FAQs - Florida net metering and solar incentives

Yes. Net metering is available to customers who generate electricity using solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, biomass energy, ocean energy, hydrogen, waste heat or hydroelectric power.

This basic policy includes investor owned utilities, municipal utilities, and electric cooperatives. You should check with your utility for additional details. Here’s a list of website links to net metering information for the major utilities in Florida:

• Duke Energy
• Florida Power & Light (FP&L)
• Florida Public Utilities (FPUC)
• Gulf Power
• TECO Energy

For a full list of electric utilities that have performed net metering interconnections, you can refer to this Florida PSC web page, which lists all utilities including municipal and rural coops.

There is currently no capacity limit on net metering in Florida.

Some states with net metering place a target limit on the amount of electric generation that is delivered to the grid by net metering customers. When the aggregate generation of those net metering customers exceeds a certain percentage of the total generation capacity of the grid, utilities are no longer required to offer net metering to their customers.

Fortunately, Florida doesn’t have such a cap on net metering.

There are no significant state-level financial incentives for going solar in Florida state. However, there are two programs for solar that provide a smaller benefit for homeowners:

Florida sales tax exemption

The state of Florida has an exemption on the state sales tax for solar power systems.

Eligible systems must convert sunlight into energy for use as a power source for another system. Applies to equipment and any component currently certified by Florida Solar Energy Center as a qualifying solar energy component: solar collectors, pumps and controls, photovoltaic power conditioning equipment, energy storage units, and accessories integral to a qualifying system. Exemption is not available when the cost of the solar equipment cannot be separated from the total cost of the product (i.e., patio lights, calculators, novelty items). Exemption is available by certifying to the seller that the items purchased or leased qualify for the exemption.

FL Property tax exemption

Florida offers a property tax exemption for renewable energy equipment added to your home, including solar and geothermal. This exemption means that your property tax assessment will not increase because of the value that solar panels add to your home.

Yes. The statute is the Florida Home Owners Solar Rights Act. The text of the statute is below:

163.04 Energy devices based on renewable resources.–

1) Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or other provision of general or special law, the adoption of an ordinance by a governing body, as those terms are defined in this chapter, which prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting the installation of solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources is expressly prohibited.

(2) No deed restrictions, covenants, or similar binding agreements running with the land shall prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources from being installed on buildings erected on the lots or parcels covered by the deed restrictions, covenants, or binding agreements. A property owner may not be denied permission to install solar collectors or other energy devices based on renewable resources by any entity granted the power or right in any deed restriction, covenant, or similar binding agreement to approve, forbid, control, or direct alteration of property with respect to residential dwellings not exceeding three stories in height. For purposes of this subsection, such entity may determine the specific location where solar collectors may be installed on the roof within an orientation to the south or within 45 degrees east or west of due south provided that such determination does not impair the effective operation of the solar collectors.

(3) In any litigation arising under the provisions of this section, the prevailing party shall be entitled to costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.

(4) The legislative intent in enacting these provisions is to protect the public health, safety, and welfare by encouraging the development and use of renewable resources in order to conserve and protect the value of land, buildings, and resources by preventing the adoption of measures which will have the ultimate effect, however unintended, of driving the costs of owning and operating commercial or residential property beyond the capacity of private owners to maintain. This section shall not apply to patio railings in condominiums, cooperatives, or apartments.
History.–s. 8, ch. 80-163; s. 1, ch. 92-89; s. 14, ch. 93-249.

No. There is no statewide rule establishing virtual net metering in Florida, and there are no community solar projects in the state.

Some utilities have proposed community solar projects in Florida, but as of 2019 there are no projects that have yet reached the market. We’ll keep this page updated if any projects come online.

The average price of residential electricity in Florida state, over the past ten years, is 11.57 cents per Kilowatt hour. This is 4% less than than the US average price of 12.07 cents per kWh.

Why is this important to know? Depending on the size of your systems, owning home solar reduces or eliminates the effect of electricity price increases.

Historical Florida electricity prices (cents per kilowatt hour)