• Although the residential federal tax credit expired December 31, 2025, systems that are leased or owned by third parties will still qualify for the commercial 30% ITC beyond 2025 (Section 48E). In these cases, the solar or battery developer receives the credit and, depending on the company, could pass some of that value to you through lower monthly lease payments.
• For solar, the third-party system must begin construction before July 2026 and be placed in service by December 31, 2027. For battery storage, the 48E credit remains available but begins to phase down in 2034 to 22.5%, 15% in 2035, and expires entirely in 2036.
• To remain eligible for the Investment Tax Credit after this year, solar and battery developers must comply with Foreign Entity of Concern requirements.
• You can learn more about solar leases and the federal tax credit here and battery leases and the federal tax credit here.

The SMART program is an incentive program for solar projects in Massachusetts, which provides compensation for solar projects if they meet certain criteria.

There is still some allocation in SMART 2.0, but SMART 3.0 is the most recent version of the program that is currently in development and is expected to come out soon.

• To qualify for SMART 3.0, a project must provide documentation to show that on-site construction did NOT begin before June 20, 2025, but the current SMART 2.0 program will remain open for applications until December 21, 2026. To qualify for that, the project must provide documentation to show that on-site construction began before December 31, 2025.
• Most residential projects would most likely be under 25 kW, and those projects will have a fixed incentive level of $0.03/kWh under SMART 3.0. Projects under 25 kW that serve low-income customers will have a fixed incentive level of $0.06/kWh.
• There are adder incentive values available for certain projects based on location, offtakers, and more.
• More information here

Net metering is a renewable rate program in Massachusetts that allows customers to offset their energy use and transfer energy back to their electric companies via their systems in exchange for a bill credit.

• One must be serviced by Eversource, National Grid, or Unitil to participate in net metering.  
• Customers who net meter are billed for their net consumption of electricity, which is calculated by the total electricity consumed in a month subtracted by the total electricity generated in a month.
  • If your net consumption is positive, meaning your electricity generated covers only a portion of your consumption, you would pay the remaining balance to your electric company. The energy generated would show up as a net meter credit subtracted from your balance.
  • If your net consumption is negative, you would not owe anything as the net metering credit would appear on your bill.
• Net metering credits do not expire and will rollover to the next billing period.
• More information here

If you are a Massachusetts resident and install a system on your primary residence, you qualify for the MA Residential Energy Credit worth 15% of your solar panel system cost, up to $1,000, that is applied towards your MA state income tax bill.

The amount of the energy credit claimed by the taxpayer in a taxable year may not exceed the taxpayer’s personal income tax liability for that year, but a taxpayer may carry-over any excess credit amount for up to three succeeding taxable years.

Net metering is a renewable rate program in Rhode Island that allows customers to offset their energy use and transfer energy back to the electric company via their systems in exchange for a bill credit. Participants can receive bill credits for up to 125% of the on-site consumption during a billing period.

• One must be serviced by Rhode Island Energy to participate in net metering.
• Customers who net meter are billed for their net consumption of electricity, which is calculated by the total electricity consumed in a month subtracted by the total electricity generated in a month.
  • If your net consumption is positive, meaning your electricity generated covers only a portion of your consumption, you would pay the remaining balance to your electric company. The energy generated would show up as a net meter credit subtracted from your balance.
  • If your net consumption is negative, you would not owe anything as the net metering credit would appear on your bill.
• You cannot participate both in net metering and the Renewable Energy Growth (REG) program.
• More information here

The REF Small-Scale Solar Program provides up to a $5,000 max incentive per project towards renewable energy installations for residential homes. Depending on the size of the system, a grant amount is calculated, subtracted from the total project cost, and then awarded to the installer upon the completion and successful inspection of the project.

• Through this program, there is also an Energy Storage Adder grant that is a max $2,000 per project.
• You cannot participate in both the Renewable Energy Fund (REF) Small-Scale Program and the Renewable Energy Growth (REG) program.
• More information here

This program allows participants to sell the energy generated by their solar systems at fixed prices over the course of 15 to 20 years, depending on the project size, and it is available to homeowners and small commercial customers for projects 25 kW and smaller.

For residential customers, the account owner will receive a bill credit for energy and the system owner will be paid the remaining Performance-Based Incentive (PBI), which are funded through the REG program on customers’ bills, are set by the RI Distributed Generation Board, and are approved by the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission.

The program year opens on April 1st each year and is available on a first come, first serve basis until the program is fully subscribed or until March 31, 2026, the end of the program year.

• To qualify, residential customer projects must be located at a customer residence that receives electric service under the Basic Residential Rate A-16 or Low-Income Rate A-60, and projects can neither be operational at time of application nor under construction, except for site work that is less than 25% of the total project cost.
• You cannot participate in both the REG program and net metering.
• You cannot participate in both the Renewable Energy Growth (REG) program and the Renewable Energy Fund (REF) Small-Scale Program.
• More information here

This program aims to reduce peak load demand on the grid as utilities will pay their customers to participate in the program and help decrease overall costs of running expensive, high-emission power plants.

There are two types of enrollments: battery enrollment and thermostat enrollment. Battery enrollment allows utilities to pull energy from homeowners’ batteries. Thermostat enrollment allows the utility to tap into your thermostat and raise the temperature of your home by a few degrees for a couple of hours during peak demand.

The current participating utilities are National Grid, Rhode Island Energy, Eversource, Cape Light Compact, and Unitil respectively.  

The incentives are as follows:

• Thermostat incentives are normally $50 enrollment and $20-25 each summer per thermostat. There is a $100 enrollment incentive for customers on the R2 rate for Eversource.
• Battery incentives are $225-275 per kW depending on the utility. Unitil does not provide a battery incentive.

Please visit the links below for more information:

• National Grid: battery enrollment and thermostat enrollment
• Rhode Island Energy: battery enrollment and thermostat enrollment
• Eversource: battery enrollment and thermostat enrollment
• Cape Light Compact: battery enrollment and thermostat enrollment
• Unitil: thermostat enrollment