Georgia solar rebates and incentives: 2024 guide

Georgia’s sunny skies, mild winters, and high natural gas prices make it a natural fit for an all-electric home. While Georgia doesn’t offer many state-level solar incentives for homeowners, federal tax credits can still take a big bite out of the upfront costs.

The best solar incentive in Georgia is actually a federal tax credit. 

Residential Clean Energy Credit

The Residential Clean Energy Credit, formerly known as the federal investment tax credit (ITC), can reduce your solar panel system's cost by 30%. Your entire system, including all the equipment, labor, permitting, and sales tax, qualifies for the ITC. 

When you file your taxes, you can claim this incentive as a credit towards your federal tax bill. Just keep in mind that to qualify for the ITC, you need to purchase your system either with cash or a solar loan–if you lease your system, you won't be eligible. 

You also need a high enough tax bill, though you can roll over any remaining credit year-to-year until the end of 2034 when the ITC expires. The only time you might be eligible for a direct payment for the ITC is if you're a tax-exempt entity, like a nonprofit organization.

Georgia no longer mandates full net metering for new solar customers, but some utility companies (including Georgia Power) offer a reduced benefit known as net billing. 

Under net billing, you’ll earn some cash credit toward your energy bill when you send excess electricity from your solar panels to the grid. For Georgia Power customers, it’s about 6.8 cents per kWh. Some smaller utilities offer similar rates. 

The credits are calculated instantaneously, rather than at the end of a monthly billing cycle like a more consumer-friendly net-metering program would be. So the most value you can get from your solar power is to either use it at home instantaneously, or store it in a solar battery, before it gets sent to the grid.

Georgia doesn't offer any state-specific battery incentives. However, all batteries larger than 3 kWh are eligible for the same 30% federal tax credit as solar panels. 

Batteries can make good financial sense as part of a home solar system in Georgia. The state’s net billing policy incentivizes solar owners to hoard as much of their own solar power as possible, rather than sending it to the grid. 

And since Georgia Power and other utilities have time-of-use electricity pricing—that is, really expensive electricity during peak demand times in the late afternoon and early evening—you can squeeze even more value out of your solar power by storing it in a battery during the daytime, then relying on that battery to power your home during peak pricing hours.