Pennsylvania — regulated utilities only: PECO · PPL · Met-Ed · Penelec · Duquesne Light
E-Minded Solutions

Pennsylvania homeowners · E-Minded Plan

Less than half of your electric bill is electricity. The rest is moving it.

On a real Pennsylvania bill, the electricity itself was $88.80 of $185.47. The other $96.67 was wires, fixed charges and taxes. You can shop your supplier — most people here already have — but the delivery piece is captive: no supplier, no plan and no phone call lowers it. The only thing that reaches it is power that never travels down anyone's wires.

  • $0 down. You don't buy the system and you don't take out a loan.
  • Nothing reported as debt in your name. The credit check is a soft pull.
  • No yearly price increase written into the agreement.
  • Maintenance, monitoring and repairs covered for 25 years — the system isn't yours, so neither is the problem.

We don't install. We read your actual bill and tell you whether this makes sense at your house. If buying is the better move for you, we say so — and further down this page we explain exactly when it is.

Show me the two halves

An actual Pennsylvania bill

How much of this was actually electricity?

A real PPL residential bill: 924 kWh, one month, spring 2026. Not an average, not an estimate — a statement somebody actually paid. Every Pennsylvania utility bill splits the same way; the numbers move, the structure doesn't.

The electricity itself
Everything else
$88.8047.9% of the bill
$96.6752.1% of the bill
$88.80 — GenerationThe power itself. This is the part that actually lights your house.
$30.89 — TransmissionCarrying it long-distance to your area.
$65.78 — DeliveryThe local wires, the fixed customer charge, riders and taxes.
You can shop $119.69 of itPennsylvania is deregulated, so generation and transmission are the part you can switch suppliers on. Most homeowners here already have — and that is where the effort stops.
You cannot shop $65.78 of itDelivery is your utility's own charge to run the local wires to your house, plus a fixed customer charge you pay before you use a single kilowatt-hour. No supplier touches it.
Real PPL Electric Utilities residential statement, 924 kWh billed Mar 18 – Apr 17, 2026 · all-in rate $0.2007/kWh · PPL Price to Compare $0.12953

Electricity made on your own roof never travels down anyone's wires and never crosses anyone's meter. That's why it's the only thing that reaches the right-hand column — and the fixed customer charge is the one piece that stays no matter what, which is why we tell you your bill won't go to zero.

What it actually is

You're not buying panels. You're changing who makes your power.

Today you buy all of your energy from the utility, at whatever price they set twice a year. Here, a company owns the system on your roof and you buy most of your power from them instead — at a rate agreed in writing on day one.

01

It's a bill swap, not a purchase

The system isn't yours. No down payment, no loan, no debt in your name. You'll still get a bill from the utility — a much smaller one — and you pay the rest to whoever produces the power.

02

No yearly increase. Zero.

There are agreements out there that climb around 2.9% every year for 25 years. That's real, and it's what burned people. This one has no annual increase written into it at all — the rate in year one is the rate in year ten. Your utility, meanwhile, resets its price twice a year.

03

They carry the equipment

Monitoring, maintenance, labor, roof penetrations, panels, inverters — covered for 25 years. If the system produces less than promised, that's their problem to fix, not yours.

What changed on January 1st

If you buy a system in 2026, the federal credit is gone.

This is the part most homeowners haven't heard yet, and it flipped the math on its head.

01

The homeowner credit ended December 31, 2025.

The 30% residential credit for buying your own system — cash or financed — expired. A system bought in 2026 gets nothing back from the federal government.

02

The credit for third-party-owned systems is still there.

When the system belongs to the company that installed it — a lease or a PPA — a different section of the tax code still applies, and it runs through the end of 2027.

03

You don't claim it. It's applied to your rate.

The company that owns the system claims the incentive and applies that value to bring your monthly rate down. You never file anything, and you never receive a check. That's the honest version, and it's why the rate can start below what you pay the utility today.

04

And if you're a PECO customer, there's $500 that is yours.

PECO pays a $500 rebate on a residential solar installation — and unlike the tax credit and the SRECs, this one goes to the account holder. That's you. We file the paperwork with you so it doesn't get left on the table. One system per customer, per property, and the program runs through 2031. This one is PECO's own program, so it applies in PECO territory only — PPL, Met-Ed, Penelec and Duquesne have rebates too, but theirs are for solar water heaters, not panels. We'd rather be precise than let you expect a check that isn't coming.

Our job is to make sure every incentive you're entitled to actually lands — the ones that lower your rate, and the one your own utility hands you directly. We're not telling you to hurry. We're telling you what the calendar says.

How it compares

The three ways to put solar on a Pennsylvania house

None of these is wrong in every case. The right one depends on your bill, your credit situation and — above all — how long you plan to stay in the house.

 
Lease / PPA
Financed purchase
Cash purchase
Money up front
Lease$0
Financed$0, but you take on a loan
CashThe whole system, today
Federal credit in 2026
LeaseStill applies — claimed by the owner, applied to your rate
FinancedNone. It ended Dec 31, 2025
CashNone. It ended Dec 31, 2025
Debt on your credit
LeaseNot reported to the bureaus. Soft pull
FinancedYes — a 20 to 25 year loan
CashNo, but it comes out of pocket
Who owns it
LeaseThe company. You buy the power
FinancedYou, with the loan on top
CashYou, from day one
Maintenance and repairs
LeaseIncluded for 25 years
FinancedOn you once the warranty ends
CashOn you once the warranty ends
Who gets the SRECs
LeaseThe system owner. Applied to lower your rate
FinancedYou — you register and sell them yourself
CashYou — you register and sell them yourself
Best over 25+ years
LeaseNo. Lowest cost now, not lowest cost overall
FinancedBetter than leasing once the loan is paid off
CashYes — if you have the cash and you're staying put

Read that last row again. If you have the cash and you're staying in the house twenty years, buying wins on total dollars. We'd rather tell you that here than have you find out later.

The Pennsylvania question

"What happens in January?"

It's the first thing every homeowner here asks, and it deserves a straight answer instead of a brochure.

01

Summer pays for winter

Your system overproduces from spring through fall. Every extra kilowatt-hour goes onto the grid and comes back as a credit. Those credits sit on your account and get used when the days are short.

02

One-for-one, at full retail

Pennsylvania's regulated utilities are required to credit exported solar at the full retail rate — not a wholesale fraction. That's the rule that makes the winter math work here, and it's why we check your utility before anything else.

03

Twelve months, not one

Any honest design looks at a full year of your usage, including the two months that hurt. If someone sizes your system off a summer bill, that's how you end up short in February.

One thing we won't tell you: that solar "solves" a Pennsylvania winter on its own. It doesn't. Banked credits are the mechanism, and they only work if the system was sized for your actual year.

Before you spend any more time

Who this works for — and who it doesn't

We'd rather lose ten minutes here than waste an hour of yours.

 
This fits
This doesn't
Why
The house
FitsSingle-family home you own
Doesn'tRenting · mobile or manufactured · condo · townhouse · duplex
WhyThe system needs a roof that's legally yours
Your utility
FitsPECO · PPL · Met-Ed · Penelec · Penn Power · West Penn · Duquesne Light
Doesn'tRural electric co-op · municipal utility
WhyOnly regulated utilities are required to credit you one-for-one
How long you're staying
FitsSeveral more years, at least
Doesn'tMoving within a year or two
WhyIt transfers to a buyer, but it isn't worth the paperwork for a short stay
Your roof
FitsAsphalt shingle or standing seam metal, with life left
Doesn'tWood shake · clay tile · a roof at the end of its life
WhyNobody should mount a 25-year system on a 2-year roof
Your bill
FitsRoughly $150/month or more
Doesn'tVery low usage
WhyBelow a certain bill the fixed charges eat the savings

Said out loud

What's guaranteed, what isn't, and what we won't claim

+

Production is guaranteed in writing. Savings are not a fixed number.

The agreement commits to a minimum amount of power from the system. What you save depends on your usage and your utility's rate — which is why anyone quoting you a percentage before reading your bill is guessing.

+

You will still get a bill from the electric company.

You stay connected to the grid, so a fixed interconnection charge remains. It's small compared to what you pay now. It is not zero, and we're not going to tell you it is.

+

You do not receive the SRECs or the tax credit.

On a leased system, the company that owns it owns the incentives. That value is applied to bring your monthly rate down. Anyone telling you that you'll be cashing state credit checks on a leased system is telling you something that isn't true.

+

There is no buyout option.

This program doesn't convert into ownership partway through. If owning the system is what you want, the route is buying it — and we'll tell you that instead of selling you around it.

+

Pennsylvania law gives you three days to cancel.

Any door-to-door agreement in this state carries a three-day right to rescind. We're telling you before you've agreed to anything. If you need those three days, take them.

The uncomfortable questions

Asked and answered, before you talk to anyone

Is my payment going to go up every year?

No. There is no annual increase written into this agreement — not 2.9%, not 1%, zero. The rate you agree to in year one is the rate in year ten. This matters because it's the exact thing that burned people: there are agreements out there that climb roughly 2.9% every year for twenty-five years, and after a decade the homeowner is paying more than they would have paid the utility. Your own proposal states the rate and the escalator in writing before you sign anything — read that line first, on ours or on anybody else's.

Isn't buying better than leasing?

Over twenty-five years and with cash in hand, yes — and we put that in the comparison table above rather than hiding it. What changed in 2026 is the gap. The federal credit for buying ended December 31, 2025, so a purchased system now costs about 30% more out of pocket than the same system did last year. The credit for third-party-owned systems is still in place through 2027. That doesn't make buying wrong. It makes the comparison different than it was, and worth running with real numbers instead of assumptions.

Does solar even work in Pennsylvania? It's cloudy here.

Pennsylvania is not Arizona, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. Two things make it work here anyway. First, your rate is high — every kilowatt-hour you don't buy is worth more here than it would be in a cheap state. Second, the regulated utilities are required to credit exported power one-for-one at full retail, so the surplus you generate in June is banked at full value and waiting for January. The system is sized against twelve months of your usage, not a summer month.

What happens if I sell the house?

The agreement transfers to the buyer — that's the normal path and it's built into the paperwork. A house with a locked-in energy rate is usually an easier sell, not a harder one, especially in a market where the utility is resetting its price twice a year. If the buyer doesn't want it there's a defined process for that too, and an advisor walks you through it line by line before you sign.

Will I still get a bill from PPL / PECO / Met-Ed?

Yes. You stay connected to the grid, so there's still a fixed interconnection charge each month. It's small next to what you pay today, but it doesn't go to zero. Anyone promising you a zero electric bill is setting you up to be angry at your first January statement.

Do I get the SRECs? I read that Pennsylvania pays for solar credits.

You read right about the credits — Pennsylvania law does require utilities to buy solar renewable energy credits. But on a leased system, the company that owns the system owns those credits, not you. That value is applied to bring your monthly rate down, which is part of why the rate can start below what you're paying now. If you want to own and sell the SRECs yourself, that means buying the system. We'll tell you that either way.

What if my roof needs replacing in a few years?

Then that's a conversation to have before anything goes on it, not after. Roof penetrations are covered under the 25-year warranty, and if a re-roof is needed later the panels can be removed and reinstalled — there's a cost to that and it's disclosed up front. If your roof is genuinely at the end of its life, we'll say so and tell you to deal with the roof first.

How do I know you're not one of the door-knockers I've read about?

You don't, yet — and that's a reasonable position. Complaints about solar companies rose more than 500% between 2018 and 2023, so the caution is earned. Here's what we can do about it: everything on this page is checkable, we've told you what isn't guaranteed, we've told you when buying is better, and we've told you that Pennsylvania law gives you three days to cancel any door-to-door agreement. None of that helps us close you faster. It's just what's true.

I saw an ad for an "officially approved Pennsylvania solar program." Is this that?

No, and neither is that. There is no state-run solar program in Pennsylvania that pays for your system. What Pennsylvania actually has is a law requiring regulated utilities to credit your exported power one-for-one, a law requiring them to buy solar renewable energy credits, and a state sales tax exemption. Those are real. A "state-approved program" that's "first come, first served" is a private company's ad written to sound like a government notice. We'd rather tell you that than let you find out from us later.

How much will I actually save?

We're not going to put a percentage on this page. It depends on your usage, your roof, your utility and how the system gets designed — and a number invented before anyone read your bill is worth nothing to you. Send us one bill and you'll get the real one.

Start with one bill

Send it. We'll send back the breakdown.

We read your actual statement and show you what you're paying for power versus what you're paying to deliver it — on your utility, at this year's rates. If your roof, your utility or your timeline doesn't fit, we'll tell you that and we're done. You keep the breakdown either way.

Start with your ZIP code

See where your bill actually goes

One field to start. We'll ask for the rest only if your area checks out.

We work throughout Pennsylvania. The ZIP tells us your utility and what the rates look like where you are.

One field. No phone number yet.

How long

About 20 minutes, by phone or video.

Cost

Free. No card, no catch.

Commitment

None. You decide, at your pace.

One bill. One breakdown.