Memphis and Shelby County
Solar installation in Memphis, TN
MLGW does not offer net metering, and the federal residential credit is gone. This site adds up what that leaves, with every figure dated and sourced.
- Homes and businesses
- Shelby County
- Every figure dated
The Memphis arithmetic
Federal residential tax credit, on a system placed in service today
$0
IRS, checked 2026-08-17
What MLGW pays for the power you export to its grid
$0
MLGW, checked 2026-08-17
Monthly availability charge to self-generate
−$14.40
MLGW, checked 2026-08-17
The payback MLGW publishes for Shelby County, or longer
25 years
MLGW's own figure, checked 2026-08-17. Every line above is a published figure with its publisher named, not an estimate of ours.
The one rule that decides solar in this city
Memphis has a single electric utility and it publishes its position in plain words. MLGW
holds an all-requirements contract with TVA and is prohibited from buying electricity
from any other source
, so it does not offer 'net metering'
, and generation
beyond what a property is using at that instant flows to the MLGW grid without
financial benefit
(MLGW,
checked 2026-08-17).
Almost every solar page written in the United States assumes the opposite. It assumes the grid banks your surplus at noon and returns it at eight, which is what makes a big array on a mostly empty house a sensible purchase. Take that assumption away and the arithmetic inverts: the only kilowatt hours worth anything are the ones the building consumes at the moment it makes them.
The second published fact points the same way. The federal residential clean energy credit
is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025
(IRS,
checked 2026-08-17), and MLGW says the same locally. A great many pages ranking for Memphis
solar cost, including pages carrying this year's date, still show the price offset by that
credit.
Neither fact makes solar pointless here. Both change what a good system looks like, and both are the reason this site exists in the shape it does. What the utility requires, in the order it requires it, is on MLGW net metering and solar interconnection in Memphis.
What we take requests for
Three services, picked by what actually pays under those rules rather than by what is easiest to sell.
Battery storageStorage is what turns output into money where exported power earns nothingSolar battery installation in Memphis, TN
Panel repairA system that stopped producing, or never produced what it was sized forSolar panel repair in Memphis, TN
Commercial solarWarehouse, distribution, office and flat membrane roofs across Shelby CountyCommercial solar installation in Memphis, TN
The bill this is really about
A Memphis electricity bill is a cooling bill for a large part of the year, and that shapes what solar can and cannot do on a house here. Demand climbs through the afternoon and stays high into the evening, well past the point where the array's output has fallen away. The hours a system covers best and the hours the house draws hardest overlap, but they do not match.
That overlap is the whole return. MLGW puts the industry figure at about 60% of instantaneous solar output used by the average home, against about 80% for the average business (MLGW, checked 2026-08-17). Where exported power is credited, the rest is banked. Here it is given away.
So the useful question about a Memphis system is not how big it is. It is what share of what it makes the building actually uses, and everything that moves that share is worth money.
The part most sites leave out
MLGW publishes its own expectation for solar in Shelby County, and it is not flattering:
payback likely will take 25 years or longer, even with federal tax incentives
, on
two grounds it names itself, low electric rates and below average annual solar
irradiance
for this area (MLGW, checked 2026-08-17).
Self-generating customers also carry a standing monthly line, the Electric Service Availability charge, currently $14.40 for residential customers and subject to change (MLGW, checked 2026-08-17). It does not fall when production rises and it does not pause when a system stops working.
Every local competitor in this market runs the same headline, some version of lowering your MLGW bill. That promise is much harder to keep once these figures are added up in public, which is why they are added up at the top of this page rather than buried. A contractor who will quote this honestly and still sell the job is the kind of contractor a request from this site is worth passing to.
Where the numbers still work
Read the 80% figure again and the strongest case in this city is obvious. A building that is open and drawing power all day consumes a much larger share of its own output than a house that is empty at midday, and Memphis is a logistics city with a great deal of large, low, flat roof sitting directly above exactly that kind of load.
On the residential side the equivalent lever is storage, which holds the surplus until the
evening instead of donating it. MLGW's own page names it: it says it is
vital to size the generation capacity carefully and/or to include battery storage
(MLGW, checked 2026-08-17). The utility has no reason at all to sell anyone a battery.
What remains of the incentive picture, and how it changes fifteen miles away in Mississippi or Arkansas, is set out on Tennessee solar incentives and what is left in Memphis.
What people ask about solar in Memphis
How much does it cost to install solar panels in Tennessee?
No figure is published on this site that we have not read from its source, and a Tennessee-wide installed price is not one of them. What can be said with a source is what the money does afterwards, and in Memphis that is decided by the utility rather than by the price: MLGW does not offer net metering, so output the property does not use at the moment it is made earns nothing (MLGW, checked 2026-08-17). Two quotes at the same price behave completely differently depending on how much of the output your building actually consumes. The rules are on MLGW net metering and solar interconnection in Memphis.
How much is a solar system for a 2000 sq ft house?
Floor area is the wrong input, and it is the reason this question gets answered badly everywhere. A system is sized against consumption and roof, not against square footage: two houses the same size with different occupancy, different cooling set points and different roof orientation need different arrays. In a market with no export payment the sizing question is narrower still, because the useful size is the one your house consumes during daylight rather than the one that covers the annual bill.
Why are people getting rid of their solar panels?
Most often because the saving landed under the model. A system sized on the assumption that surplus output would be bought produces the surplus and is paid nothing for it, a standing monthly charge arrives with being a generator, an inverter fails somewhere in year eight or ten, and the roof reaches the end of its life while the array is still under warranty. None of that is a fault in the technology. It is what happens when a national sales model meets a utility that does not buy power back.
Is solar worth it in Tennessee?
MLGW's own answer, for Shelby County, is that payback likely will take 25 years or longer, even with federal tax incentives
, on the grounds of low electric rates and below average annual solar irradiance
for this area (MLGW, checked 2026-08-17). We are not going to argue with the utility about its own arithmetic. What that sentence leaves out is that it describes an average, and the lever it does not measure is how much of the output a property consumes itself. A daytime load, honest sizing or storage moves that share, and nothing else here does. If a proposal in front of you shows a short payback, ask which tariff it assumes, then read Tennessee solar incentives and what is left in Memphis.
The rest of this site
Find out what solar does on your bill, not on a national average
Send the address and a recent MLGW bill for Memphis or the surrounding Shelby County. If the numbers do not work on your roof, that is the answer you will get.