Is solar worth it in Maryland?

Maryland gets moderate sunshine — about 4.2 peak sun hours a day — and residential electricity runs around $0.18/kWh. For a typical $150-a-month power bill, that points to roughly a 8.2-kW system costing about $24,462 — with no federal tax credit, which ended for installations completed after December 31, 2025 — paying for itself in about 13.6 years and netting on the order of $36,903 over 25 years. Your own numbers will differ — the calculator above uses your real bill.

Maryland offers a state grant plus an active SREC market — now that the federal credit has ended, those carry the savings — and rates are above average — a combination that makes payback attractive despite middling sun.

What changes the math in Maryland

• Your electricity rate — the more you pay per kWh, the more each solar kWh saves you. Maryland sits at about $0.18.
• Sun hours — more sun means a smaller, cheaper system covers the same usage. Maryland averages ~4.2 hours.
• Net metering / buyback — how your utility credits power you export swings the payback; check your specific utility's current terms.
• Install cost — quotes vary by installer and roof; the calculator defaults to a typical $/watt you can override.

Maryland: the rules that actually decide your payback

Who your utility is, and why it matters

Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), Pepco Maryland, Delmarva Power, Potomac Edison, and a set of municipal and cooperative utilities split the state. Maryland's solar rules were historically among the most generous in the mid-Atlantic — and they are in the middle of a genuine transition.

What your exported power is worth

Maryland's 2026 legislation (HB 1532 / SB 843) eliminates the state's full 1:1 net-metering mandate and directs the Public Service Commission to develop a replacement program, expanding the aggregate cap from 3 GW to 6 GW with a new capacity-reservation system. The details of what replaces 1:1 are being written now — which makes the timing of your interconnection application genuinely consequential. Until the PSC's replacement rules take effect, existing net metering continues for those already interconnected.

The Maryland incentive layer

Maryland has no state income-tax credit for panels, but the SREC market pays real income: the state's renewable standard sustains certificate prices that have recently run well above $50 per SREC. Combined with whatever export structure the PSC settles on, the SREC stream is the durable half of Maryland's solar economics.

Battery and self-consumption

With the net-metering framework in flux, batteries are the hedge: they maximise self-consumption regardless of what export compensation looks like next year, and they carry the outage-resilience case for the state's storm-prone summers. A quote that assumes 1:1 net metering in perpetuity is assuming something the legislature just voted to end.

What to check on a Maryland quote

• Ask whether the quote assumes current 1:1 net metering or the PSC's replacement structure — the assumption changes payback by years, and the wrong one is now a real possibility.
• Confirm your place in the capacity-reservation queue if the new system applies; Maryland's transition includes enrollment mechanics.
• Ask whether SREC income is included, at what price, for how many years, and who brokers the sale.
• If resilience matters (Pepco and BGE territory see summer storm outages), size a battery backup panel against essentials rather than the whole house.

Programme and tariff detail above is summarised from Maryland Energy Administration — Residential Clean Energy Rebate and the MD SREC market. Last reviewed 20 August 2026 by SolarDime editorial. These rules change — confirm the current terms with your utility and the regulator before you sign.