🔆 + 💲 What is solar buyback?

January 26, 2023/smartrooftexas

When you have solar on your home, electricity flows 3 ways.*

🔆 —> 🏠 From your solar panels to power your home

🔆 —> 🏭 From your solar panels back to the utility grid

🏭 —> 🏠 From the utility grid to power your home

Why it matters: Solar buy back is the way your utility credits you — or doesn’t — for the electricity you send back to the grid.

🔬 Zoom in: Homeowners with solar (or looking into it) need to know how this works.

  • Solar buy back varies by utility (A smaller co-op like Coserv vs. a large TDU like Oncor)
  • Also varies by retail providers (Green Mountain vs. Energy Texas)

Whether you’re shopping for a retail provider or trying to change your co-op’s policies, you want to know 2 things:

  1. Does the utility give you full credit for electricity you send them? (Needs to be a YES)
  2. If you send more electricity than you pulled from the grid (like in March and April), do the credits rollover to the next month? (Ideally a YES)

✅ For your Smart Homeowner list

  • Have solar and need to shop new plans —> start here.

Best,

Travis

*A home storage battery adds 2 ways:

🔆 —> 🔋 From your solar panels to your battery

🔋 —> 🏠 From your battery to power your home

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