The Solar Book

Every claim on this page checked against primary sources on

Arizona solar incentives

Arizona is the opposite of Utah: the federal credit died, and the state credit did not. A.R.S. § 43-1083 still pays 25% of the cost of the device, up to $1,000, with a five-year carryforward and — unusually for anything in this field in 2026 — no sunset date written into the section. Arizona also treats a rooftop array as adding no value to your property for assessment purposes, with nothing to file.

The part that is actually urgent is the export rate. APS credits exported electricity under an annual tranche that locks for ten years, and the current tranche closes on August 31, 2026. Interconnect before then and you hold 6.171 cents per kilowatt-hour until 2036. After that a new tranche applies, and the tariff permits it to be up to 10% lower.

Does Arizona have a solar tax credit in 2026?

Yes. Arizona's credit for solar energy devices under A.R.S. § 43-1083 is alive, unchanged, and carries no expiration date anywhere in the section. It pays 25% of the cost of the device against your Arizona income tax, capped at $1,000 in a taxable year and at $1,000 in total for the same residence across all years, with unused credit carried forward for up to five consecutive taxable years. That is now the only tax credit an Arizona homeowner who buys a system can claim, because the federal 30% credit under 26 U.S.C. § 25D stopped applying to expenditures made after December 31, 2025. Two details matter and are commonly got wrong: the credit is measured on the cost of the device, not on the device plus installation, and the statute conditions eligibility on the system and its installation meeting Title 44, Chapter 11, Article 11 — the article that sets Arizona's minimum solar warranty and its written disclosure rules. Separately, and independently of the credit, A.R.S. § 42-11054(C)(2) directs assessors to treat solar as adding no value to the property, so installing it cannot raise your assessment.

Verified against primary sources on .

Arizona is Utah's mirror image. The federal 30% credit ended on December 31, 2025 here as everywhere, but Arizona's own solar tax credit is alive, unchanged and carries no sunset date: 25% of the cost of the device, capped at $1,000, with a five-year carryforward. A solar array also adds no value to your property for assessment purposes, by statute and with no paperwork to file. What makes Arizona urgent rather than merely favorable is the export rate, which is on a published, dated countdown: the APS tranche that pays 6.171 cents per exported kilowatt-hour for ten years closes to new interconnection applications on August 31, 2026, and the rate has already fallen 52% in eight years. Which utility you are on decides almost everything else — APS and TEP are regulated by the Corporation Commission and credit exports at a fraction of retail, while SRP is not regulated by the Commission at all and still credits exports at the full retail rate on two of its price plans.

Everything still on offer in Arizona, and when we last checked it.
ProgramWhat it paysStatusOwnershipChecked
Arizona credit for solar energy devices25% of costOpen nowYou must own the system
Arizona property tax — solar adds no valueNo tax owedStanding lawBuy or lease
Arizona transaction privilege tax — solar energy device retail deductionNo tax owedStanding lawBuy or lease
APS Rate Rider RCP — export rate, 2025 tranche$0.06171/kWh for 10 yearsOpen nowBuy or lease
TEP Rider-14 RCP — export rate, current tranche$0.0513/kWh for 10 yearsOpen nowBuy or lease
APS Storage Rewards pilot$110/kW per event seasonOpen nowBuy or lease
SRP Battery Partner$55/kW twice a yearOpen nowBuy or lease
SRP Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Program$0.005/kWhOpen nowYou must own the system

What Arizona itself still pays

Three separate state-level instruments survived 2025 intact, and none of them is a utility program: an income tax credit with no sunset, a property tax rule that requires no paperwork, and a sales tax deduction on the equipment. This is the part of the page that would be blank if Arizona were Utah.

Arizona credit for solar energy devices

Open now Tax credit You must own the system

25% of costcapped at $1,000 · 25% of the cost of the device, capped at $1,000 in a taxable year and at $1,000 in aggregate for the same residence across all years

Arizona still pays 25% of what the solar device cost you, up to $1,000, against your state income tax — and unlike almost every other solar credit in the country it has no sunset date written into it.

When: No expiration or repeal date appears in the section.

Who qualifies, in full
  • You must be an Arizona resident who is not a dependent of another taxpayer, and the device must be installed in your residence in this state
  • The credit is 25% of the cost of the device — the statute says "the cost of the device," not the cost of the device plus installation, which is a narrower base than Utah's equivalent credit uses
  • Maximum $1,000 in a taxable year; you may claim it only once in a tax year and may not accumulate more than $1,000 in total for the same residence across different tax years
  • Unused credit carries forward for not more than five consecutive taxable years
  • The person who provides the device must furnish you with an accounting of the cost to you
  • A married couple filing separately for a year in which they could have filed jointly may each claim only one-half of the credit
  • The credit is in lieu of any state allowance for exhaustion and wear and tear of the device under section 167 of the Internal Revenue Code
  • The device and its installation must meet the requirements of Title 44, Chapter 11, Article 11 — the same article that sets the two-year warranty, the written disclosure rules and the requirement to apply for interconnection before installing
  • A solar hot water heater plumbing stub out installed by the builder before title was conveyed to you does not qualify
  • "Solar energy device" here is the definition in A.R.S. § 42-5001, which covers photovoltaic and thermal systems and expressly includes wind generator systems that produce electricity — a different definition from the one the property tax rule uses
  • NOT VERIFIED HERE: whether the Arizona Department of Revenue has published a position on leased or third-party-owned systems. The statute contains no lessee provision of the kind Utah's credit has, and it measures the credit by the cost of the device to the taxpayer, but that is a reading of the text rather than a published ruling.

Authority: A.R.S. § 43-1083

What we saw: Statute read in full at azleg.gov on 2026-07-28. Subsection (A): "A credit is allowed against the taxes imposed by this title for each resident who is not a dependent of another taxpayer for installing a solar energy device, as defined in section 42-5001, during the taxable year in the taxpayer's residence located in this state. The credit is equal to twenty-five percent of the cost of the device." (B): "The maximum credit in a taxable year may not exceed one thousand dollars... A taxpayer may claim the credit under this section only once in a tax year and may not cumulate over different tax years tax credits under this section exceeding, in the aggregate, one thousand dollars for the same residence." (C): unused credit "may be carried forward for not more than five consecutive taxable years." (D) halves the credit on separate returns; (E) is the section 167 in-lieu-of rule; (F): "To qualify for the credit under this section the solar energy device and its installation shall meet the requirements of title 44, chapter 11, article 11." (G) excludes a builder-installed hot water stub out. NO sunset, termination or repeal date appears anywhere in the section.

Administered by Arizona Department of Revenue.

Checked against A.R.S. § 43-1083 (credit for solar energy devices) on

Arizona property tax — solar adds no value

Standing law Property tax exemption Buy or lease

No tax owedSolar energy devices and grid-tied photovoltaic systems are considered to add no value to the property for assessment purposes

Putting solar on an Arizona roof cannot raise the assessed value of the house — the appraisal statute directs assessors to treat it as adding no value at all, and unlike the neighbouring paragraph for other renewable equipment, it requires you to file nothing.

Who qualifies, in full
  • Applies to "solar energy devices, as defined in section 44-1761, grid-tied photovoltaic systems and any other device or system designed to produce solar energy primarily for on-site consumption"
  • It is a rule addressed to the department and county assessors applying standard appraisal methods, not a claim a taxpayer files — nothing has to be submitted for it to apply
  • Contrast paragraph 4 of the same subsection: energy efficient building components, renewable energy equipment and combined heat and power systems add no value only "if the property owner provides the county assessor with documentation of all elements that qualify," including actual acquisition and installation costs, filed no later than six months before the notice of full cash value for the initial valuation year. Solar carries no such condition
  • If the system is characterized as personal property rather than real property, it is valued under A.R.S. § 42-13056 instead, subject to any applicable constitutional exemption
  • The definition cross-reference here is A.R.S. § 44-1761, which is a different section from the one the income tax credit points at (§ 42-5001). The § 44-1761 definition expressly includes a "distributed energy generation system"; the § 42-5001 definition expressly includes wind. Do not assume a device qualifying under one automatically qualifies under the other

Authority: A.R.S. § 42-11054(C)(2)

What we saw: Statute read at azleg.gov on 2026-07-28. Subsection (C)(2) verbatim: "Solar energy devices, as defined in section 44-1761, grid-tied photovoltaic systems and any other device or system designed to produce solar energy primarily for on-site consumption are considered to add no value to the property on which such a device or system is installed." Subsection (C)(3) sends personal-property characterizations to § 42-13056. Subsection (C)(4), read the same day, imposes a documentation-and-deadline condition on energy efficient building components, renewable energy equipment and combined heat and power systems that (C)(2) does not impose on solar.

Administered by Arizona Department of Revenue and county assessors.

Checked against A.R.S. § 42-11054 (standard appraisal methods and techniques) on

Arizona transaction privilege tax — solar energy device retail deduction

Standing law Sales tax exemption Buy or lease

No tax owedThe amount received from sales of solar energy devices is deducted from the retail classification tax base; the matching prime contracting deduction expired for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2017

The equipment itself is not taxed — a registered solar energy retailer deducts the sale from its tax base, and a contractor can buy the device tax free — but the deduction that covered the installation contract expired at the end of 2016, so whether the labour is taxed now turns on how the job is classified.

Who qualifies, in full
  • The retail deduction is permanent and has no sunset: A.R.S. § 42-5061(M) deducts from the tax base "the amount received from sales of solar energy devices"
  • The retailer must register with the Department of Revenue as a solar energy retailer, and by registering acknowledges it will make its books and records relating to solar sales available for examination
  • The Department of Revenue states that a contractor may purchase a qualifying solar energy device from a registered solar energy retailer exempt from tax
  • The prime contracting deduction is gone: A.R.S. § 42-5075(B)(13) applied only "for taxable periods beginning from and after December 31, 1996 and ending before January 1, 2017." The Department has disabled deduction code 538 for construction contracting, speculative builders and owner builders for periods from January 2017 forward, and says it will disallow the deduction on amended returns
  • Whether your installation contract is taxed therefore depends on classification, not on solar: the Department states that installation of a solar energy device on a qualifying maintenance, repair, replacement or alteration project is not subject to tax, while installation on a taxable modification project is included in the prime contracting tax base
  • The prime contracting tax base is 65% of gross proceeds, so where the contracting classification does apply it applies to 65% of the contract rather than to all of it
  • One threshold worth knowing if the question comes up on your job: for owner-occupied residential property, the statutory definition of "alteration" does not apply if the contract amount is more than 25% of the most recent full cash value of the property, with a further tolerance if a project believed at the outset to be an alteration exceeds the threshold by not more than 25% of it
  • Exporting your own electricity is not itself a taxable business activity — A.R.S. § 42-5001(1)(b) excludes "the transfer of electricity from a solar photovoltaic generation system to an electric utility distribution system" from the definition of business
  • NOT VERIFIED HERE: how any particular rooftop solar contract should be classified. That is a determination made contract by contract by the contractor and the Department, and this page does not make it for you
  • NOT VERIFIED HERE: whether city transaction privilege taxes under the Model City Tax Code follow the state treatment in every jurisdiction

Authority: A.R.S. § 42-5061(M); A.R.S. § 42-5075(B)(13) and (P)

What we saw: Both statutes read at azleg.gov on 2026-07-28. § 42-5061(M) verbatim: "There shall be deducted from the tax base the amount received from sales of solar energy devices. The retailer shall register with the department as a solar energy retailer." § 42-5075(B)(13) verbatim: "For taxable periods beginning from and after December 31, 1996 and ending before January 1, 2017, the gross proceeds of sales or gross income derived from a contract to provide and install a solar energy device." § 42-5075(B) opening: "The tax base for the prime contracting classification is sixty-five percent of the gross proceeds of sales or gross income derived from the business." The Arizona Department of Revenue's Modification Contracting page, read the same day, states: "Deduction code 538, Solar Energy Devices, expired December 31, 2016 and is no longer available" for business codes 015, 016 and 037; "However, a contractor may purchase a qualifying solar energy device from a registered solar energy retailer exempt from tax"; and "If installed on a qualifying MRRA project, the installation of the solar energy device will not be subject to tax... If installed on a taxable modification project, the gross income from the contract will be included in the tax base subject to tax under the prime contracting classification." DISCREPANCY RECORDED: that Department page cites the MRRA exclusion to "A.R.S. § 42-5075 (O)". In the current statute subsection (O) is the design-phase-services rule and the maintenance, repair, replacement or alteration exclusion is subsection (P). The substance is right and the subsection letter is stale.

Administered by Arizona Department of Revenue.

Checked against A.R.S. § 42-5061 (retail classification), subsection M on

Why the property tax rule is better than it looks

Most states that exempt solar from property tax do it with a claim form and a deadline. Arizona does it inside the appraisal statute, as an instruction to the assessor: solar energy devices, grid-tied photovoltaic systems and anything else designed to produce solar energy primarily for on-site consumption are considered to add no value to the property they sit on. A.R.S. § 42-11054(C)(2)

The proof that this is deliberate is two paragraphs down in the same subsection. Energy efficient building components, renewable energy equipment and combined heat and power systems also add no value — but only if the owner files documentation with the county assessor, including actual acquisition and installation costs, no later than six months before the notice of full cash value for the initial valuation year. Solar carries no such condition. The legislature wrote a filing requirement for the neighbouring category and declined to write one for solar.

One trap worth naming: the two Arizona statutes that matter most to a homeowner point at different definitions of "solar energy device". The property tax rule uses the definition in § 44-1761, which expressly includes a distributed energy generation system. The income tax credit uses the definition in § 42-5001, which expressly includes wind generator systems that produce electricity. They overlap heavily and they are not the same list. Do not assume that qualifying under one settles the other.

Do you pay sales tax on solar panels in Arizona?

Not on the panels. The answer for the installation is "it depends, and it depends on something that has nothing to do with solar."

Arizona's retail deduction for solar energy devices is permanent and has no sunset: the amount received from sales of solar energy devices comes out of the retail tax base, and a contractor may buy a qualifying device from a registered solar energy retailer free of tax. A.R.S. § 42-5061(M)

What expired is the other half. The matching deduction on the prime contracting side applied only to taxable periods ending before January 1, 2017, so a contract to provide and install a solar energy device has had no solar-specific deduction for nine years. A.R.S. § 42-5075(B)(13) The Department of Revenue is blunt about it: deduction code 538 is disabled for construction contracting, speculative builders and owner builders from January 2017 forward, and will be disallowed on amended returns.

But that is not the end of it, and this is the part the roundups miss. The Department also says that installing a solar energy device on a qualifying maintenance, repair, replacement or alteration project is not taxable at all, while installing it on a taxable modification project goes into the prime contracting tax base — which is 65% of gross proceeds, not 100%. Arizona Department of Revenue Whether a given rooftop retrofit is one or the other is a contract-by-contract determination made by your contractor and the Department. This page states the rule; it does not make that call for you, and any site that tells you flatly that Arizona solar installations are or are not taxed is overstating what the law says.

Net metering and net billing in Arizona

Arizona does not have one answer, it has three, and the split is not by system size — it is by which utility sends your bill. The Corporation Commission ended retail net metering for new customers at the utilities it regulates, so APS and TEP now credit exported electricity under a Resource Comparison Proxy rate rider: a fixed per-kilowatt-hour purchase rate, set in an annual tranche, locked for ten years from interconnection, and stepped down every year by up to the 10% the tariff permits. SRP is a political subdivision and is not regulated by the Commission, so it never came under the RCP at all — and on two of its price plans it still credits excess generation at the full retail rate. The practical consequence is that two neighbours on opposite sides of a service territory boundary, with identical systems, can be paid three or four times different amounts for the same exported kilowatt-hour.

System sizeWhich utilitiesWhat you are paid for exports
Residential, on-site solar PVAPSTranche 2025 rate of $0.06171/kWh, locked for 10 years from interconnection. Set by the RCP in effect when the interconnection application is submitted, provided installation and Authority Having Jurisdiction approval follow within 180 days (270 days if delayed by a third party or APS through no fault of the customer). Rate Rider RCP, A.C.C. No. 6241, Revision No. 10.
Residential and small general service, solar PV or windTEP$0.0513/kWh, effective October 1, 2025 under Decision No. 81488, locked for 10 years from interconnection. TEP's tranche year runs October 1 to September 30, a month later than APS's. Rider-14, Resource Comparison Proxy Export Rate for Certain Partial Requirements Service.
Residential, Customer Generation and Average Demand price plansSRPExcess generation credited at the retail rate — SRP states you get back "the same value you would have paid for that energy had you purchased it from SRP." Excess is banked during the billing month and any unused excess is credited at the end of the billing cycle at the retail rate. This is retail net metering, still available in Arizona in 2026.
Residential, TOU Export, EV Export, Conserve and Save, and Manage Demand and Save price plansSRPFixed export rate of $0.0187/kWh, subtracted from the bill. Excess solar generation cannot be carried over on these plans.
Annual settlement of unused creditsAPS and TEPAPS: after the December bill, if remaining export credits exceed $25 a check is issued automatically; otherwise credits carry forward. TEP: on the October bill, TEP pays out any remaining balance above $10.00. Neither expires credits without payment, which is a real difference from Utah.

Read from TEP Statement of Charges, Twelfth Revised Sheet No. 801-2 (Rider R-14 Resource Comparison Proxy rate history) on .

The two export tranches, and their deadlines

Both Corporation Commission-regulated utilities run the same mechanism on different calendars, and both lock your rate for a decade. These are the two entries on this page with a date attached that has not passed yet.

APS Rate Rider RCP — export rate, 2025 tranche

Open now Net metering Buy or lease

$0.06171/kWh for 10 years

Interconnect with APS before September 1, 2026 and every kilowatt-hour you export is credited at 6.171 cents for the next ten years; miss it and you get whichever lower rate the next tranche sets.

When: The 2025 tranche runs September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026. A new tranche takes effect September 1, 2026 and may be up to 10% lower.

Who qualifies, in full
  • APS residential customer with qualified on-site solar generation, served under an applicable residential rate
  • Electricity must be generated by solar photovoltaic panels, interconnected to the APS distribution grid, installed behind the billing meter and serving the residential customer's load
  • Your rate is the RCP in effect when you submit your interconnection application, provided you complete installation and obtain approval from the Authority Having Jurisdiction within 180 days of that application — extended to 270 days if a third party or APS causes the delay through no fault of you or your installer
  • The locked rate applies for 10 years from interconnection; after that your credit follows whatever the current rate is, year to year
  • The tariff caps the annual step-down: "The RCP rate may not be reduced by more than 10% each year"
  • Cannot be combined with a grandfathered residential Legacy rate schedule or Legacy rate rider
  • Materially increasing your system's capacity — by more than 10% or 1 kW-ac, whichever is greater — forfeits your original locked rate; you get the current rate for ten years minus the years already served
  • Moving your solar system to another site ends the 10-year lock entirely; moving to a site already served under the rider lets you keep that site's tranche
  • Requires standard Advanced Metering Infrastructure meters for both the solar production and the electric service

Authority: APS Rate Rider RCP, A.C.C. No. 6241, Revision No. 10, effective September 1, 2025 in Decision No. 81439

What we saw: Filed tariff downloaded and read as a 4-page PDF on 2026-07-28, not summarised from the APS marketing page. Published tranche table verbatim: 2017 $0.12900, 2018 $0.11610, 2019 & 2020 $0.10450, 2021 $0.09405, 2022 $0.08465, 2023 $0.07619, 2024 $0.06857, and "Tranche 2025 September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026 $0.06171 Per kWh." Mechanics verbatim: "An RCP rate will be determined for each annual tranche of new DG Customers, effective September 1 each year or as determined by the Commission without proration. The RCP rate may not be reduced by more than 10% each year." And: "Each Customer's initial RCP rate will be applicable for 10 years from the time of their interconnection." Excess credits: "After the Customer's December bill, if the remaining Export Energy credits exceed $25, a check will automatically be issued; otherwise, the Export Energy bill credits will carry forward to the following year." Footer of every page: A.C.C. No. 6241, canceling A.C.C. No. 6232, Revision No. 10, original effective date August 19, 2017, effective September 1, 2025 in Decision No. 81439. Decisions referenced on page 1: 75859, 75932, 76295, 78317, 78643, 79097, 79293, 79482, 81439.

Administered by Arizona Public Service, under Arizona Corporation Commission Decision No. 81439.

Checked against APS Rate Rider RCP (A.C.C. No. 6241, Rev. 10), filed tariff on

TEP Rider-14 RCP — export rate, current tranche

Open now Net metering Buy or lease

$0.0513/kWh for 10 years

TEP's current export rate is 5.13 cents per kilowatt-hour locked for ten years — not the 5.70 cents TEP's own consumer page was still showing for a period that ended in September 2025.

When: The current rate took effect October 1, 2025. TEP's tranche year runs October 1 to September 30, so the current rate closes to new interconnection applications on September 30, 2026.

Who qualifies, in full
  • Available throughout TEP's service area to residential or small general service customers with on-site distributed generation using solar photovoltaic or wind resources
  • Generating capacity must be no more than 125% of the customer's total connected load at the metered premise, or below the customer's electric service drop capacity where load data is unavailable
  • You must take electric service on one of TEP's current residential or small general service time-of-use rate tariffs
  • Your credit is based on the RCP rate in effect when you submit your interconnection application before October 1, provided you then complete installation under the TEP Interconnection Agreement
  • The initial rate applies for 10 years from interconnection; after that the credit follows the export purchase rate then in effect and may change year to year
  • Cannot be used together with TEP's grandfathered net metering rate rider, Rider-4. Switching from grandfathered net metering to the RCP rider is permitted but is one-way — you may not switch back
  • Materially increasing capacity — more than 10% or 1 kW, whichever is greater — forfeits the original 10-year lock
  • New DG customers are assessed an incremental monthly charge reflecting part of the higher cost of the required bidirectional meter, shown in the TEP Statement of Charges
  • Excess credits are settled once a year: on the customer bills produced in October, for September usage, TEP pays out any remaining RCP export credit balance above $10.00

Authority: TEP Rider-14, Resource Comparison Proxy Export Rate for Certain Partial Requirements Service (RCP-PRS), Decision No. 79065; rate set in the TEP Statement of Charges, Twelfth Revised Sheet No. 801-2

What we saw: Rate read from TEP's filed Statement of Charges PDF on 2026-07-28 because the rider itself does not carry the number — Rider-14 says only that "A Resource Comparison Proxy (RCP) rate will be determined annually for new residential and small general service DG Customers, effective October 1 each year without proration." The Statement of Charges, Twelfth Revised Sheet No. 801-2, prints the full history under "Rider R-14 — Resource Comparison Proxy (RCP)": $0.0964 (September 21, 2018, Decision 76899), $0.0868 (October 1, 2019, 77374), $0.0868 (October 1, 2020, 77759), $0.0781 (October 1, 2021, 77759), $0.0703 (October 1, 2022, 78671), $0.0633 (October 1, 2023, 79094), $0.0570 (October 1, 2024, 79547), $0.0513 (October 1, 2025, 81488), and a further row of $0.0462 per kWh whose effective-date cell reads "Pending" and whose decision-number cell reads "XXXXX". STALENESS RECORDED: TEP's own consumer-facing RCP page at tep.com/rcp was still displaying $0.0570 per kWh "from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025" on this date — a period that had already ended. The filed tariff is treated as the record.

Administered by Tucson Electric Power, under Arizona Corporation Commission Decision No. 81488.

Checked against TEP Statement of Charges, Twelfth Revised Sheet No. 801-2 on

TEP's own page is showing a rate that expired last September

This one is worth spelling out, because it is the clearest illustration on this site of why we read filed tariffs instead of utility marketing pages.

TEP's consumer-facing Resource Comparison Proxy page tep.com/rcp was, on the day this page was researched, still displaying an export rate for a period that ran "October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025" — a window that had closed ten months earlier. The rider itself does not carry the number at all; it only says a rate "will be determined annually... effective October 1 each year without proration."

The number lives in TEP's filed Statement of Charges, which prints the whole history back to 2018 in one table, gives the Commission decision number for each step, and — on the same sheet — already lists the next rate down with its effective date shown as "Pending" and its decision number shown as "XXXXX". TEP Statement of Charges, Twelfth Revised Sheet No. 801-2 The utility knows exactly what comes next. It is simply not on the page a homeowner would read.

Batteries, and the one place you can sell a certificate

Arizona is the first state on this site where both major utilities pay for battery performance rather than for buying a battery — and where a homeowner can actually sell renewable energy credits. All three of these are recurring payments, which is a different shape from a rebate.

APS Storage Rewards pilot

Open now Battery rebate Buy or lease

$110/kW per event season$110 multiplied by the average kilowatts your battery discharges across all events in the May 1 to October 31 season, paid as a bill credit at the end of the season

APS pays $110 for each average kilowatt your battery actually delivers across the summer event season — a performance payment, not a rebate, so opting out of an event costs you by dragging your average down.

When: Described as a five-year pilot with up to 5,000 participants. APS does not publish start or end dates for the pilot on the program page.

Who qualifies, in full
  • APS residential customer on a residential rate plan
  • Battery must be an eligible model from a supported manufacturer, and must not already be enrolled in another battery management program
  • Event season runs May 1 through October 31; up to 60 events may be called, each lasting one to four hours, on weekdays, weekends or holidays, and only between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m.
  • Payment is calculated on the average of your battery's measured output across all events in the season, then multiplied by $110 and credited to the bill at season end as "BYOD Storage Rewards"
  • You may opt out of any event, but an opted-out event counts as zero kW in the seasonal average — APS's own worked example shows a customer dropping from $232.10 to $227.70 by sitting out one event
  • Solar customers keep their export compensation under the RCP or net metering buyback rate on top of this
  • APS advises the program suits customers who do not rely on the battery to shave their own on-peak costs; the two uses compete for the same stored energy
  • Eligible manufacturers listed as of this reading: Emporia (SolaX Xpower), Enphase IQ Battery, Fortress Power, FranklinWH, SolarEdge with SolarEdge and LG batteries, and Tesla Powerwall 2, Powerwall 3 and Powerwall+ — Tesla only where the battery is connected directly to Tesla rather than managed by other software
  • NOT VERIFIED HERE: whether a leased or third-party-owned battery qualifies. The program page states only that the battery must be eligible and not already enrolled elsewhere, and does not address ownership either way

What we saw: Program page read 2026-07-28. "This pilot will run for five years with up to 5,000 participants." "During the season, from May 1 through October 31, up to 60 events may be called. These events typically occur during times of high energy use and can last from one to four hours. They may take place on weekdays, weekends or holidays and only between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m." "By participating, you can earn $110 for the average kilowatts your battery releases throughout the event season." Worked examples given verbatim on the page: 2.11 kW average x $110 = $232.10; 0.99 kW x $110 = $108.90; and a customer who discharged 4.14 kW then opted out of the next event averaging 2.07 kW for $227.70. "At the end of the season, you'll see your rewards on your APS bill as a credit called BYOD Storage Rewards." "You must have an eligible battery that is not already enrolled in a battery management program and be on a residential rate plan." NOTE: unlike SRP's comparable pilot, APS publishes a duration and a participant cap but no dates, so there is no published date on which this closes.

Administered by Arizona Public Service.

Checked against APS — Storage Rewards Pilot Program on

SRP Battery Partner

Open now Battery rebate Buy or lease

$55/kW twice a year$55 per average kilowatt, paid as bill credits at the end of the summer and winter seasons

SRP pays $55 per average kilowatt twice a year for letting it discharge your battery during conservation events, and commits in writing never to take it below 20%.

When: Pilot approved for five years, ending April 30, 2030, capped at 5,000 customers.

Who qualifies, in full
  • SRP customer with a battery from a participating manufacturer: Enphase, FranklinWH, SolarEdge or Tesla
  • Incentives are "based on variables such as system storage size, customer load and system settings"
  • Paid as bill credits at the end of the summer and winter seasons
  • Your battery discharges automatically during conservation events; you are notified beforehand through your battery app and may opt out of any event
  • SRP states it "will never discharge your battery below 20%"
  • Export credits under your normal SRP price plan continue on top of the battery incentive
  • Pilot program approved for five years, ending April 30, 2030, and capped at 5,000 customers; SRP says it will consider making it permanent if the pilot succeeds
  • NOT VERIFIED HERE: whether a leased or third-party-owned battery qualifies — the program page does not address ownership
  • NOT VERIFIED HERE: whether enrolling here affects eligibility for SRP's separate REC Purchase Program, whose terms bar participation in "any other SRP program or offering with respect to the sale or transfer of the RECs or the payment of incentives or other compensation with regard to the Generating Facility or the RECs"

What we saw: Program page read in a real browser on 2026-07-28; srpnet.com returns a Cloudflare challenge to a plain fetch. Headline verbatim: "Join and earn $55* per average kilowatt in incentives twice a year." Footnote verbatim: "Incentives will be based on variables such as system storage size, customer load and system settings." Bullets verbatim: "You'll have peace of mind knowing SRP will never discharge your battery below 20%"; "Incentives are paid at the end of the summer and winter seasons in the form of bill credits"; "In addition to your battery performance incentives, you will continue to receive export credits for the energy sent to the grid under your current SRP price plan." Closing paragraph verbatim: "This is a pilot program, approved for five years (ending April 30, 2030) and available to a maximum of 5,000 customers." Participating battery partners listed: Enphase, FranklinWH, Solar Edge, Tesla.

Administered by Salt River Project.

Checked against SRP Battery Partner on

SRP Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Program

Open now SREC market You must own the system

$0.005/kWh$0.005 per kWh of total generation measured at the distributed energy resource meter, paid monthly as a bill credit

SRP will buy the renewable energy credits your panels generate at half a cent per kilowatt-hour of total production — the only route in Arizona by which an ordinary homeowner can actually sell a REC.

When: Program Period runs November 1, 2025 through the earlier of April 30, 2036 or the date SRP discontinues the program. Program Years run May 1 to April 30.

Who qualifies, in full
  • SRP residential customer under an active SRP account
  • You, or the owner of the residence, must have installed, commissioned and have sole ownership of the solar photovoltaic generating facility
  • You must own all right, title and interest in the RECs and have authority to transfer them to SRP — SRP states that customers under lease arrangements may not retain REC ownership and are therefore ineligible
  • You must not participate in any other SRP program or offering with respect to the sale or transfer of the RECs, or the payment of incentives or other compensation with regard to the generating facility or the RECs
  • Customers who have already assigned their RECs to SRP or anyone else through a prior incentive or agreement are ineligible until that term expires
  • Payment is on total monthly generation recorded by SRP's solar meter — energy used in the house, stored and exported all count — not on net exports
  • Nothing is paid for any period the system is not producing or is offline
  • You must have signed and be in compliance with SRP's Distribution Interconnection Agreement for Inverter Based Generators
  • The incentive is paid for one generating facility per SRP account
  • Some battery configurations are incompatible, such as a DC-coupled system with solar generation and storage including a backup load panel; SRP screens for this during the application
  • SRP may increase or decrease the incentive amount effective the first day of any Program Year, with at least 15 days' advance notice to participants
  • One REC represents 1,000 kWh; SRP states its rooftop solar customers generate an average of 12 RECs a year

What we saw: Program Terms PDF read directly on 2026-07-28, and the program page read in a real browser the same day. Terms verbatim: "Program Period: November 1, 2025 through the earlier of (a) April 30, 2036, or (b) the date on which SRP discontinues the Program." Eligibility verbatim: "The customer or, if different, the owner of the residence must have installed and commissioned, and have sole ownership of, a solar photovoltaic generating facility... The customer must own all right, title, and interest, in and to, and have authority to transfer to SRP, all RECs. The customer must not participate in any other SRP program or offering with respect to the sale or transfer of the RECs or the payment of incentives or other compensation with regard to the Generating Facility or the RECs." Section III verbatim: "SRP may, at any time, increase or decrease the Incentive Amount, effective as of the first day of any Program Year. SRP will provide each Participant with at least 15 days' advance notification of any change in the Incentive Amount." The rate is stated on the program page: "The SRP Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Program will provide $0.005 per kWh generated by the customer's solar system based on the distributed energy resource (DER) meter data." Same page: "One REC represents 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of solar generation. SRP customers with rooftop solar systems generate an average of 12 RECs a year." And: "Some SRP customers — such as those under lease arrangements — may not retain ownership of these RECs and therefore are ineligible to participate in the program."

Administered by Salt River Project.

Checked against SRP Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Program — Program Terms on

Both battery programs pay for delivery, not for purchase

Neither APS nor SRP will give you money for installing a battery. Both will pay you, repeatedly, for the kilowatts the battery actually delivers when they call an event. That is a real distinction and it changes who the programs suit.

APS pays per average kilowatt discharged across the whole May-to-October season, so an opted-out event does not merely earn nothing — it drags the average that the entire season's payment is multiplied by. APS's own worked example shows a customer losing money on the season by sitting out one event. SRP settles twice a year instead, at the end of summer and winter, and commits in writing never to discharge your battery below 20%.

The trade-off is the same in both cases and neither utility hides it: energy your battery exports during an event is energy it is not saving you during on-peak hours. APS says outright that the program suits customers who do not rely on their battery to shave their own peak costs. If that is why you bought the battery, the arithmetic may not favour enrolling.

Can you sell SRECs in Arizona?

Yes. Arizona is the first state on this site where a homeowner can actually sell a renewable energy credit, and the reason is the opposite of what you would expect. SRP — the utility the Corporation Commission does not regulate, and which was therefore never subject to the state's renewable mandate — buys RECs from residential solar customers at half a cent per kilowatt-hour of total generation, on a program that runs to April 30, 2036. Meanwhile the mandate itself is going away: on March 4, 2026 the Commission voted unanimously to repeal the Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff rules that had required its regulated utilities to source 15% of their energy from renewables. So the only buyer a homeowner can reach is the utility that never had to buy. Note that a REC sale is a transfer of ownership: SRP's program terms require you to own the system outright and to have the authority to transfer all right, title and interest in the credits, which is why customers on lease arrangements are told they may be ineligible.

Read from SRP Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Program — Program Terms on .

Arizona repealed its renewable mandate in March, and its own code has not caught up

The reason a homeowner can sell a certificate in Arizona at all is a piece of regulatory irony worth understanding before you rely on it.

Arizona's Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff rules, adopted in 2006, required Commission-regulated utilities to source a rising share of their retail sales from renewables, reaching 15% after 2024, with 30% of that requirement met from distributed resources and half of that from residential applications. Those carve-outs are what made a rooftop certificate worth something to APS and TEP.

On March 4, 2026 the Corporation Commission voted unanimously to repeal them. Arizona Corporation Commission, March 4, 2026 The release quotes Commissioner Rene Lopez saying the rules "are now expired and have served its purpose," and puts the case in affordability terms: $2.3 billion collected in REST surcharges across APS, TEP and UNSE over twenty years.

Here is the part that matters for anyone trying to look this up. As of the Arizona Administrative Code supplement released on June 30, 2026 — nearly four months after the vote — Article 18 was still printed in full, and its historical note still recorded only the 2007 adoption. The Commission's own Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff page still described the rules in the present tense: that regulated utilities "must generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2025" and that utilities "are required to file annual implementation plans." Two official Arizona publications, one of them the Commission's own, still describing a mandate the Commission voted to end.

We are not going to tell you the rules are dead, and we are not going to tell you they are alive. What we can tell you, dated, is what each source says and that they disagree — and that the one buyer actually paying Arizona homeowners for certificates today is SRP, which the Commission never regulated and which buys them for its own sustainability goals rather than to satisfy anyone's mandate.

What changed for Arizona in 2026

  1. APS's 2025 export tranche closes. An interconnection application submitted on or after September 1, 2026 gets whatever the 2026 tranche sets — which the tariff permits to be up to 10% lower, or roughly 5.55 cents. This is a scheduled, published deadline, and it is the single most time-sensitive fact on this page.

    APS Rate Rider RCP, A.C.C. No. 6241, Revision No. 10

  2. The Arizona Corporation Commission voted unanimously to approve the repeal of the Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff rules, the 2006 mandate that required its regulated utilities to source 15% of their energy from renewables by 2025. Docket No. RE-00000A-24-0026. As of the Arizona Administrative Code supplement released June 30, 2026 the rules were still printed in full with no repeal recorded, and the Commission's own REST program page still described the requirement in the present tense.

    Arizona Corporation Commission — ACC Votes to Eliminate Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff (REST) Rules

  3. The federal residential clean energy credit (§ 25D) stopped applying. Arizona's own credit under A.R.S. § 43-1083 was unaffected and still pays 25% of the cost of the device up to $1,000 — which is why the repeal landed very differently here than in Utah, where the state credit had already gone to zero.

    26 U.S.C. § 25D(h), U.S. Code (prelim)

  4. SRP opened its Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Program, paying half a cent per kilowatt-hour of total solar generation for the customer's renewable energy credits. It runs to April 30, 2036 unless SRP discontinues it, and it is the only route by which an ordinary Arizona homeowner can sell a REC.

    SRP Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Program — Program Terms

  5. TEP's export rate fell from $0.0570 to $0.0513 per kWh under Decision No. 81488 — the full 10% the tariff permits. TEP's own consumer-facing RCP page was still showing the superseded $0.0570 figure, for a period ending September 30, 2025, when this page was researched on July 28, 2026. TEP's filed Statement of Charges already carries a further rate of $0.0462 marked "Pending".

    TEP Statement of Charges, Twelfth Revised Sheet No. 801-2

  6. APS's 2025 export tranche took effect at $0.06171 per kWh under Decision No. 81439, down from $0.06857. That is a 52% fall from the 12.9 cents the first tranche paid in 2017, and it is the rate a new APS solar customer locks in for ten years if they interconnect before September 1, 2026.

    APS Rate Rider RCP, A.C.C. No. 6241, Revision No. 10

  7. Arizona's transaction privilege tax deduction for a contract to provide and install a solar energy device expired. The retail deduction for the equipment survived and still has no sunset, so the panels remain untaxed while the treatment of the installation contract now depends on whether the job is classified as an alteration or as a taxable modification.

    A.R.S. § 42-5075(B)(13)

The contract rules Arizona wrote, and nobody quotes

Arizona has an unusually specific consumer-protection statute for solar agreements, and § 43-1083 makes compliance with that article a condition of the tax credit — so this is not merely good practice, it is load-bearing on the money.

Utility rates and utility rate structures are subject to change. These changes cannot be accurately predicted. Projected savings from your distributed energy generation system are therefore subject to change. Tax incentives are subject to change or termination by executive, legislative or regulatory action.
A.R.S. § 44-1763(A)(13) — Arizona Revised Statutes, Arizona State Legislature Disclosure required verbatim in every distributed energy generation system agreement

Arizona put that sentence into law before Congress repealed § 25D, and every Arizona solar contract signed in the last several years had to contain it, separately acknowledged by the buyer. It turned out to be the most accurate sentence in the document.

The same section gives you a rescission right of at least three business days after signing and before installation, and requires separately acknowledged disclosures of the total cost over the life of the agreement, the interest and fees, the property tax and transaction privilege tax consequences, whether the warranty or maintenance obligations may be sold to a third party, and whether anything restricts your ability to transfer the system or the house it is attached to. If a savings estimate is presented, the agreement must show the comparison across utility rate changes from a 5% annual decrease to a 5% annual increase, in one percent increments.

And A.R.S. § 44-1762 sets a floor on the warranty: at least two years on the collectors, heat exchangers, storage units and the installation itself, at least one year on everything else, on a written statement whose form the Registrar of Contractors approves and a copy of which is filed with the Registrar and kept on public file.

Which utility you are on decides more than which state you are in

Arizona is the state that breaks the assumption behind every national solar calculator. Three utilities serve most of the population, and they sit on genuinely different legal footings — not different rate cards within one regime, but different regimes.

So "does Arizona have net metering?" has no single correct answer, and the honest one depends on your meter. It is also why the distinction between net metering and net billing decides Arizona payback more than the tax credit does — a system that would pay for itself on SRP's Customer Generation plan can look very different on the same roof three miles away.

The ownership question cuts across all of it, and Arizona shows the pattern more sharply than Minnesota or Utah did. Federal law now favours third-party ownership. SRP's REC program runs the other way and says so explicitly: you must have sole ownership of the system and the authority to transfer the certificates, and customers on lease arrangements are told they may be ineligible. Arizona's own tax credit has no lessee provision of the kind Utah wrote. The full buy-versus-lease picture is here, and in Arizona the decision reaches further than the tax return.

What is gone

Kept on the record because the federal repeal landed very differently in Arizona than it did in Utah — here it removed one credit and left another standing.

Federal residential clean energy credit (§ 25D) — 30% of system cost

Gone Tax credit You must own the system

30% of cost

Dead. The 30% credit an Arizona homeowner could claim for buying a system stopped applying to any expenditure made after December 31, 2025 — leaving the state's own $1,000 credit as the only tax credit left.

Who qualifies, in full
  • Terminated by section 70506(a) of Public Law 119-21, enacted July 4, 2025
  • An expenditure is treated as made when the original installation is completed, so paying in 2025 for a system finished in 2026 does not qualify
  • Unused credit from a system completed on or before December 31, 2025 still carries forward — file Form 5695 with the 2025 return to preserve it
  • Listed here because in Arizona, unlike Utah, the federal repeal did not leave a homeowner with nothing: the state credit under A.R.S. § 43-1083 survived it

Authority: 26 U.S.C. § 25D(h)

What we saw: Read at uscode.house.gov and matched at Cornell LII. § 25D(h): "The credit allowed under this section shall not apply with respect to any expenditures made after December 31, 2025." § 25D(e)(8)(A) treats an expenditure as made when the original installation is completed. § 25D(c) carries excess to the succeeding taxable year; 2025 Instructions for Form 5695 (dated January 22, 2026) state the unused portion carries to 2026 and that the form should be filed even if the credit cannot be used in 2025.

Administered by Internal Revenue Service.

Checked against 26 U.S.C. § 25D, U.S. Code (prelim), Office of the Law Revision Counsel on

Who is allowed to install solar in Arizona

Arizona has no solar photovoltaic contractor licence, and that surprises people. The Registrar of Contractors does run solar-specific classifications — but they are for solar thermal work: plumbing including solar, air conditioning and refrigeration including solar, solar plumbing liquid systems only, and swimming pools including solar. Those are the classifications that require the Registrar's Solar Exam. Rooftop photovoltaic work falls instead under the ordinary electrical classifications, C-11 commercial, R-11 residential and CR-11 dual, none of which require the Solar Exam. What the Registrar attaches to those electrical classifications is a different requirement: its own License Classification Requirements document marks the Solar Warranty column "Yes (if any solar performed)." That points at A.R.S. § 44-1762, which requires the collectors, heat exchangers and storage units of a solar energy device and its installation to be warranted for at least two years, the remaining components for at least one, on a written warranty statement whose form the Registrar approves and a copy of which is kept on public file with the Registrar. Two related statutes are worth knowing before you sign anything: § 44-1763 gives you at least three business days to rescind a solar financing, sale or lease agreement, and requires separately acknowledged disclosures of total cost, tax obligations, transfer restrictions and a verbatim warning that tax incentives can be terminated. And § 44-1764 requires the interconnection application to be submitted to your utility before the system is installed or energized, with the utility having 60 days to approve or deny.

Check a company yourself: Arizona Registrar of Contractors — Contractor Search.

Read from Arizona Registrar of Contractors — License Classification Requirements on .

So are solar panels worth it in Arizona in 2026?

Better than in most states, and the reasons are unusually concrete.

Arizona has the best solar resource in the country, a state tax credit that outlived the federal one and has no expiry written into it, a property tax rule that costs you nothing to claim, and no tax on the equipment itself. What it no longer has is a generous export rate, and that is the number that has moved. Six cents a kilowatt-hour for exports against a retail rate several times that means the same thing here as it does in Utah: electricity you use as you generate it is worth far more than electricity you send to the grid. A system sized to your own consumption, oriented toward using its own output, and paired with storage will beat a system sized to your roof.

What is genuinely different about Arizona right now is that one of the variables has a date on it. If you are going to do this, the arithmetic says do it on the 2025 tranche rather than the 2026 one, and the interconnection application — not the installation — is what has to land before September 1.

What this page does not cover yet

Being explicit about the edges is part of the method. Not yet verified, and therefore not claimed here:

Each of those is queued. When one is verified it will appear above with its own date, and the change will be listed in the record.

Common questions

Does Arizona have a solar tax credit?

Yes, and it survived the federal repeal. A.R.S. § 43-1083 gives an Arizona resident who is not a dependent of another taxpayer a credit of 25% of the cost of a solar energy device installed in their Arizona residence, capped at $1,000 in a taxable year. You may claim it only once in a tax year and may not accumulate more than $1,000 in total for the same residence across different years. Unused credit carries forward for up to five consecutive taxable years. No expiration, termination or repeal date appears anywhere in the section — which now makes Arizona unusual. Note that the credit is measured on the cost of the device, not the cost of the device plus installation.

What does APS pay for exported solar in 2026, and what is the deadline?

APS credits exported electricity at $0.06171 per kilowatt-hour under the 2025 tranche of Rate Rider RCP, and that rate is locked for ten years from interconnection. The tranche runs September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026. Your rate is set by the tranche in effect when you submit your interconnection application, provided you complete installation and obtain approval from the Authority Having Jurisdiction within 180 days of the application — 270 days if a third party or APS causes the delay. A new tranche takes effect September 1, 2026, and the tariff permits it to be up to 10% lower. The rate has already fallen from 12.9 cents in 2017.

What does TEP pay for exported solar?

$0.0513 per kilowatt-hour, effective October 1, 2025 under Arizona Corporation Commission Decision No. 81488, locked for ten years from interconnection. Be careful where you read this: TEP's own consumer-facing RCP page was still displaying $0.0570 per kWh for a period running "October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025" as of July 28, 2026. The current figure comes from TEP's filed Statement of Charges, Twelfth Revised Sheet No. 801-2, which also lists a further rate of $0.0462 per kWh with its effective date shown as "Pending". TEP's tranche year runs October 1 to September 30, a month later than APS's.

Does Arizona have net metering?

It depends entirely on which utility bills you, which is why national guides get Arizona wrong. The Corporation Commission ended retail net metering for new customers at the utilities it regulates, so APS and TEP now credit exports under a Resource Comparison Proxy rate rider at a fraction of the retail rate. SRP is a political subdivision and is not regulated by the Commission — on its Customer Generation and Average Demand price plans it still credits excess generation at the retail rate, banking it during the billing month, while on its TOU Export, EV Export, Conserve and Save and Manage Demand and Save plans it pays a fixed $0.0187 per kWh with no carryover. Same state, three different answers.

Do solar panels raise your property taxes in Arizona?

No, and you do not have to file anything for that to be true. A.R.S. § 42-11054(C)(2) directs the Department of Revenue and county assessors, when applying standard appraisal methods, to treat solar energy devices, grid-tied photovoltaic systems and any other system designed to produce solar energy primarily for on-site consumption as adding no value to the property. That is an instruction to the assessor rather than an exemption you claim. The contrast with paragraph 4 of the same subsection is instructive: other renewable energy equipment adds no value only if the owner files documentation with the county assessor, including actual costs, by a deadline. Solar has no such condition.

Do you pay sales tax on solar panels in Arizona?

Not on the equipment. A.R.S. § 42-5061(M) deducts the amount received from sales of solar energy devices from the retail tax base, with no sunset, and the Department of Revenue confirms a contractor may buy a qualifying device from a registered solar energy retailer free of tax. The installation is a separate question. The prime contracting deduction for solar expired for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2017, and deduction code 538 has been disabled for construction contracting since then. What replaced it is a classification question: the Department states that installing a solar energy device on a qualifying maintenance, repair, replacement or alteration project is not subject to tax, while installing it on a taxable modification project falls into the prime contracting tax base, which is 65% of gross proceeds. Which applies to your contract is determined contract by contract.

Can I sell SRECs in Arizona?

Yes — through SRP, and essentially only through SRP. Its Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Program pays $0.005 per kilowatt-hour of total solar generation, measured at the distributed energy resource meter, so energy you use in the house and energy you store both count, not just exports. SRP says its rooftop customers average about 12 RECs a year, one REC being 1,000 kWh. The program period runs November 1, 2025 to April 30, 2036 unless SRP discontinues it. You must have sole ownership of the system and the authority to transfer all right, title and interest in the credits, so customers on lease arrangements may be ineligible. The irony is that SRP is the utility the Corporation Commission does not regulate, and on March 4, 2026 the Commission voted to repeal the renewable mandate that applied to the ones it does.

Is there a battery rebate in Arizona?

Not a rebate — two performance programs. APS Storage Rewards pays $110 for each average kilowatt your battery discharges across the May 1 to October 31 event season, credited to your bill at the end of the season; up to 60 events may be called, each one to four hours, only between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Opting out of an event counts as zero kW in the seasonal average, so it reduces the whole season's payment. SRP Battery Partner pays $55 per average kilowatt twice a year, at the end of the summer and winter seasons, and SRP states it will never discharge your battery below 20%. SRP's is a five-year pilot ending April 30, 2030 with a 5,000-customer cap; APS describes a five-year pilot with a 5,000-participant cap but publishes no dates. Neither pays anything for simply owning a battery.

Do you need a special solar licence to install solar in Arizona?

Not for photovoltaic. Arizona's Registrar of Contractors has solar-specific classifications, but they cover solar thermal work — plumbing including solar, air conditioning and refrigeration including solar, solar plumbing liquid systems only, and swimming pools including solar — and those are the ones requiring the Registrar's Solar Exam. Rooftop PV falls under the ordinary electrical classifications: C-11 commercial, R-11 residential, CR-11 dual. None of the three requires the Solar Exam. What the Registrar's own License Classification Requirements document attaches to those electrical classifications is a Solar Warranty, marked "Yes (if any solar performed)" — pointing at A.R.S. § 44-1762, which requires at least two years on the collectors, heat exchangers, storage units and the installation, at least one year on the rest, with the written warranty statement filed with the Registrar and kept on public file.

Can I sign a contract and install before applying for interconnection?

No. A.R.S. § 44-1764 requires anyone seeking to install, energize or interconnect a distributed energy generation system to submit a complete interconnection application to the utility first, and prohibits installing or energizing until the utility approves. If the utility does not approve or deny within sixty days of the filing date, the system may be installed. A utility with fewer than seventy-five thousand customers may waive the requirements at its sole discretion. This matters for more than compliance in 2026: your APS export rate is set by the tranche in effect when the interconnection application is submitted, so the application date is the one that decides the money.

Are solar panels worth it in Arizona in 2026?

The case here held up better than almost anywhere. Arizona has the best solar resource in the country, a state credit worth up to $1,000 that outlived the federal one and has no expiry in the statute, no property tax consequence and no tax on the equipment. What has weakened is the export rate — six cents a kilowatt-hour at APS against a retail rate several times that — which means the same thing as it does in Utah: a system sized to your own consumption and paired with storage beats a system sized to your roof. The one thing that is genuinely time-sensitive is the tranche: interconnect with APS before September 1, 2026 and you hold 6.171 cents for ten years, and the tariff allows the next tranche to be up to 10% lower.

Primary sources

Every one of these was opened and read on the date shown. None of it is copied from DSIRE, EnergySage, or any other aggregator.

Get told when this changes

Solar incentives in Arizona moved three times in the first half of 2026. We recheck every program on this site on a schedule and email you when a number, a deadline, or a rule actually changes — not on a newsletter cadence, and not when nothing has happened.