent above your original system size moves your entire account onto today's plan, and battery capacity counts toward that limit. Ask before you add anything.
The general-market residential tier is closed. The income-qualified and resiliency tiers are open in Edison territory. If somebody quotes you an SGIP rebate without first checking whether you qualify for an equity tier, treat the rest of their numbers with suspicion too.
It carries the date it was last reviewed, and it links the primary sources below rather than asking you to take our word for anything. If a rule has changed and we have not caught it yet, tell us and we will fix it.
What this page is based on
We are solar contractors, not tax advisers. For anything that touches your return, check with your CPA.
The deadlines that are actually real
The property tax exclusion sunsets, and the export adder shrinks every year you wait. Neither is a countdown clock we invented for a sales page: one is in statute, the other is in a filed tariff. Send us a bill and we will tell you honestly whether either of them matters for your house.
Since 1970 · 5,000+ installs · Ownership only, never a lease · Lic. #985340