Ohio solar rebates and incentives: 2026 guide

Going solar in Ohio 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.

Ohio 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 Ohio.

Ohio offers some solar incentives, which can help lower the price. Here are the ones to know about:

Ohio doesn’t offer any state-wide tax exemptions to its residents. (Many other sources claim that there’s a sales tax exemption, but we confirmed with the Ohio tax department that this is not true.) However, there are also some local incentives available depending what city or county you live. For example, Cincinnati’s Property Tax Abatement for Green Buildings allows you to postpone paying taxes on the increased value of your home for up to 15 years, Cleveland’s Tax Abatement will exempt up to 100% of the increased value and Hamilton County’s Home Improvement Program (HIP) offers qualified homeowners lower interest rates for home improvement loans.

Yes, the biggest utility companies in Ohio offer net metering—the ultimate solar incentive. 

With net metering in Ohio, your utility company works like a bank for solar power. When the sun is shining, you’ll earn energy credits for sending excess electricity from your solar panels to the grid. When the sun isn’t shining and you need to pull electricity from the grid, your utility draws against those credits. 

In Ohio, you qualify for net metering regardless of when your system was installed, and your credits can be carried forward continuously. So you can bank loads of credits during the summer, then use them up slowly during the winter. Depending on the weather, your energy use, and your solar setup, you could end up paying nearly nothing for electricity, apart from a monthly meter connection fee.

Net metering works essentially the same way for the largest utility companies in the state: Duke Energy Ohio, AEP Ohio, the companies operated by FirstEnergy, and AES Ohio (formerly Dayton Power and Light Company).

Ohio doesn't offer any state-specific battery incentives.

Since Ohio offers an excellent net metering program, there’s not a great financial incentive to get a solar battery. However, you could opt to buy one for back-up electricity during a power outage (partly because your utility automatically shuts down your solar panels during a blackout for safety reasons).