Florida Net Metering in 2026: How Solar Billing Really Works (and Where People Lose Money)

By Jesse Garlick | July 24, 2026

Now that the 30% federal solar tax credit is gone for 2026 installs, the math on Florida solar rests on three things the state still gives you: the sales-tax exemption, the property-tax exemption, and — the biggest of the three — net metering. It's also the one homeowners understand the least. Salespeople wave at it ("you'll sell power back to the grid!") and move on. Here's what's actually happening on your bill, and how to make sure none of it leaks away.

🏦The right mental model: it's a savings account, not a battery. Your panels overproduce at midday and send the extra to the grid. The utility doesn't store your electrons — it stores a credit. At night you spend those credits back. Nothing is physically saved at your house, which is exactly why solar alone won't keep your lights on in a hurricane. (That's a separate battery question.)

How the 1:1 retail credit works

Florida's investor-owned utilities are required to credit exported solar at the full retail rate — the same ~12–15¢ per kWh you pay when you pull power from the grid. That "1:1" part is what makes net metering so valuable: a kWh you send out at noon is worth exactly a kWh you pull back at 9 p.m.

Credits are netted every billing cycle and roll over month to month. So your heavy-production spring gets banked and quietly covers your air-conditioning-heavy August. On paper your bill can drop to just the fixed monthly customer charge (usually $8–$25) that everyone pays regardless of solar.

The annual true-up — where people quietly lose money

Here's the fine print nobody circles on the quote. Once a year your credit bank gets trued up and reset to zero. Any leftover credit you've banked past that date is not paid at retail — it's cashed out at the utility's avoided-cost rate, roughly 2–3¢ per kWh instead of 12–15¢.

When your kWh gets credited	Rate you get
Exported and used against a bill within the year	~12–15¢ (full retail)
Leftover surplus at your annual true-up	~2–3¢ (avoided cost)

For FPL that true-up lands on the January bill; Duke and TECO settle on their own annual cycle. The lesson is simple: an oversized system doesn't earn you more — it donates your summer surplus to the utility for pennies.

Size to your usage, not to zero. A system built to wipe out every last kWh will bank credits it can never spend at full value. The sweet spot is a system that roughly matches your annual consumption, so almost every credit gets used at the retail rate before the true-up claws it back.

FPL vs. Duke vs. TECO — the same rules, small differences

All of Florida's big utilities — FPL, Duke Energy Florida, and TECO — offer full-retail net metering. The differences are procedural, not fundamental:

Interconnection tiers. Systems under 10 kW (Tier 1 — most homes) get the simplest application, and the utility swaps in a bidirectional meter, typically at no charge. Bigger systems (Tiers 2–3) require more paperwork and proof of liability insurance.
True-up timing and the exact avoided-cost rate vary by utility, but the structure — retail credits during the year, low payout on the annual surplus — is the same everywhere.

"Wait — didn't Florida try to kill net metering?"

It did, and this is worth knowing before you sign anything. In 2022 the legislature passed HB 741, a bill backed by the utilities that would have phased net metering down toward that low avoided-cost rate and let companies pile on new fees. On April 27, 2022, Governor DeSantis vetoed it, citing the cost-of-living hit to families. Full-retail net metering stayed exactly as it was — no phase-down, no step-downs, and existing solar owners were never touched.

So as of 2026 the perk is intact. But "intact after a veto" is not the same as "guaranteed forever." Utilities revisit this fight regularly. The practical takeaway isn't fear — it's timing: the economics of Florida solar are genuinely good right now, and net metering is the reason.

Make net metering work its hardest

Size to your annual kWh, not to a $0 bill — pull 12 months of usage off your utility account and design to that — our solar savings calculator can rough out the math in a minute.
Know your true-up month so you're not sitting on a fat credit bank the week before it resets.
Don't pre-build for an EV or pool you don't own yet — add panels when the load actually arrives.
Remember the fixed charge. Net metering can zero out your energy charges, but the monthly customer/meter fee stays — solar doesn't erase it.
Add a battery only for backup, not for savings — in a full-retail net-metering state the grid already is your cheapest "battery."

With the federal credit gone, net metering isn't a nice-to-have footnote on your solar quote — it's the engine of the whole return. Understand the retail credit, respect the annual true-up, and size the system to your real usage, and Florida solar still pencils out. Oversize it or ignore the true-up, and you'll hand the best part of your production back to the utility at three cents on the dollar. When you're ready for real numbers on your own roof, get a free Florida solar quote and compare it against your last 12 power bills.