North Carolina solar incentives 2026 & PowerPair rebate

If you install solar in North Carolina in 2026, there’s no state income-tax credit and no federal tax credit — both are gone. What’s left: an 80% property tax exclusion on the value solar adds to your home, Duke Energy’s capacity-capped PowerPair rebate (up to roughly $9,000, estimate, for solar paired with a battery), and net metering through Rider NMB or Rider RSC depending on when and how you enroll. None of this is financial or tax advice; treat every figure below as an estimate and verify current terms before you sign a contract.

The state tax credit expired in 2015 — nothing has replaced it

North Carolina once offered a 35% state income tax credit for renewable energy installations under G.S. §105-129.16A. That credit expired on December 31, 2015, and lawmakers never renewed it. If an installer or sales rep mentions a state tax credit for solar in North Carolina, they’re describing a benefit that hasn’t existed for over ten years. There is no substitute state income-tax credit as of mid-2026.

The 80% property tax exclusion that remains

What North Carolina does still offer, automatically, is a property tax break under G.S. §105-275(45): 80% of the appraised value that a solar electric system adds to your home is excluded from local property tax assessment. The remaining 20% is taxed normally. This exclusion is current law as of July 2026 and doesn’t require an application beyond what your county assessor’s office may ask for at reassessment.

A bill that would have phased this exclusion down, HB729, has stalled in committee since April 2025 and has not passed. Separately, a newer bill — HB1213 — passed the NC House Finance Committee on a 12-8 vote on June 30, 2026, and would end the 80% exclusion for systems placed in service on or after July 1, 2027, while grandfathering existing systems. HB1213 has not become law; it still has to clear House Rules, the full House, and the Senate. Treat it as a proposal aimed at future installations, not a change that affects a system you install in 2026.

The federal credit disappeared, too

The residential federal solar tax credit under IRC §25D expired December 31, 2025, and installation had to be complete by that date to qualify. For a system purchased and installed in 2026, the federal credit is $0 — no partial credit, no carryforward. Read the full breakdown, including how leases and PPAs interact with a separate commercial credit claimed by the financing company rather than you, in our federal solar tax credit guide.

Duke Energy’s PowerPair rebate: solar plus battery, if there’s room

PowerPair is Duke Energy’s rebate for customers who install solar and battery storage together through a Duke Energy Trade Ally. It pays an estimated $0.36 per watt-AC of solar, capped at 10 kW-AC ($3,600), plus $400 per kWh of battery capacity, capped at 13.5 kWh ($5,400) — a combined estimated maximum around $9,000 for a qualifying Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC) or Duke Energy Progress (DEP) residential customer. Enrollment runs through two paths: Cohort A rides on the time-of-use Rider RSC, while Cohort B rides on Rider NMB and adds optional battery-control bill credits. The full mechanics — cohorts, eligibility, and what to do if capacity is gone — are in our Duke Energy PowerPair guide.

The catch: PowerPair is capacity-capped and first-come, first-served, and it fills up. As of mid-2026, Duke Energy Progress has a closed waitlist and Duke Energy Carolinas is at or near capacity. Don’t assume a rebate will be there when your installer submits paperwork — check live availability directly at powerpair.solar before you count on this money in your payback math. If you’re weighing whether the battery half of PowerPair is worth pursuing on its own economics, our guide on whether a solar battery is worth it walks through the added cost against the resilience and rebate value.

Net metering: legacy Rider NM, the NMB bridge, and Rider RSC

How your exported solar electricity gets credited in North Carolina depends on which Duke Energy rider you’re on, and that has been shifting for the past few years.

Legacy Rider NM closed to new applicants on September 30, 2023. If you’re still on it, you keep retail-rate net metering only through December 31, 2026 — after that, you’re automatically moved to Rider NMB.

Rider NMB (Net Metering Bridge) doesn’t require a time-of-use rate schedule. It’s open to new customers, but it’s capacity-capped and available only through the end of 2026 (or until the capacity limit is reached, which could happen sooner).

Rider RSC (Residential Solar Choice), in effect since October 1, 2023, is open to new customers indefinitely, but it requires enrollment in a time-of-use rate with critical peak pricing, and it adds a minimum monthly bill along with non-bypassable riders. Systems larger than 15 kW-AC also face a grid-access fee under Rider RSC in most installer-reported cases.

How the credit actually works month to month

Within a billing period, your solar generation nets against your consumption at your normal rate — that part works the same across riders. What differs is what happens to the leftover: only the residual net-excess export at the end of the billing period gets credited, and it’s paid at the Net Excess Energy Credit (NEEC) avoided-cost rate, roughly $0.034/kWh (estimate) — 75–80% below a typical retail rate. That’s a meaningful gap. A system that’s significantly oversized relative to your usage pushes more of its output into that low-value NEEC bucket instead of offsetting retail-rate consumption. Right-sizing matters here as much as it does anywhere else; run your own usage against expected production with the solar savings calculator before settling on a system size.

Co-ops and municipal utilities set their own rules

Electric cooperatives and municipal utilities in North Carolina aren’t regulated by the NC Utilities Commission the same way Duke Energy is, and they’re not required to offer net metering at all. Terms vary provider to provider. If you’re not a Duke Energy customer, call your electric cooperative or municipal utility directly and ask for their current solar interconnection tariff before you sign anything.

North Carolina solar incentives 2026: summary table

Incentive	Type	Value (estimate)	Who qualifies	Key notes
State income tax credit	State	$0	N/A	Expired December 31, 2015; not renewed
Federal residential tax credit (§25D)	Federal	$0 in 2026	N/A	Expired December 31, 2025
Property tax exclusion (G.S. §105-275(45))	State	80% of added appraised value	Any NC solar homeowner	Automatic; HB1213 would end it for post-7/1/2027 systems, not yet law
PowerPair rebate	Utility (Duke Energy)	Up to ~$9,000 combined	Duke Energy Carolinas/Progress customers on Rider RSC (Cohort A) or Rider NMB (Cohort B), new solar + battery via a Trade Ally	Capacity-capped; check powerpair.solar for live status
Net metering (Rider NMB or RSC)	Utility (Duke Energy)	Retail-rate within-period netting	New and transitioning Duke customers	Net-excess export paid at NEEC, ~$0.034/kWh
Co-op / municipal net metering	Utility	Varies	Non-Duke customers	Not NCUC-regulated; contact provider directly

A worked example: 8 kW system near Charlotte

Take an 8 kW system installed in Duke Energy Carolinas territory around Charlotte, using 4.8 peak sun hours per day as a modeling assumption and a standard 0.80 performance derate to account for heat, wiring losses, and inverter conversion.

Gross annual production: 8 kW × 4.8 hours × 365 days ≈ 14,016 kWh. Apply the 0.80 derate: 14,016 × 0.80 ≈ 11,213 kWh per year, or roughly 935 kWh per month.

Estimated installed cost at $2.60/W: 8,000 W × $2.60 = $20,800 (estimate — see solar panel cost in North Carolina for current regional pricing ranges, which run roughly $2.33–$3.08/W across recent market reports).

There’s no federal or state tax credit to apply against that cost in 2026, so the $20,800 stands as your net out-of-pocket figure before any utility rebate.

Annual bill savings depend heavily on which rate applies to you. Using Duke Energy Carolinas’ residential rate of roughly 12.5¢/kWh (estimate — this is a utility-specific figure, not the EIA statewide average): 11,213 kWh × $0.125 ≈ $1,402/year (estimate). Simple payback: $20,800 ÷ $1,402 ≈ 14.8 years (estimate).

For comparison, North Carolina’s statewide residential average is about 15¢/kWh (our interim statewide estimate; EIA’s April 2026 table reads higher, near 16¢, above trailing bill data), and Duke Energy Progress customers report rates closer to 14¢/kWh. At the statewide ~15¢ figure, the same 11,213 kWh in savings would be worth about $1,682/year (estimate), shortening payback to roughly 12.4 years. That swing shows why your own utility bill — not a statewide average — is the number that should drive your math. Run your actual rate and usage through the solar savings calculator rather than relying on either figure here.

Layer in the 80% property tax exclusion: if the system adds roughly $15,000 to your home’s appraised value, 80% of that ($12,000) is excluded from assessment, saving a modest amount in avoided property tax each year depending on your local mill rate — often in the range of $50–$150/year (estimate). If you also install a battery and qualify for PowerPair before capacity runs out, an estimated rebate of up to $9,000 would meaningfully shorten the payback further, though it applies to the combined solar-plus-battery cost, not the solar-only figure used above.

Verify these numbers with Duke Energy and DSIRE before you sign

Every figure in this article is an estimate, and North Carolina’s solar rules have moved several times in the past three years. Before you sign a contract:

• Check DSIRE (dsireusa.org) for the current status of every North Carolina program mentioned here, including PowerPair and the net metering riders.
• Contact Duke Energy directly — or your electric cooperative or municipal utility if you’re not a Duke customer — to confirm which rider you’d be enrolled on, your actual rate, and whether PowerPair capacity is still available in your territory.
• Talk to a qualified tax professional about your specific situation before assuming any tax treatment; this article is not tax or financial advice.
• Watch HB1213’s progress through the NC House and Senate if you’re planning a system for installation after mid-2027 — it hasn’t passed, but it’s moving.

What North Carolina has left leans on Duke Energy and your county tax office rather than Washington or Raleigh — narrower and more utility-dependent than the era when a 30% federal credit stacked on top of a 35% state credit. The property tax exclusion is durable and automatic; PowerPair is worth chasing but capacity-limited; and your net metering payout now depends on which rider you land on and how closely your system size tracks your actual usage.