DE · Solar

Solar quotes in Seaford, DE.

One real quote from a vetted local Seaford installer, sized to your roof, your bill, and every federal + state rebate you qualify for.

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One vetted local Seaford installer
Rebates checked for your exact address
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7 kW
Average system size: $2.95/W
Average cost (USD): 9 yrs
Average payback: 40+
Local installers

Why solar in Seaford

Delaware came through the end of the federal residential tax credit better than most states, and it is worth setting out what that leaves a Seaford homeowner with. There is no 30 percent federal credit for a cash purchase. There is a municipal Green Energy Fund programme, net metering credited in kilowatt hours, and a separate SREC income stream. Together those are unusually intact for 2026, and each is checkable.

What ended and what did not

The 30 percent federal Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. A cash or loan purchase now receives no federal tax credit.

Section 48E, the commercial credit, survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements. The provider claims it, and whether any value reaches you depends on the rate offered.

What did not change is the state and utility layer. Delaware net metering, the grant programmes and the SREC arrangement are state and utility constructs rather than federal ones.

So the honest framing is that the stack got thinner rather than collapsing, which puts Delaware alongside Rhode Island, Vermont and New Mexico rather than alongside New Hampshire or Alabama.

The three lines that remain

A grant programme. Seaford is one of the nine municipal utility towns, so the Delmarva-funded Green Energy Program does not apply; ask your municipal utility what its Green Energy Fund programme offers and what prerequisites attach.

Net metering for residential systems up to 25 kW, credited in kilowatt hours rather than dollars, so credits hold their value against rate increases.

SREC income through the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility, at roughly 1.35 SRECs per installed kilowatt per year, reported at around $30 each for the first ten years and $10 for years eleven to twenty-five.

Ask for each of those three as a separate line in a projection, with the source of each named. Combining them into one savings figure makes all three unverifiable.

And the production estimate underneath

Ask for the annual production figure in kilowatt hours per year, with the data source named and location-specific irradiance for your address rather than a regional average.

Ask what shading analysis was done and what it assumed about tree growth over the system life, and what annual degradation it applied.

Ask what soiling losses it assumed, and check that the SREC line uses the same production figure rather than a different one, since SREC income is generation-based.

That last check is worth doing explicitly. A projection using one production number for bill savings and a more optimistic one for SREC income is internally inconsistent and overstates the total.

Three pieces, and how they stack

Strike the federal residential credit from any quote showing it, since Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025.

Rebuild from your municipal utility Green Energy Fund programme, net metering to 25 kW credited in kilowatt hours, and SREC income at the current procurement terms.

Add the electricity you stop buying, from a production estimate that accounts for shading, soiling and degradation.

Ask for that four-line version in writing, and check that the same production figure runs through both the bill savings and the SREC line.

Incentives & rebates

Net metering: Net metering to 25 kW residential, credited in kilowatt hours

All Delaware electric utilities offer net metering, and the rules work broadly the same way across Delmarva Power, Delaware Electric Cooperative and the municipal electric companies. Residential systems are eligible up to 25 kW, which is far above what an ordinary household would install, so the cap is rarely the binding constraint. The detail worth understanding is that credits are denominated in kilowatt hours rather than in dollars. That distinction is more valuable than it sounds. A dollar credit is fixed at the rate in force when it was earned, so it loses purchasing power if electricity prices rise. A kilowatt hour credit is a claim on a unit of electricity, so it holds its value against future rate increases automatically. In a state where retail rates have generally risen, that is a quiet but real advantage over the states that credit in currency. Delaware also runs a Solar Renewable Energy Credit programme through the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility, using competitive procurement rather than an open trading market, which produces a separate income stream from the environmental attributes of your generation, reported at around $30 per SREC for the first ten years and $10 for years eleven to twenty-five, on roughly 1.35 SRECs per installed kW per year. Because net metering, the grant programme and the SREC arrangement are three separate things, ask for each to appear as its own line in a projection rather than being combined into a single savings figure.

Related Delaware resources

Delaware solar incentives & rebates Full breakdown of federal, provincial, and utility programs.

How payback works in Delaware

System cost: $20,650
Estimated net cost: $20,650
Estimated payback: ~12.7 years
25-year net savings: ~$19,850

These figures are illustrative; your actual quote reflects your roof, sun exposure, and local utility rates.

Frequently asked questions

Did Delaware solar survive the federal credit ending?

Largely. Delaware net metering, the grant programmes and the SREC arrangement are state and utility constructs rather than federal ones, so the stack got thinner rather than collapsing.

What is actually left in 2026?

A grant programme, which for the nine municipal utility towns is a municipal Green Energy Fund rather than the Delmarva one; net metering to 25 kW credited in kilowatt hours; and SREC income through the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility.

How should those appear in a quote?

As three separate lines with the source of each named. Combining them into a single savings figure makes all three unverifiable, and each is checkable against a published programme.

What consistency check should I run?

That the same production figure runs through both the bill savings and the SREC line. SREC income is generation-based, so a projection using a more optimistic production number for SRECs is internally inconsistent.