If you've Googled solar incentives in New York lately, you've probably seen two things:

1. Headlines saying the federal solar tax credit ended December 31, 2025

2. A confusing patchwork of articles still listing incentives that no longer apply the way they describe

Both are true as well as incomplete.

Here's an answer, as of May 8th, 2026: yes, solar incentives still exist for New York homeowners. The federal credit is gone. But New York stacks five state-level programs on top of it, and four of those are still fully active. For an average Western New York home, the state stack alone is worth roughly $7,000 to $10,000 in real money.

Here’s an explanation of what’s ended and what programs we still have with numbers verified against NYSERDA, NY State Department of Tax & Finance, and New York Real Property Tax Law.

What ended (and what most homeowners think happened)

The Federal Residential Solar Tax Credit (Section 25D) expired December 31, 2025. For homeowners who buy and own their solar system, the 30% federal credit is no longer available in 2026.

So when people say solar tax credit is dead, this is what they are referencing!

However, there is another tax credit worth knowing. The 48E Investment Tax Credit still runs through 2027, but it applies to third-party-owned systems (leases and PPAs), which is not direct ownership. The third-party owner (the lease or PPA company) receives the credit. Whether they pass that value to you in your monthly payment depends entirely on the contract.

For homeowners thinking about owning their own system, solar doesn’t have the federal tax credit, but it’s not to say the investment doesn’t make sense. We’re publishing another piece to talk about how the investment still makes sense without the tax credit.

Another Closed Program

Another helpful program that wounded down specifically for Upstate/WNY is the NYSERDA NY-Sun Megawatt Block standard-income incentive. It’s funding ran out as of on December 17, 2025.

A little history on this, For years, NY-Sun paid a per-watt rebate (most recently around $0.20/W for upstate residential) directly to your installer, who deducted it from your install cost. On a 7-kW system, that was about $1,400 off the top.

That program filled its allocated funding for standard-income upstate customers in late 2025. New standard-income upstate residential applications no longer receive the rebate.

A number of articles online, some updated as recently as Q1 2026, still list this incentive as active at $0.20 to $0.40/W. FYI, That's stale information. You can always verify directly at NYSERDA's MW Block dashboard before signing any contract that includes a NY-Sun rebate line.

There came out another funding program called NY-Sun's Affordable Solar Residential Incentive, which was for low- and moderate-income households (at or below 80% of Area Median Income). The rebate is $0.80/W, meaningfully higher than the standard rate it replaced. For a family of four in Upstate New York, the income threshold lands around $64,000. This was a very effective incentive that quickly ran out, and we’re not sure if we will get additional funding for this.

What's still fully available

Here's what New York still has, regardless of income, as of May 2026:

1. New York State Solar Tax Credit: 25% of net system cost, capped at $5,000

A state income tax credit equal to 25% of the cost of your solar system (after any NY-Sun rebate is applied, if applicable), capped at $5,000. Claimed on NYS Form IT-255.

For most WNY homeowners on systems in the $20,000 to $30,000 range, this credit caps out at the full $5,000.

Source: New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Form IT-255.

2. 15-Year Property Tax Exemption: Real Property Tax Law §487

The added home value from your solar system is exempt from property tax assessment for 15 years from the date of installation.

A small number of New York municipalities have opted out. Most have not. For WNY specifically, the major townships in Erie and Niagara counties honor the exemption, but a five-minute call to your local assessor's office is worth it before installing.

Source: New York Real Property Tax Law §487.

3. Sales Tax Exemption: Tax Law §1115(ee)

Solar panels, inverters, racking, and most balance-of-system equipment are exempt from the New York State portion of sales tax. Most WNY counties have also opted into the local exemption, making it effectively the full sales tax in most cases. There's no application form; the exemption gets applied at the point of sale by the installer.

On a $25,000 system in Erie County (8.75% combined rate), that works out to roughly $2,200 you don't pay. If a quote includes sales tax on solar equipment, ask why.

Source: New York Tax Law §1115(ee).

4. Net Metering and VDER (Value of Distributed Energy Resources)

Before this policy was just like California, so this is an important detail to note. But now, unlike California, when your solar system produces more electricity than your home uses, the extra goes back to the grid and you receive a 1:1 credit for it.

For residential systems interconnected in 2026, New York still offers full 1:1 net metering at the retail electricity rate, locked in for 20 years from your interconnection date. When your solar system produces more electricity than your home uses, the excess goes to the grid and you receive a credit equal to the full retail rate (currently around 22¢/kWh for NYSEG and National Grid customers).

Slight caveat that should be mentioned is: There's a small monthly charge you pay called the Customer Benefit Contribution (CBC) charge. Stands roughly $0.70 to $1.33 per kW of installed capacity, depending on your utility. For a typical 7-kW system, that's about $5 to $9 per month, or $60 to $110 per year. The CBC is a flat charge solar can't offset.

So if you're a WNY homeowner thinking about solar in 2026:

1. Don't assume the math is dead because the federal credit is. Reach out to a solar electrician, like us and find out how pricing has adapted!

2. Verify any installer's quote line by line. If a 2026 proposal for a standard-income upstate home shows a NY-Sun rebate as a deduction, that's an outdated red flag. Check NYSERDA's dashboard directly.

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