Two tiers, decided by a date
Act 278 grandfathered projects developed before September 30, 2024 at the one-to-one rate for a 20-year contract duration, which runs through September 2040.
For those systems an exported kilowatt hour and a consumed one are worth the same, which is the arrangement most people assume solar has and which new Arkansas systems no longer receive.
Systems interconnecting after that date take service under the non-legacy schedule, where excess exported to the grid is compensated at avoided cost rather than retail.
The difference is large enough to change what an array is worth to a buyer, and it is a documented fact rather than a matter of judgement.
What to establish before you agree a price
Ask the seller for the development and interconnection dates, with documentation rather than a recollection.
Ask which schedule the account is on today, and get that confirmed by the utility rather than by the seller. A tier is only worth something if the account genuinely carries it.
Ask whether the grandfathered status transfers to a new owner, what has to be done to effect it, and by when. That is the question that most often turns a valuable arrangement into a worthless one.
Ask how many of the twenty years remain. A system developed in early 2024 has around fourteen years of one-to-one crediting left, which is a specific and substantial number.
The rest of the checks on an existing array
Ask for production history rather than a production estimate. An installed system has real data, and real data is worth far more than a model.
Ask for the equipment make and model and what warranty remains on the panels, the inverter and the workmanship. Inverters typically have shorter lives than panels.
Ask about the roof underneath. A system on a roof near the end of its life implies a removal and reinstallation cost that belongs in your purchase arithmetic.
Ask whether the system is owned outright, financed, or on a lease or power purchase agreement. Those are entirely different things to inherit, and only the first is straightforwardly an asset.
What the number should be built from
For a new system, the 30 percent federal Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, and Arkansas has no state solar tax credit.
Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements.
A new system goes onto the non-legacy schedule: full retail value for what you consume as it is generated, avoided cost for exports.
For an existing system, start with the development date and whether grandfathered status transfers. That single fact changes what the array is worth to you more than anything else about it.