Florida Solar Incentives in 2026: What Changed, and How to Actually Claim Them

Updated October 10, 2026

A lot of pages still describe a Florida solar “package” that includes a federal credit and a retail credit at every utility. The first is over. The second was never true in Orlando. This note is what is actually left, and what you have to do to get it. The longer version of the tax rules is the incentives guide. The bill math without the federal credit is the worth-it page.

The federal credit is not a Florida story anymore

The residential credit, the one worth 30 percent of a system you purchased, does not apply to a system placed in service after December 31, 2025. That is federal law. Florida did not repeal it, and Florida cannot restore it. Nothing in the 2026 Florida session put it back. If a contract or a chart still subtracts 30 percent, the chart is using a credit that is not available. The incentives guide is where that is spelled out. Do not relearn it here.

The property appraiser leaves the system out

Florida Statute 193.624 says that, for residential property, the just value attributable to a renewable energy source device is not considered in the assessed value. There is no homestead-style application in that statute. The appraiser is the one who is supposed to leave it off. You do not file a form with the state to “claim” it.

Check the assessment anyway. Look at the trim notice, or the property appraiser’s page for the parcel, after the system is in. If the value jumped by about what you paid for the array, call that county’s property appraiser and have the permit or the completion paperwork in hand. Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and Lake Counties each have their own appraiser. The statute is the same. The desk is not.

You will see a date, December 31, 2037, described as the day the residential exemption ends. That is not what the statute’s note says. On that date, the 2017 amendments to the section expire and the text goes back to the older wording. The older wording still says a residential increase in just value from a renewable energy device is not considered. What the 2037 date actually ends, unless the Legislature acts, is the later break for nonresidential property. A house does not lose the exclusion because the calendar hits 2038.

The sales tax is the seller’s invoice, plus a sentence you may sign

Florida Statute 212.08(7)(hh) exempts solar energy systems, and components of those systems, from state sales and use tax. The Florida Solar Energy Center certifies the equipment list to the Department of Revenue. Panels, the inverter, and the mounting hardware that are part of the system are the point of the exemption. A random electrical part is not, just because the job is solar.

You do not apply to the Department of Revenue. The seller is the one who has to document the exempt sale. The Department’s own notice, Tax Information Publication 19A01-09, says the purchaser certifies that the equipment is bought or leased for use exclusively in a solar energy system. That is a sentence on the seller’s paperwork, with your name and signature, not a return you file in April. If the contract still shows state sales tax on the equipment, ask why before you pay it. Labor and anything that is not part of the solar energy system can still be taxable. Read the invoice. Do not assume the whole contract is exempt because the panels are.

Net metering is a utility rule, and Orlando is not Duke

“Full retail net metering” is the phrase sales sheets use for the whole state. Florida law does not say that. Section 366.91 tells the big investor-owned utilities to have a net-metering program, and it tells the Public Service Commission to set the rules. Those utilities include Duke Energy Florida and Florida Power & Light. The Commission’s rule, 25-6.065, credits the kilowatt-hours you export against the kilowatt-hours you buy, at the retail rate, during the year. Kilowatt-hours still sitting there at the end of the year are not paid at that retail rate. They are paid at a much lower avoided-cost rate. You also still pay the customer charge. The utility page is the dollar version of that, including the year-end payment.

A municipal utility is a different sentence in the same statute. Orlando Utilities Commission has to offer a program. It does not have to use Duke’s retail credit. OUC sets the export price. If your bill is OUC, do not use a Duke or FPL payback chart. The same roof is a different number.

In 2022 the Legislature passed a bill, CS/CS/HB 741, that would have walked the investor-owned credit down and opened the door to extra charges. Governor DeSantis vetoed it on April 27, 2022. The veto killed that bill. It did not freeze the idea. No later bill has put that phase-down into law, and rule 25-6.065 is still the rule those utilities are under. Treat that as the current fact, not as a promise about the next session. A policy that has already been through a veto can be filed again.

Enrollment is not a form you send the state. The installer files an interconnection application with the utility. On Duke and FPL that application is part of getting permission to operate. The permission-to-operate page is the sequence, including the part where the system stays off until the utility says it may run. Confirm the application is in the contract. It should not be a surprise invoice at the end.

What to watch, and what not to

The two tax exemptions are in statutes. They do not expire because a salesperson is bored with them. The retail credit at Duke and FPL is a commission rule under a statute, and it is the piece the Legislature has already tried to change. OUC can change its own export price without waiting for Tallahassee, and it already has. If you are deciding whether the system pays, use the cost guide for the price and the worth-it page for the payback, with your actual utility. A statewide “incentives still make it free” line is the outdated page this note is here to replace.

This page is general information, not tax advice. The assessment is the property appraiser’s. The invoice is the seller’s. The export rate is the utility’s.