Why do solar installers keep stopping by my house?
A what now? solar guide, especially for DC residents.
(This is a special edition of The Planet You Save May Be Your Own, an occasional newsletter from independent climate journalist and DC resident Taylor Kate Brown. You can share this edition and sign up for future newsletters here)
Several months ago, two solar salesmen came to my door within a matter of days. They had a different, more urgent pitch than I’d heard before: the time to get solar was now, as the Trump administration was threatening to remove every last benefit that made solar a good investment, and DC was in trouble.
Their house-by-house info was out of date: I put panels on my roof last summer. But I’m a energy and climate change reporter, so I asked them what else they were hearing about these new threats to DC. The door-to-door guys didn’t get into it much beyond their talking points: some made sense to me, others felt more questionable.
Now, some of their warnings have come to pass, with the passage of the major budget bill: the federal tax credit for solar installations will end by December 31, 2025.
Here in DC, solar has been a good deal for homeowners, and in some ways it still remains better than elsewhere. I wanted to make a guide for my fellow District residents who are considering solar now: what’s about to change, and if it makes personal or financial sense to rush to hit that deadline. If you’re a renter or couldn’t even begin to imagine swinging the cost of a solar installation, I’ve got some info for you too.
If you don’t live in DC, the first section of this explainer is still for you. And while solar is shifting the way the whole world uses power, it’s only one part of the broader effort to cut carbon pollution.
Can I still put solar on my home?
Absolutely. But the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress ended a significant upfront financial benefit: a tax credit worth 30% of the cost of installing solar panels on a household.
Is it already too late to get the credit?
No, but there is limited time left. The IRS will only accept the credit for those systems installed and paid for by December 31, 2025. The timeline between signing a contract and having a fully operational solar system in DC can be up to a few months, so installers may not guarantee an end-of-year installation past August.
What kind of cash are we actually talking about here without the tax credit?
At least several thousand dollars, and likely low five figures to fill up a moderate size DC roof. Google’s Project Sunroof can get you a rough top-line number, but they aim for a slightly smaller system than is physically possible.
The tax credit was always an after-the-fact benefit, subject to someone having enough income tax owed to make it worth their while. We installed our system in July, I did not see the financial benefit — through a lower tax bill — until April.
What other climate-friendly individual tax credits are gone/soon to be?
- a tax credit for building energy efficient credit for new homes (June 30, 2026)
- Rebate for buying a new EV or tax credit for a used EV (Sept 30, 2025)
- Tax credit for energy efficiency audit/renovations (Dec 31, 2025)
The equivalent tax benefit for commercial installations has a bit more time: the end of 2027. That covers both large utility-scale projects but also leases or power-purchase agreements (often advertised as “free solar” in DC). More on this in a bit.
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Without the tax credit, what discounts and benefits are still available to DC residents?
Electricity bill reduction:
Whether own or lease the solar on your roof, you still get the benefit of lower Pepco bills. That being said, these benefits are only as big as the size of your electricity bill and the size of your roof.
Here’s a real life example (mine) with rounded numbers:
- In June, we produced 670 excess kilowatt-hours (kwh) of solar (after what we used directly during the day) and used 500 kwh of electricity.
- Because we made more energy than we used (and sent some back to the grid) we weren’t charged by Pepco for that 500 kwh. However, we still pay Pepco’s customer/connection fees each month, about $20.
- The extra kwh we didn’t use in June gets credited to a running total in our Pepco account (currently at 1700 kwh or 1.7 Mwh)
- We’ll likely use up some of those extra kwh credits during the fall/winter. At the end of last December we had a credit of 1200 kwh. At the end of the calendar year, we are paid out for any remaining kwh and our account credit returns to zero.
- In January we used 400 kwh and produced an excess of 220 kwh, putting our bill slightly higher than the rest of the year, about $50. We started building up a extra credit again in March.
RECs:
The strongest DC-specific benefit still remains: RECs. For every 1000 kwh of power your roof produces, you create a renewable energy credit or a REC. Those are sold on an open market (we have it automated for a small fee) to electricity suppliers that use them to fulfill DC’s requirement to have a certain percentage of power sold in the district be solar.
As of late July 2025, each REC is selling for about $400. This number is dependent on a variety of factors, but DC RECs are still extremely well priced compared to other states with similar markets. That’s because DC has an aggressive solar target, and almost no space for giant, ground-mounted solar farms.
Will they stay that high? There’s no immediate threat to RECs right now, but any changes in the local solar market (say, fewer installations driving the prices higher) or a change to city policy can affect it.
These payments tend to benefit wealthier city residents: homeowners with the savings or cash flow to shell out for the installation cost upfront. “Free” solar panel installations still give the homeowner the benefit of lower electricity bills and no or lower upfront cost, but not the ownership of the system or the financial benefit of the RECs.
JD Elkurd, the CEO of Solar Solution, a major installer here in the city, says the end of the tax credit is putting a lot of pressure on his business right now as people try to get in under the deadline, but he is more worried about after 2027, when the commerical credit expires.
“At end of this year, we anticipate about a 20% hit,” after the individual tax credit expires, he says. But he expects some people will shift to the power-purchase option. “They're still going to have a window of about a year, year and a half to to sign on for that.” After 2027, believes he could see as much as 60% drop in his business.
Property tax exemption:
In DC, the value of the solar panels on your home can’t be included in the value of your home for property tax reasons. I’ve never seen figures on the practical yearly savings of this and I suspect it would be relatively small for individual homeowners, but it is part of the city’s policy.
I couldn’t afford putting solar panels on my roof, even with the tax credit. Are there any options left?
DC’s Department of Energy and Environment, alongside DC’s Sustainable Energy Utility and private contractors have installed free solar on homes of income-qualified residents for almost a decade under DC’s Solar For All program. Residents don’t get the RECs, but they do own the panels outright. They pay nothing for the installation.
As you might expect, this isn’t an unlimited offer — this year’s budget covered 150 homes, including any needed electrical upgrades. The money for Solar for All installations has come from a few different places, including a local pot of money: the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund. Unfortunately, as Martin Austermule at the 51st reports, the fund has taken a hit in the city’s 2026 budget.
Plenty of D.C. agencies were forced to take spending cuts this year, but none as severe as the Department of Energy and the Environment, which faced a 24% hit to its operating budget. The biggest portion of that came from the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund, which we all pay for through small assessments on gas and electric bills. The fund – which was expected to take in $100 million in 2026 – helps pay for renewable energy projects across D.C., but Bowser proposed taking $71 million to instead pay for the city’s rising electric bills.
I reached out to DC’s Department of Energy and Environment to understand the full impact of these cuts on Solar for All, and the status of other funding streams for the program, but have not heard back. The latest report I could find put the trust fund’s contribution to Solar for All at about $4.7 million dollars, or 40% of the 2023 budget.
This is DC, many of us don’t own homes. What’s available for renters?
If you don’t own the building you’re living in, trying to convince a landlord or management company to add solar could frankly be more trouble than its worth. Given renters, on average, use less electricity, I would put my energy (ha!) into other climate-friendly efforts or local advocacy rather than worry too deeply about it. But DC does offer a few options for renters interested in solar:
Community solar:
DC Sustainable Energy Utility offers a community solar program, where renters and others can buy a “share” of a larger-scale community solar project located in DC and gain the cost savings of that portion of the project on their Pepco bill. There are other community solar groups as well.
Third-party supply sellers:
While your electricity transmission will always be sold you by Pepco in DC, you can buy your energy supply from Pepco or from third-parties. Some of these third-party sellers pitch themselves as fully “green power”. You may find something that fits for you, but some strong caveats: one — these companies sometimes have excellent introductory offers, only to have the costs shoot up quickly after the end of the offer. DC has seen a wave of very serious complaints about the sales and customer service practices of some of these companies, enough to catch the attention of the Attorney General.
Secondly, the “green power” you’re buying from these companies are almost certainly RECs, and it’s not clear to me that they are DC solar RECs. This extremely helpful graphic story from Washington Post explains how RECs not tied to state regulations can be less “green” that they appear.
So, clear as mud right? In all seriousness, I hope this guide was helpful. Even with my professional background, I found the process of getting solar installed pretty complicated, but I don’t regret it at all.
I hope my experience can be helpful and clear for those who now have a short timeline, and illuminating for those who want to understand more about city’s policies towards solar.
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