Youngstown, OH Solar Panels

Ohio’s Property Tax Exemption removes the added property value of your solar energy system from your property tax assessment. This means you won’t pay additional property taxes on the increased home value that comes from installing solar panels. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 5709.53, any solar energy system with a capacity of 250 kilowatts or less is completely exempt from real property taxation.

To qualify for this exemption, your solar system must have been installed on or after January 1, 2010, and have a nameplate capacity of 250 kilowatts or less. Most residential solar systems fall well below this threshold, typically ranging from 5 to 15 kilowatts, so nearly all home solar installations qualify. The exemption applies automatically once your system is installed—there’s no expiration date, and the benefit continues for as long as you own the system. This exemption helps protect your investment by ensuring that adding clean energy to your home doesn’t increase your annual property tax bill.

Unfortunately, Ohio does not currently have an active Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) market or program. While some states allow homeowners to earn and sell SRECs as a way to generate ongoing income from their solar panels, Ohio has not established this type of incentive program.

If you’re an Ohio homeowner interested in solar energy, you may still be eligible for other incentives such as local utility rebates, net metering programs, or property tax exemptions for solar installations. It’s worth checking with your local utility company and municipality to see what programs are available in your area. While SRECs aren’t an option in Ohio, solar can still be a smart investment that reduces your electricity bills and increases your home’s value.

Net metering in Ohio allows homeowners with solar panels to receive credit for the excess electricity their system produces and sends back to the grid. When your solar panels generate more power than your home uses during the day, that surplus energy flows to the grid, and you receive a credit on your electric bill. This credit offsets the electricity you draw from the grid when your panels aren’t producing enough power, such as at night or on cloudy days.

In Ohio, net metering works on a monthly basis across all major utility companies, including AEP Ohio, Duke Energy, FirstEnergy utilities (Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric, Toledo Edison), and AES Ohio. Each month, your exported solar energy is credited against your consumption on a 1-to-1 basis at the full retail rate. However, if you produce more electricity than you consume in a given month, the excess credits carry forward to your next bill at a lower “generation rate” rather than the full retail rate. This generation rate typically ranges from 5 to 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, depending on your utility provider. The generation rate represents the cost of producing electricity, which is lower than the full retail rate you pay as a customer.

All residential solar customers in Ohio are eligible for net metering through their utility company. There are no specific deadlines to enroll, though you’ll need to complete an interconnection agreement with your utility before your system can connect to the grid. It’s important to understand that while net metering provides valuable bill savings, the monthly settlement structure means you won’t build up large credit balances over time—excess production is valued at the lower generation rate rather than your full retail electricity rate. This makes it beneficial to size your solar system to closely match your annual electricity consumption rather than significantly oversizing it.