If you got a solar pitch in 2017, the deal was simple: every kilowatt-hour you generated offset one kilowatt-hour from the grid, at the same retail price. That was net metering, and it was an extraordinarily good deal. It is also closed to new customers. Anyone who interconnected after November 15, 2017 operates under a different regime — and the rules tightened again in 2020.
Here's what's true today.
The export rate, plainly
Utah residential solar customers who installed after October 30, 2020 receive an "export credit" — what Rocky Mountain Power pays you for each kilowatt-hour your system exports to the grid. The current rates:
Read that gap carefully. You buy at ~12¢. You sell at ~5¢. The post-net-metering era penalizes export, which means the entire economic strategy for new solar systems is to consume your own production rather than send it to the grid. That's a fundamental design shift from the systems sold five years ago.
The federal tax credit — still 30%
The federal Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), restructured under the Inflation Reduction Act, currently allows homeowners to deduct 30% of the cost of their installation from their federal income tax liability. It applies to both the solar array and any battery storage installed alongside it, including standalone battery retrofits.
For a typical Utah home — a 7.5 kW system at roughly $25,000 installed — that's a $7,500 federal credit, claimed on your tax return the year of installation. Combined with a 12 kWh battery (~$13,000 installed), the credit on the combined $38,000 project becomes $11,400.
The 30% federal credit is current law. It's been periodically targeted by political negotiation and could change in future legislative sessions. If you've been considering solar but waiting for the "right time," the 30% credit existing today is closer to a ceiling than a floor on what's likely available in five years.
Why batteries went from luxury to load-bearing
Under the old net metering rules, a battery was a nice-to-have — useful for backup during outages, but not economically necessary, because the grid effectively acted as your battery at full retail value.
Today, with the 5¢-vs-12¢ export gap, a battery recaptures the difference. Every kilowatt-hour stored at midday (when your panels are over-producing) and discharged in the evening (when you'd otherwise buy at retail) is worth approximately 7 cents more than the same kilowatt-hour exported and re-imported.
Run the numbers on a typical 7.5 kW system: if a battery lets you self-consume an extra 12 kWh per day that would have otherwise exported, that's about 12 × $0.07 × 365 = $307 per year of additional value, recovered just from the time-shifting. In a high-rate environment that keeps climbing, that gap widens.
A realistic 25-year picture
Let's run a representative scenario. Saratoga Springs household, 950 kWh/month average, two adults, one EV, gas heating. Roof is south-facing, no shading. They install an 8 kW system with a 13.5 kWh battery for a turn-key cost of $39,500.
Illustrative. Real numbers depend on roof orientation, usage profile, financing, and future rate decisions. Net cost reflects 30% federal ITC.
Net lifetime savings in this scenario: roughly $25,000 in present-day dollars, with a payback period of 9–11 years. If you finance the system at competitive rates, the monthly loan payment can be lower than the avoided electric bill from month one — meaning the household's cash flow improves on day one, before any tax credit is claimed.
When solar doesn't make sense
We are not going to bury this. Solar is not a universal answer. Here are the cases where we routinely tell homeowners to wait or pass:
- You're planning to move in under 5 years. Solar adds value to a home, but the resale uplift rarely matches the full system cost, particularly with financing. Payback comes from years of avoided bills.
- Your roof has 8+ years of life on it and complex shading. Removing and reinstalling panels for a future roof replacement is a $3,000–$5,000 line item. If you're going to need a new roof anyway, do the roof first.
- You use very little electricity. If your monthly bill is under $80, the absolute dollars of savings are too small to justify a $25,000–$40,000 capital investment.
- You can't claim the federal tax credit. The 30% ITC is non-refundable. If your federal tax liability is low (retirees on Social Security, for example), you can roll it forward, but the deal is materially worse.
- Your roof faces north with no good alternative. Production drops 25–40% on a north-facing array. Ground-mount or a different orientation can sometimes solve this; sometimes nothing solves it.
We list these honestly because the alternative — selling solar to households where it doesn't pencil — is the entire reason the residential solar industry has a credibility problem in the first place. We'd rather you trust the math than the marketing.
What a good analysis looks like
A real evaluation should cover, at minimum:
- Your last 12 months of actual usage from your Rocky Mountain Power account
- A satellite-based shading and orientation analysis of your specific roof
- A production estimate for your specific azimuth and tilt
- A self-consumption rate modeled against your hourly load profile (this is where most quotes are sloppy)
- Three financing scenarios: cash, loan, and lease/PPA — with the lifecycle cost of each clearly laid out
- The conditions under which the system underperforms its projection, with honest numbers
That is the analysis we offer. It takes us about 48 hours to put together once we have your usage history. If the math doesn't work, we'll tell you, in writing.