Guide
Where homes net-meter rooftop solar, and where almost none do
Utilities report 5.5 million net-metered home solar systems, 41 per 1,000 households. Hawaii has 233; Tennessee and Alabama almost none.
Net metering is what lets a home with solar panels run its meter backward: power the house exports by day is credited against what it buys at night. Whether a utility offers it shapes what solar is worth there, because exported power can otherwise be credited at much less than retail, or at nothing.
The Energy Information Administration's 2025 survey records how many homes each utility net-meters. Set against how many homes each one serves, it shows where net-metered solar is common and where it barely exists.
Across the country
US utilities reported 5.5 million net-metered residential solar systems in 2025: about 41 for every 1,000 residential customers. The average system is 6.9 kW.
That is not every system. Solar companies that own the panels on a customer's roof, under a lease or a power purchase agreement, report theirs to EIA themselves: another 1.4 million residential systems, nearly half of them in California. EIA collects those by state, not by utility, so the figures below are the utilities' own.
By state
| Most net-metered homes | Per 1,000 households |
|---|---|
| Hawaii | 233 |
| California | 158 |
| Nevada | 108 |
| Arizona | 106 |
| Connecticut | 76 |
| Colorado | 76 |
| Massachusetts | 75 |
| New Mexico | 72 |
| Utah | 71 |
| District of Columbia | 66 |
At the other end, 14 states have fewer than 10 per 1,000. In Tennessee and Alabama there are almost none: under 100 net-metered homes in each, against more than two million households apiece. North Dakota, Mississippi and South Dakota have fewer than 2 per 1,000.
By utility
Among the 163 utilities with at least 100,000 residential customers, the median has 16 net-metered homes per 1,000. The highest:
| Utility | Per 1,000 households |
|---|---|
| San Diego Gas & Electric | 247 |
| Hawaiian Electric | 246 |
| Pacific Gas & Electric | 183 |
| Southern California Edison | 159 |
| Arizona Public Service | 148 |
| Nevada Power | 133 |
| Tucson Electric Power | 131 |
| United Power (CO) | 129 |
Several large utilities report no net-metered homes at all, including Alabama Power, Austin Energy, the Memphis and Knoxville city utilities, and Middle Tennessee and Volunteer electric cooperatives. That does not mean nobody there has solar panels: EIA records their customers' systems separately, as solar that is not net-metered, credited under some other arrangement or not at all. Austin Energy alone reports about 100 MW of it on homes.
Why it matters if you are thinking about solar
Where a utility does not net-meter, the power your panels export is not simply netted against what you buy. It may be bought at a lower rate or not credited at all, and some utilities add a monthly charge for homes with solar. The payback stretches accordingly.
This site's solar estimates credit exports at the tariff's filed sell rate where there is one. Where there is not, but the utility reports residential net metering, they show a range from no credit to full retail; where it reports none, exports earn nothing. Why a smaller solar system pays back faster shows why that matters so much.
A high count is no promise either. It includes systems connected years ago under older rules, and California and Hawaii, among others, have since moved new customers to tariffs that credit exports at well below the retail price.
Before you sign a contract, ask your utility how exports are credited and whether any monthly charge applies to homes with solar. The answer can move payback by years.
How we measured this
- Systems: residential net-metered solar installations as utilities report them in EIA-861 for 2025. Systems that third-party owners, such as solar leasing companies, report separately are counted above but left out of the tables, because EIA does not break them down by utility. Solar that is not net-metered is left out too.
- Households: EIA's 2025 residential customer counts for the same utilities, leaving out retail suppliers and community aggregators, which would count the same homes again.
- States include those with at least 100,000 residential customers in the data.
What to do with this
Find your state's solar payback page. It prices every current tariff there against real solar production, and counts how many of those tariffs belong to a utility that reports residential net metering.