Arizona Solar Guide 2026

Here's my honest take: Arizona is a genuinely excellent place to go solar — 300+ days of sunshine per year, a solid state tax credit, and some of the best solar irradiance numbers in the entire country. The catch? Electricity rates here are lower than in California or Massachusetts, which means your monthly savings are more modest. You still come out way ahead over 25 years, but you need to go in with realistic expectations about payback timelines.

I've watched a lot of Arizona homeowners get burned by out-of-state installers who blow through town, oversell a lease or PPA, and then disappear when service issues come up. This guide is my attempt to cut through the noise. If you're paying APS, TEP, SRP, or any of Arizona's other utilities and your summer bill makes you wince — and it probably does, because Arizona air conditioning is no joke — solar almost certainly makes sense for you. Let me show you the math.

Here's the honest picture on Arizona net metering in 2026: it's not as generous as it used to be, but it's still workable — especially compared to what California homeowners are dealing with under NEM 3.0. The key is understanding that Arizona has moved away from full retail net metering for most customers, settling on a "net billing" model that credits you at something less than the retail rate for exports.

APS (Arizona Public Service) customers

• APS uses a net billing tariff, not traditional full-retail NEM
• Export credits are based on the Resource Comparison Proxy (RCP) rate, which APS sets annually — currently hovering around $0.09–$0.11/kWh
• That's meaningfully lower than the retail rate (~$0.12/kWh), so exporting excess power isn't as valuable as using it directly
• APS also charges a grid access fee for solar customers — currently around $0.93 per kW of system capacity per month
• Strategy for APS customers: size your system for self-consumption, not maximum production. Don't overbuild hoping to "bank" credits

TEP (Tucson Electric Power) customers

• TEP offers net metering closer to the traditional model, crediting exports at or near the retail rate for most residential customers
• TEP's NEM program has been more stable than APS, but the Arizona ACC has been pushing utilities toward the net billing model statewide
• Tucson homeowners currently have better net metering economics than Phoenix — take advantage of it while it lasts
• TEP also has a time-of-use rate option that can work in your favor with battery storage

SRP (Salt River Project) customers — read this carefully

• SRP is a customer-owned utility and is not regulated by the Arizona ACC — they set their own solar rules
• SRP ended traditional net metering in 2015 and replaced it with a demand charge-based rate structure that made solar economics difficult
• As of 2026, SRP offers the "Customer Generation" price plan, which does credit solar exports, but also includes a demand charge that can eat into savings significantly
• SRP customers: I strongly recommend pairing solar with battery storage and doing a very careful analysis before committing. The economics are workable but more complex
• Export credit under SRP's current plan: approximately $0.028–$0.035/kWh — significantly lower than APS or TEP

What I actually recommend for Arizona homeowners

The playbook in Arizona is different from California but not complicated. Because export rates are modest across all three major utilities, you want to size your system so you consume most of what you produce. A system that covers 80–90% of your annual consumption and leaves minimal excess is generally the sweet spot. For APS and SRP customers especially, pairing with even a modest battery (like an Enphase IQ Battery 5P or a Tesla Powerwall) can meaningfully improve your economics by letting you shift production to your high-usage evening hours.

Bottom line: Arizona's solar economics are driven by phenomenal sun resources and low install costs, not by generous export credits. That's actually a healthy foundation — you're not dependent on utility policy staying favorable. You're just generating cheap electricity and using it.