The number behind the number
Georgia Power residential retail rates have been in the region of 14 to 15 cents per kWh. The Solar Avoided Cost Rate for exports was 3.2188 cents per kWh for 2026, with a 4 cent per kWh adder approved in the 2022 rate case.
However those components total, exported electricity is worth substantially less than electricity you consume as it is generated. The ratio between the two is the multiplier sitting under every savings figure in an Augusta quote.
That means two systems producing identical annual kilowatt hours can deliver very different savings depending only on when the household happens to use power. The hardware is not what separates them.
So the self-consumption share is not a modelling detail, it is the assumption the entire projection rests on, and it should be visible on the page rather than buried in a spreadsheet.
What share is realistic for your household
A household with someone home during the day, or with large daytime loads such as air conditioning through a Georgia summer, will consume a high share of its generation directly. That is the favourable case and Georgia summers help it considerably.
A household that leaves at seven and returns at six, with the heaviest usage in the evening, will export a large share of its midday production at the low rate. The same roof and the same panels produce a materially worse result.
Ask what self-consumption share the model assumed and what it was based on. An assumption drawn from your actual interval data, if your meter provides it, is far stronger than a generic figure.
Ask what the projection looks like at a lower share too. If the case only works at an optimistic self-consumption assumption, that is worth knowing before you sign rather than discovering from your bills.
Improving the share without spending more
Some of the most effective changes cost nothing. Running the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer during daylight instead of in the evening moves load into the generating window directly.
Pre-cooling the house in the afternoon on a hot day, so the air conditioning runs harder while the sun is up and less after sunset, does the same thing with a much larger load. In a Georgia summer that is a significant amount of electricity.
Charging an electric vehicle during the day rather than overnight is the largest single shift available to most households that have one, and it is entirely within your control.
A battery does this automatically and at scale, which is why storage is worth more under this tariff than under retail-rate net metering. Ask for the system modelled with and without one so the incremental value is a visible number.
Costing it out against a capped programme
The 30 percent federal Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a cash or loan purchase in Augusta receives no federal tax credit, and Georgia has no state solar tax credit.
Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so ask what a provider claims and what portion reaches you in the rate.
What exists is the tariff: full retail value on self-consumed generation, avoided-cost value on exports, with residential systems capped at 10 kW AC and enrolment first come, first served against a programme cap.
Ask any installer to state the assumed self-consumption share, show the projection at a lower share, and split the savings into retail-value and export-value lines. In Georgia that split is the whole quote.