Louisiana solar rebates and incentives: 2025 guide

Louisiana’s mild winters and above-average natural gas prices make it a natural fit for an all-electric home—which is a natural fit for going solar, and powering your home with clean, sustainable energy. While there aren’t many state-level solar incentives for homeowners in Louisiana, federal tax credits can still take a big bite out of the upfront costs.

As a Louisiana homeowner, the ITC is the most impactful way to bring down your solar costs.

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 qualifies for this incentive, including equipment, labor, permitting, and sales tax. 

When you file your federal income 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 2035 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.

Yes, Louisiana offers a solar property tax exemption. Solar panels generally raise the property value of your home, but thanks to this law, you won’t have to pay extra tax on that added value.

Louisiana no longer offers net metering, but most of its utility companies (including Entergy, SWEPCO, other electric co-ops, and municipal providers)  offer another solar buyback program: net billing.

Similar to net metering, net billing lets you earn credits when you send excess electricity from your solar panels to the grid. Later, when the sun isn’t shining and you need to pull electricity from the grid, your utility company will apply your credits to your bill. 

But there’s a catch—the utility companies only offer partial credit for the kWh you send. In other words, you sell electricity to your utility company at a much cheaper rate than they’ll sell it back to you. 

The exact rates depend on your specific utility company, but it’s generally less than half the retail rate. For example, as of April 2024, Entergy pays about $0.02 cents per kWh. 

If you want to squeeze the most possible value out of your solar panels under net billing, consider installing a solar battery.

(Louisiana previously offered a net metering program, which was more consumer-friendly in several important ways. But as of 2020, utility companies in the state are no longer required to offer true net metering for new solar installations.)

Louisiana doesn't offer any state-specific battery incentives. However, all batteries above 3 kWh in size are eligible for the 30% federal tax credit. 

Solar batteries paired with solar panels can make good financial sense in Louisiana. When your solar panels produce excess energy, you can store it on your solar battery and use it later to power your home for free. Otherwise, you have to sell your excess energy to your utility company at a steep discount—and then buy it back at full price when you need it. A solar battery can further boost your energy independence by serving as a source of backup power during blackouts and other power outages.

If you're looking for solar installers in Louisiana, here are some popular suggestions: