Is Solar Worth It in Louisiana in 2026?
Louisiana sits at roughly 30.7°N, low enough that the sun climbs high even in winter, and the state gets a healthy production number for it — around 1,419 kWh per installed kilowatt per year near New Orleans (NREL PVWatts). Solid, though not spectacular; humidity and cloud cover trim what the latitude alone would suggest.
The harder truth is the rate side. Louisiana electricity is cheap by national standards — about 12.6¢ per kWh — and cheap power is the one thing that stretches out solar payback everywhere. Add the federal tax credit's repeal for systems completed after December 31, 2025, plus a net-billing program that pays very little for exported power, and Louisiana in 2026 is a state where solar can still work, but only if your numbers actually support it. This page walks through Louisiana's real prices, real sun data, real costs, and the state's actual net-metering situation, so you can decide with your own bill in hand instead of a sales pitch.
Louisiana Electricity Prices
Solar only pays back if grid power stays expensive enough to make your own generation worth it. Here's the long view, from federal EIA data.
Full Louisiana electricity price data (1990–2025)
| Year | Louisiana (¢/kWh) | US avg (¢/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 7.4 | 7.8 |
| 1991 | 7.4 | 8.0 |
| 1992 | 7.5 | 8.2 |
| 1993 | 7.8 | 8.3 |
| 1994 | 7.6 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 7.2 | 8.4 |
| 1996 | 7.6 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 7.4 | 8.4 |
| 1998 | 7.1 | 8.3 |
| 1999 | 7.1 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 7.7 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 7.9 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 7.1 | 8.4 |
| 2003 | 7.8 | 8.7 |
| 2004 | 8.1 | 9.0 |
| 2005 | 8.9 | 9.5 |
| 2006 | 9.1 | 10.4 |
| 2007 | 9.4 | 10.7 |
| 2008 | 10.3 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 8.1 | 11.5 |
| 2010 | 9.0 | 11.5 |
| 2011 | 9.0 | 11.7 |
| 2012 | 8.4 | 11.9 |
| 2013 | 9.4 | 12.1 |
| 2014 | 9.6 | 12.5 |
| 2015 | 9.3 | 12.7 |
| 2016 | 9.3 | 12.6 |
| 2017 | 9.7 | 12.9 |
| 2018 | 9.6 | 12.9 |
| 2019 | 9.8 | 13.0 |
| 2020 | 9.7 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 11.0 | 13.7 |
| 2022 | 12.9 | 15.0 |
| 2023 | 11.6 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | 11.7 | 16.5 |
| 2025 * | 12.6 | 17.3 |
Source: US EIA, average residential retail electricity price. Values in cents per kWh. * 2025 is preliminary.
Louisiana residential electricity averaged about 12.6¢ per kWh in 2025 (EIA preliminary), up roughly 42 percent since 2005. That sounds like a lot until you compare it to the national trend — Louisiana is still one of the cheaper states to buy power in, and the last decade's pace has been a comparatively mild 3 percent a year. That's good news for your monthly bill and bad news for your solar payback math: the entire case for rooftop solar rests on offsetting a certain number of cents per kWh, and Louisiana's cents are smaller than a Californian's or a Northeasterner's. Storm-driven grid hardening costs (Entergy passed through significant post-Hurricane Ida resilience surcharges) are one reason the trend line still points up, just more slowly than in higher-rate states.
The Louisiana Sun, Month by Month
Panels respond to how high the sun sits and how long it stays up, not to air temperature. At 30.7°N, Louisiana's sun path is similar to north Florida's or south Georgia's — respectable even in December, strong from spring through fall.
Louisiana monthly solar production data
| Month | kWh per installed kW |
|---|---|
| Jan | 106 |
| Feb | 104 |
| Mar | 131 |
| Apr | 132 |
| May | 134 |
| Jun | 121 |
| Jul | 115 |
| Aug | 118 |
| Sep | 117 |
| Oct | 132 |
| Nov | 116 |
| Dec | 94 |
| Year | 1419 |
Source: NREL PVWatts typical-year estimate (New Orleans), per installed kW at latitude tilt.
Production averages around 1,419 kWh per installed kW per year near New Orleans, a bit lower than peninsula Florida because Louisiana's summer haze and afternoon storm clouds cut into what the strong sun angle would otherwise deliver. Spring and early summer are your best production months; hurricane season's cloud cover takes a real bite out of August and September, which is worth remembering if you're sizing a system around a specific summer bill.
What Solar Costs in Louisiana in 2026
Installer quotes cluster around $2.50 to $2.70 per watt for a typical residential system in 2025–2026 (one outlier source cites as high as $3.03/W). Because Louisiana has no state sales tax exemption for solar, that cost already includes full sales tax on the equipment — unlike a state such as Florida, which waives it.
| System Size | Typical 2026 Cost | Roughly Offsets | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 kW | $12,500 to $13,500 | ~7,100 kWh/yr (~$75/mo at 12.6¢) | Smaller home, modest usage |
| 8 kW | $20,000 to $21,600 | ~11,350 kWh/yr (~$119/mo) | Average Louisiana home |
| 12 kW | $30,000 to $32,400 | ~17,000 kWh/yr (~$179/mo) | Large home, heavy AC and pool use |
A typical 8–10 kW residential system lands around $20,000 to $27,000 before any incentive. With the federal credit repealed for owner-owned systems completed after 2025, this pre-incentive number is essentially your out-of-pocket cost unless you finance through a lease or PPA. Get at least three quotes and compare price per watt directly — the spread between installers in Louisiana is wide.
Estimate Your Louisiana Payback
The calculator below starts from Louisiana's average rate and production. Enter your own monthly bill to see your estimated system size, payback period, and 25-year savings. Louisiana's rate growth has averaged about 3 percent a year over the last decade — a reasonable default for the inflation field, though you should test it against a flatter scenario too, since Louisiana's rates have historically grown slower than the national average.
Louisiana Solar Incentives That Still Exist in 2026
Here's what's actually available versus what's gone.
- Gone — the 30 percent federal credit: The federal Residential Clean Energy Credit (25D) was repealed by OBBBA for installations completed after December 31, 2025. If a Louisiana installer's pitch still assumes 30 percent off, that pitch is out of date.
- Gone — the state income tax credit: Louisiana's Solar Energy Systems Tax Credit (La. R.S. 47:6030), once up to 50 percent of cost up to $12,500 for purchased systems, stopped taking new applications years ago and was formally repealed effective January 1, 2025. Any site still quoting "50 percent up to $12,500" describes a dead program.
- Still here — property tax exemption: Under La. R.S. 47:1706, solar equipment attached to an owner-occupied home (including solar water heaters and pool heating) is treated as exempt personal property for ad valorem tax purposes. Assessors can't count your panels' value against your home. This is a standing statute, not tied to the repealed income credit, and it's the one incentive Louisiana homeowners can still count on.
- Not available — sales tax exemption: Louisiana has no statewide sales tax exemption for solar equipment purchases, so sales tax is baked into every quote above.
- Partial — leases and PPAs: Third-party-owned systems can still access a separate federal business credit (48E) through 2027, but it belongs to the leasing company. It may translate into a lower lease payment; it may just pad their margin. Compare a lease quote against a cash or loan purchase before assuming it's the better deal.
Net Billing, Not Net Metering, in Louisiana
This is the part that trips people up most, so it's worth being precise about the name. Louisiana does not have traditional retail-rate net metering for new systems. In a September 19, 2019 General Order, the Louisiana Public Service Commission ended retail-rate net metering for any new interconnection application filed after that date. What replaced it is "net billing," or a buy-all/sell-all-style structure: you pay full retail price for every kWh you draw from the grid, you pay nothing for solar power you consume the instant you generate it, and you get paid an Avoided Cost Rate — set utility-by-utility and updated annually by the LPSC — for any excess you export. That rate runs roughly 2 to 4¢ per kWh, against a retail rate near 10–13¢ for Entergy customers — a fifth or less of what you pay to buy power back.
If you installed and interconnected on or before December 31, 2019, you were grandfathered onto the old retail-rate deal for 15 years from your interconnection date — so some Louisiana homeowners are quietly sitting on one of the better solar deals in the country while a 2026-installing neighbor gets a fraction of the value for the same exported kWh. That's exactly why an old Facebook post celebrating "solar pays for itself with net metering" can be true for its author and irrelevant to you. Avoided-cost rates are utility-specific, revised annually, and under ongoing regulatory pressure to shrink further — pull your utility's current schedule before anyone hands you a 25-year payback number.
Storms, Batteries, and the Grid
Louisiana's hurricane exposure is worth naming directly. Entergy has passed through substantial grid-hardening surcharges since Hurricane Ida, and storm-driven outages are a real planning consideration here. Because net billing pays so little for exported power anyway, a battery that lets you use your own solar during an outage — instead of selling it back for pennies — is arguably more locally relevant in Louisiana than in a strong-net-metering state. That said, Louisiana offers no battery-specific incentive, so a battery is an out-of-pocket resilience purchase here, not a subsidized one — budget for it separately and don't expect it to shorten your financial payback.
How to Go Solar in Louisiana
- Pull your last 12 power bills for your true average monthly cost — Louisiana bills swing hard between mild winters and AC-heavy summers.
- Confirm your roof faces south, east, or west, has minimal shading, and at least 10 to 15 years of life left.
- Ask each installer for price per watt and confirm the quote reflects 2026 reality, with no leftover 30 percent federal credit assumed.
- Ask your utility for its current Avoided Cost Rate schedule before trusting any export-credit math — your system will almost certainly fall under net billing, not net metering.
- Size toward your own daytime consumption rather than full annual usage, given how little exported power is worth here.
- Get at least three quotes and compare warranties and equipment, not just the headline per-watt number.
For the fundamentals of how solar systems work, sizing, and buying versus leasing, see our main solar panels guide. It covers the technology and the decision in depth; this page focuses on what's specific to Louisiana. Interconnecting a system also touches your home's wiring and panel capacity — our electrical guide covers the basics.
Sources
Figures on this page are 2026-current. Rates: US EIA, Electric Sales, Revenue, and Average Price (2025 values preliminary). Production estimates: NREL PVWatts. Net metering/net billing rule: Louisiana Public Service Commission — Net Metering; see also E&E News/POLITICO coverage of the 2019 order and Utility Dive. State tax credit repeal: La. R.S. 47:6030 and the Louisiana Legislature's statutory text. Property tax exemption: La. R.S. 47:1706. We review these figures every six months.