New Hampshire solar rebates and incentives: 2025 guide

New Hampshire isn’t the sunniest state in the U.S. But the high electricity prices make it a great state for going solar. While there aren’t many state-level incentives, the federal solar tax credit and the state’s net metering program can still save you thousands on your solar panel system. However, the federal solar tax credit will no longer be available for systems installed after December 31, 2025, so you have to go solar this year to claim it.

As a New Hampshire homeowner, the federal solar tax credit, formerly known as the ITC, is the most impactful way to reduce your solar costs.

Residential Clean Energy Credit

The Residential Clean Energy Credit, formerly known as the federal investment tax credit (ITC), can reduce your solar panel system's cost by 30%. Your entire system qualifies for this incentive, including equipment, labor, permitting, and sales tax. 

However, this credit will no longer be available after December 31, 2025. On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed legislation that eliminates the residential solar tax credit entirely starting January 1, 2026—nearly a decade ahead of its original expiration date. Solar projects typically take several months from consultation to installation, so homeowners considering solar should act quickly to lock in these savings.

You also need a high enough tax bill to use the credit, though you can roll over any remaining credit year-to-year, according to a tax expert EnergySage spoke with. The IRS doesn't specify an end date for credit rollovers, meaning you can theoretically roll over unused credits indefinitely based on current law. However, Tax Form 5695 may no longer exist after 2025, so you likely will no longer be able to use that form. Please speak with a tax professional for specific guidance.

Remember: Your system must be installed by December 31, 2025 to qualify for this credit.

In addition to the federal solar tax credit, New Hampshire offers a solar property tax exemption. Solar panels generally raise a home's property value, but if your city or town adopts this law, you won’t have to pay extra tax on that added value.

If you connect your solar panel system to the grid, you can benefit from a solar buyback program known as net metering—arguably the best solar incentive of them all.

With net metering, your utility company works like a bank for solar power. If you make more solar power than your home can use at any given time, you can send that excess electricity back to the grid, and your utility company gives you an energy credit. When the sun isn't shining and you need to pull electricity from the grid, your utility draws against those credits. 

Depending on the weather, your energy use, and your solar setup, net metering makes it so you will owe very little, or even nothing, on your electric bill with solar panels.

There are a few nuances to keep in mind about New Hampshire's current version of net metering.

• Credits can be carried forward indefinitely. At the end of every monthly billing cycle, if you’ve exported more solar power to the grid than you’ve used at home, you can keep your excess credits to cover future energy use. This allows you to save all those kWh produced in the sunnier months and apply them in the winter when your panels don’t produce as much electricity.

• Carried-forward credits lose some of their value. These credits are worth about 25% less than the retail rate of electricity. They’re carried forward as kWh-based energy credits, so the accounting gets a little wonky. Either way, you still have to pay the monthly meter fee in cash instead of credits.

• New Hampshire is reconsidering their net metering rules. There aren’t clear updates on the future of net metering in New Hampshire. The state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) extended the current net metering program through 2040, but there’s no update on what happens after that. If you go solar before those changes, you’ll be grandfathered into the old plan for many years.

Learn more about these net metering programs:

New Hampshire also offers some great battery incentive programs to bring down the price of energy storage. For starters, all batteries above 3 kWh are also eligible for the 30% federal tax credit. The state’s solar property tax exemption applies to energy storage systems, too. 

The Connected Solutions Program is a demand response program that compensates you for allowing Eversource to access your battery during times of peak energy demand. From June through September, your battery may be called between 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM. You can expect about 40 events per summer for no longer than 3 hours per event. In exchange for your stored electricity, you’ll earn $230 per kWh, up to $3,000. This program requires you to participate in demand response events for a minimum of three years and only applies to eligible Enphase battery models.

Solar batteries paired with solar panels can boost your energy independence and provide backup power during an outage. New Hampshire’s net metering program is pretty good, but installing a battery helps you keep more of your own (free) solar power rather than letting the utility company take it at a discount.

If you're looking for solar installers in New Hampshire, here are some popular suggestions: