Florida solar rebates and incentives: 2026 guide

Going solar in Florida is more affordable than most people realize. While your state may not have the flashiest incentive programs in the country, there are still meaningful ways to reduce your system costs—and more importantly, solar's real value comes from decades of electricity savings, not just upfront rebates.

Florida homeowners have access to some incentives that can help offset installation costs. But the biggest financial advantage of going solar? Dramatically lowering your electric bills for 25-30 years, especially as utility rates keep climbing. Here's what you need to know about solar incentives in Florida.

Florida offers some solar incentives, which can help lower the price. A handful of cities and towns around Florida offer grants, rebates, or low-interest loans to homeowners that install solar panels, including Boynton Beach, Dunedin, and Tallahassee.

In addition to the great rebates and incentives above, Florida also offers tax exemptions for solar panel systems. The solar sales tax exemption ensures that you won't have to pay a sales tax on your system, while the solar property tax exemption means you don't need to pay a higher property tax for adding solar panels to your house.

If you connect your solar panel system to the grid, you can benefit from net metering—which is really the ultimate incentive for rooftop solar, even more than big rebates and tax credits. 

Under net metering, the sun doesn’t need to shine all the time to get massive value from your solar panels. Your electric utility company essentially works like a bank account for all the energy your panels produce in a given month.

When the sun shines, your home’s electrical system first takes as much power as it needs from the solar panels. If the panels make any excess energy, it gets sent back onto the grid, and your utility company gives you full credit for all of it on your energy bill. 

When the sun isn’t shining and you need grid electricity to power your home, the utility company just starts drawing against your credits. You won’t pay for electricity until those credits run out.

A few nuances to keep in mind:

• Solar metering in Florida is credited in kWh, rather than dollars. Any monthly fixed costs (like meter connection fees) may need to be paid in cash—kWh credits won’t apply.

• Credits roll over from month-to-month, but reset at the end of a 12-month period. Any excess credits will be converted to cash at a reduced rate per kWh and paid out to you. The rate is typically 3 to 5 cents per kWh, depending on the utility. Different utilities also have different “true up” dates, when the counter resets.

Florida doesn't offer any state-specific battery incentives. Solar batteries don’t make much financial sense for Florida homeowners anyway, because the net metering policy is so consumer friendly that you don’t really benefit from hoarding your solar power. None of the utility companies in Florida offer a virtual power plant program for homeowners, either.