Louisiana is one of the structurally weakest US solar markets in 2026. Our model puts typical solar-only payback near 21-23 years at default install pricing — longer once you add a battery without any state rebate to lean on. This is an "honest calculator" state: every Louisiana solar marketing page tells you sun in the South means quick payback, and in Louisiana that turns out to be wrong.
The reasons stack:
- Low retail electricity (about $0.12/kWh) — among the lowest US rates, due to Gulf-region natural gas generation. Low retail makes each avoided kWh worth less.
- Avoided-cost export (about $0.03/kWh), not net metering. Louisiana closed traditional net metering for new connections on December 31, 2019 (LPSC General Order 09-19-2019). New systems are on buy-all/sell-all net billing.
- No federal credit. §25D was repealed effective for systems installed after December 31, 2025 (OBBBA P.L. 119-21). Many Louisiana solar sites — including the state's own Department of Natural Resources public page — still cite the 30% credit. Outdated.
- No state income tax credit. Louisiana's old (generous) 50% state credit under R.S. 47:6030 expired in 2016 and was not renewed.
- Sales tax is NOT exempt. Louisiana's combined sales tax is about 9-9.5% — and unlike most US solar states, there is no solar-specific exemption. This adds about $1,280-1,350 to a typical $14,250 install.
Property tax exemption is real but modest. New Orleans is a structural exception that materially helps NOLA buyers (and almost nobody else). Battery is the only economic lever but doesn't pay back without a state rebate. We walk through all of this below.
What changed — and what the state's own site still gets wrong
The federal Residential Clean Energy Credit (§25D) — the 30% homeowner credit — was repealed for systems installed after December 31, 2025. For 2026 Louisiana buyers, the federal credit on a purchased system is $0. The same applies to home batteries purchased outright. The §48E commercial credit (30%) still exists, but only for leased or third-party-owned systems where construction begins before July 4, 2026 — and the lessor claims it, not you. Full federal context here.
The repeal came through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21), signed in July 2025. Most aggregator and installer sites have not updated. In Louisiana specifically, the state's own Department of Natural Resources public page (denr.louisiana.gov) has not been updated to reflect the repeal as of mid-2026 — it still references the federal 30% credit as a live incentive. SmartEnergyUSA, ThisOldHouse, A1Solar, and other Louisiana-focused solar marketing sites do the same. If you see "30% federal solar tax credit" on a 2026 LA quote — or on DENR's page — that math is outdated. Verify with IRS.
Net metering is dead — buy-all/sell-all net billing
Louisiana closed traditional net metering for new connections on December 31, 2019 under LPSC General Order 09-19-2019 (Docket R-33929). All Louisiana investor-owned utilities and rural electric cooperatives subsequently moved to buy-all/sell-all net billing for new residential solar customers.
How it actually works:
- Self-consumed solar offsets full retail by NOT drawing from the grid — there's no "credit" line item; it's an absence of consumption. At about $0.12/kWh that's about $0.12 of value avoided per self-consumed kWh.
- Exported solar is credited at avoided cost — about $0.03/kWh on Entergy Louisiana (range across sources $0.02-0.037; Entergy's Rider Schedule DG was about $0.0368/kWh as of April 2022). Updated annually by utility filing. That's roughly 25% of retail — a structural haircut, not a true 1:1.
- Residential cap: 25 kW under LPSC rules.
- Pre-2020 systems are grandfathered to true 1:1 net metering at full retail for 15 years from interconnection, then revert to avoided cost. If your system was interconnected before 2020, this calculator's avoided-cost math doesn't apply to you for the first 15 years.
- Annual true-up pays unused credits at avoided cost — even further from retail. Don't oversize beyond your annual consumption.
The structural effect: self-consumption is dramatically more valuable than export in Louisiana. Every kWh you export earns about $0.03; every kWh you self-consume offsets about $0.12 — a 4x swing. This is the central economic fact for any LA solar buyer.
VERIFIED 2026-06 · LPSC General Order 09-19-2019; Docket R-33929The honest payback — long
Louisiana's solar economics are structurally tough. At default install pricing of $2.85/W (range $2.50-3.50), our model puts typical solar-only payback in the 21-23 year range on a representative residential system. Adding a battery without any state rebate stretches that further — WattBuild's January 2026 analysis put an 8 kW system with battery at about 22.8 years payback under the post-§25D-repeal rules.
To compare across states with the same calculator methodology:
- Massachusetts (about $0.30/kWh retail + SMART): high single digits.
- New Jersey (about $0.26/kWh + SuSI): about 6.5 years.
- Connecticut (about $0.29/kWh + Netting Tariff minus SEA): about 8-10 years.
- Louisiana (about $0.12/kWh + avoided-cost export): about 21-23 years.
The retail rate is the single biggest driver. Louisiana's $0.12 is roughly half of Connecticut's or New Jersey's, and less than half of Massachusetts's. Half the retail rate roughly doubles payback — and that's before the federal credit going to zero, before the sales tax adding to install cost, and before the avoided-cost export rate reducing the value of every kWh you don't self-consume.
VERIFIED 2026-06 · eia.govWhat both Louisiana retail areas share
These facts apply regardless of which utility serves you.
Retail electricity rate. About $0.12/kWh on Entergy Louisiana, SWEPCO, and the various electric cooperatives. Among the lowest US residential rates, structurally — Louisiana's grid runs heavily on Gulf-region natural gas, which keeps generation costs low.
Sales tax — NOT EXEMPT. Louisiana does not exempt solar from sales tax. Louisiana's combined state plus local sales tax is about 9-9.5% (4.45% state, up to about 7% local). Louisiana is absent from the list of 18 US states with confirmed solar sales tax exemptions (WattBuild, January 2026). On a typical $14,250 residential system this is about $1,280-1,350 of real added cost — your installer's quote SHOULD include sales tax. If you see a LA solar quote that excludes sales tax, ask the installer to add it; pretending it doesn't apply misrepresents the true install cost.
This is the same flag pattern as Pennsylvania and Maine — both confirmed not-exempt. Don't budget for an exemption Louisiana doesn't offer.
Property tax — EXEMPT (but modestly). Louisiana exempts solar from property tax under LA R.S. 47:1706 / LA R.S. 47:1702 — residential solar is treated as personal property and not added to the property assessment. Automatic, no application required. The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DENR) administers the ad valorem exemption.
Honest caveat — the savings are modest. Louisiana's effective statewide property tax rate is unusually low — about 0.5% per Tax Foundation, well below the US average. So even though the exemption is real and automatic, it only saves about $90/year on the typical solar-driven home value uplift. Compare to high-property-tax states: Connecticut (about 2.04%), New Jersey (about 2.3%), Texas (about 1.8%) — there the exemption is worth several hundred dollars a year. In Louisiana, it's worth less than one electric bill.
No state income tax credit. Louisiana's old generous 50% state solar credit under R.S. 47:6030 expired in 2016 and was not renewed. If you see a Louisiana solar quote citing a state credit, the math is from a dead program. There is also no SREC market and no RPS obligation in Louisiana. The state's incentive picture for new residential solar in 2026 is the (modest) property tax exemption and nothing else.
VERIFIED 2026-06 · LA R.S. 47:1706; LA R.S. 47:1702; Louisiana DNRBattery — the only economic lever, but doesn't pay back
Under buy-all/sell-all net billing, Louisiana's retail-vs-export gap is huge — about $0.09/kWh between $0.12 retail and $0.03 avoided cost. That's the biggest retail-vs-export gap in our verified set. Every kWh you store and self-consume instead of exporting is worth $0.12 not $0.03 — a 4x swing. This is the single biggest lever on Louisiana solar economics.
So a battery makes sense for Louisiana, right? Look at the math.
On a 10 kWh battery at default $12,000 capex, with zero federal credit (§25D repealed for storage) and zero state rebate (Louisiana has no statewide battery program), the battery contributes about $85/year of additional savings from the arbitrage swing on a typical 5 kW system. At that level, the battery does not pay back its own capex within reasonable horizons.
Our model with default settings shows:
- Solar-only 25-year net: about +$8,765 (positive over the long horizon, but slow).
- Solar + battery 25-year net: about −$339 (the battery's capex eats the arbitrage gain).
- Payback shifts from about 21 years to about 34 years with the battery added.
The honest read: install a battery in Louisiana for hurricane resilience (Louisiana is in a real hurricane zone, multi-day outages happen), not for ROI. The math says don't — the resilience math is a personal-tolerance question.
What's available:
- Louisiana HELP Loan (DNR): up to $12,000, 5 years, 2% on half the loan. Financing, not a rebate — it spreads the cost over time, doesn't reduce it. Useful for cash-flow planning, not for shortening payback.
- NOLA $28M battery program (Dec 17, 2025): see NOLA section below — applies only to New Orleans residents.
- No statewide rebate. No ConnectedSolutions-style annual performance program.
Louisiana solar buyers being pushed batteries on "the arbitrage story" should be aware: the arbitrage IS real, but it doesn't carry a $12,000 capex on its own. Either the resilience case justifies it for you, or it doesn't.
New Orleans — the structural exception
This part matters if you live in Orleans Parish. New Orleans is regulated by the New Orleans City Council, not by the LPSC. The City Council made different choices.
- Entergy New Orleans retains full retail 1:1 net metering — by City Council mandate. The 2019 LPSC closure of net metering and the avoided-cost rule do NOT apply in New Orleans. Self-consumed solar AND exports both credit at full retail (about $0.12/kWh) on Entergy New Orleans. This dramatically improves payback for NOLA buyers compared to the rest of Louisiana.
- $28M City Council battery program ("Golden Ticket"). Approved by the New Orleans City Council on December 17, 2025. Louisiana's only meaningful battery subsidy in 2026, and it's NOLA-only. Verify enrollment status with Entergy New Orleans or the City Council directly.
If you're a New Orleans solar buyer, the calculator's avoided-cost math doesn't apply to you — select the New Orleans ZIP (70112) and the calculator uses the 1:1 rate. Battery economics also improve under the $28M program if you qualify.
If you're anywhere else in Louisiana, none of this helps you.
Run your real Louisiana payback →The federal credit and the dead state credit — what's not coming back
Worth a dedicated debunk because Louisiana coverage is unusually misleading on these.
Federal §25D is dead. Repealed by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21), signed in July 2025, for systems installed after December 31, 2025. For 2026 purchases, the federal credit is $0 on solar panels and on batteries.
- DENR's own site has not been updated. denr.louisiana.gov still references the federal 30% credit as a current incentive. Treat this as outdated, not authoritative.
- SmartEnergyUSA, ThisOldHouse, A1Solar, and similar Louisiana-focused solar marketing sites still cite 30% federal in 2026 quote walkthroughs. Outdated.
- If a contractor proposal includes "30% federal" on a 2026 LA purchase, ask them to redo the math with $0 federal. Any reference back to DENR's page as justification is itself outdated.
Louisiana's 50% state solar credit (R.S. 47:6030) is also dead. Expired in 2016, not renewed. Some Louisiana solar guides (Audubon, others) still mention the credit in legacy form, which can confuse new buyers. There is no Louisiana state solar income tax credit in 2026. If you see one cited, ask for the statute citation; there isn't one.
The §48E commercial credit (30%) still exists, but only for leased or third-party-owned systems where construction begins before July 4, 2026 — the lessor claims it, not you.
VERIFIED 2026-06 · IRS §25D repeal under OBBBA P.L. 119-21How to read this — Louisiana's best case for solar
Louisiana solar pays off slowly. The way it pays off best — for the typical buyer outside New Orleans — is by maximizing self-consumption.
- High household consumption (large AC load — summer cooling in Louisiana is significant) means more kWh that solar can offset at full retail. Right-sizing to a high consumption baseline captures more retail-value offset.
- Load-shift toward daylight. Run dishwasher, laundry, pool pump, EV charging during solar production hours. Every kWh shifted from grid-purchased ($0.12) to self-consumed (offset against grid) is real value.
- Don't lean on export. The $0.03 avoided-cost rate is the lowest export rate in our verified set. Plan around it being near-zero in your math.
- NOLA residents have a better baseline. Full retail 1:1 net metering + $28M City Council battery program (Dec 2025) materially changes the picture. The rest of Louisiana doesn't get either.
- Battery for resilience, not ROI. Hurricane Ida, Hurricane Laura — multi-day outages happen. The dollar payback math says no; the resilience math is a personal-tolerance question.
If your household runs a large AC load, has flexibility on appliance timing, and you can self-consume most of what you generate, Louisiana solar can still make sense over a 25-year horizon. If you're hoping the federal credit or a generous state credit will rescue the math, neither exists for new 2026 buyers.
The honest picture
| Fact | Default LA (Entergy LA / SWEPCO / co-ops) | New Orleans exception | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal credit | $0 | $0 | IRS — §25D repealed |
| State income tax credit | None (R.S. 47:6030 expired 2016) | None | LA Revised Statutes |
| Old 50% state credit | Dead since 2016 | Dead since 2016 | R.S. 47:6030 |
| Net metering | CLOSED for new connections (Dec 31, 2019) | RETAINED at full retail 1:1 | LPSC General Order 09-19-2019 |
| Export rate | Avoided cost about $0.03/kWh (about 25% retail) | About $0.12/kWh (full retail 1:1) | Entergy Rider Schedule DG; NOLA City Council |
| Self-consumed | Full retail offset (about $0.12 not drawn) | Full retail offset | (mechanical) |
| Residential cap | 25 kW | (City Council jurisdiction) | LPSC |
| Pre-2020 systems | Grandfathered 15 yr at 1:1, then avoided cost | (separate jurisdiction) | LPSC General Order 09-19-2019 |
| Retail rate | About $0.12/kWh (low — Gulf gas) | About $0.12/kWh | eia.gov |
| Sales tax | NOT EXEMPT (9-9.5% combined, adds about $1,280-1,350 to typical install) | Same — not exempt | WattBuild Jan 2026; LA absent from 18 exempt-states list |
| Property tax | EXEMPT but modest (about $90/yr at about 0.5% effective rate) | Same — exempt | LA R.S. 47:1706; LA R.S. 47:1702; DENR |
| Battery state rebate | $0 (no statewide program) | $28M City Council "Golden Ticket" (Dec 17, 2025) | NOLA City Council |
| HELP Loan (DNR) | Up to $12,000, 5 yr, 2% on half — FINANCING not rebate | (same) | LA DNR HELP Loan |
| Typical solar-only payback | About 21-23 years | Materially shorter (1:1 retail) | This calculator (post-§25D, sales-not-exempt) |
| With battery (no state rebate) | About 34 years | Better with City Council program | This calculator; WattBuild Jan 2026 |
Before you commit:
- Reject any quote that includes a 30% federal credit. Repealed for 2026 purchases. Even DENR's own page is out of date.
- Reject any quote that claims a Louisiana state solar income tax credit. R.S. 47:6030 expired in 2016. There is no replacement.
- Confirm sales tax IS in your installed quote. LA doesn't exempt solar from sales tax — about $1,280-1,350 of real cost on a typical install. Quotes that exclude sales tax misrepresent your true install cost.
- Don't budget for big property tax savings. The exemption is real but worth only about $90/year given LA's low base rate (about 0.5%).
- Confirm which utility serves you — Entergy Louisiana / SWEPCO / cooperatives all on the LPSC avoided-cost rule; Entergy New Orleans is the exception at 1:1 retail.
- Don't oversize. Annual true-up pays unused credits at avoided cost ($0.03) — well below retail. Match generation to consumption.
- If you're considering a battery: the arbitrage story is real (4x swing) but the math doesn't carry a $12,000 capex without a state rebate. Justify a battery on resilience (hurricane outages), not ROI. Use the HELP Loan for cash-flow if needed — but it doesn't shorten payback, it just smooths it.
- NOLA residents: verify enrollment in the City Council's $28M battery program before committing.
- Maximize self-consumption. Every kWh you self-consume is worth about $0.12; every kWh you export earns about $0.03 — a 4x swing. Run loads during the day; load-shift where you can.
Estimates only — avoided-cost rates change annually by utility, LA HELP Loan is financing not rebate, NOLA battery program is City Council jurisdiction. Verify with the LPSC, your utility (Entergy Louisiana, SWEPCO, Entergy New Orleans, or your electric cooperative), the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, and the Louisiana Department of Revenue. This is not financial advice.