ID · Solar

Solar quotes in Boise, ID.

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

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What you get

One vetted local Boise installer
Rebates checked for your exact address
No call-center spam, no lead list

8 kW
Average system size: $2.70/W
Average cost (USD): 13 yrs
Average payback: 50+
Local installers

Why solar in Boise

The most common error in Idaho solar material is calling the state incentive a tax credit. It is a deduction, and the difference is large. A credit reduces the tax you owe dollar for dollar. A deduction reduces the income you are taxed on, so its cash value is the deducted amount multiplied by your marginal rate. If a Boise quote shows the Idaho incentive as though it were a credit, the savings figure is materially overstated.

What the Idaho deduction actually is

Idaho allows a homeowner to deduct the cost of a residential solar installation from state taxable income across four years: 40 percent of the system cost in year one, then 20 percent in each of the following three years.

It is capped at $5,000 per year and $20,000 in total, and is claimed on Idaho Form 39R in the Subtractions section, which is where deductions live rather than credits.

On a $22,000 system, 40 percent is $8,800, but the annual cap limits the year one deduction to $5,000. Across four years the deduction total is bounded by both the percentages and the $20,000 ceiling.

The value you actually receive is that deducted amount multiplied by your marginal Idaho income tax rate, not the deducted amount itself. That is a fraction of the headline figure.

Working out what it is worth to you

Take the amount you would deduct in a given year, apply your marginal Idaho income tax rate, and that is the cash the deduction returns for that year.

That is a different and smaller number than the deduction itself, and it depends on your own tax position rather than being the same for everyone.

So this is a question for a tax professional rather than for an installer. Ask your installer for the system cost and the schedule; ask a tax professional what the deduction is worth in your circumstances.

Ask directly whether the quote treats it as a credit or a deduction. If a projection subtracts 40 percent of the system cost from the price, it is describing a credit that does not exist.

And what replaced the federal credit, which is nothing

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.

The Idaho deduction is not a replacement for it in any meaningful sense. A 30 percent credit and a capped deduction worth a marginal rate multiple are different orders of magnitude.

Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements. But under a lease you generally do not own the system, which affects whether you can claim the Idaho deduction at all.

Ask that question explicitly before choosing a structure, and confirm the tax treatment with a tax advisor rather than with the salesperson.

Rebuilding the estimate from what is confirmed

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

Restate the Idaho incentive as a deduction with the four-year schedule and the $5,000 annual and $20,000 total caps, and value it at your marginal rate rather than at face.

Add net billing under the Idaho Power arrangement: retail-rate offsetting for what you consume on site, and a season and time-varying export credit for the rest.

Ask for that version in writing, with the deduction valued correctly and the export credit shown by season rather than as an annual average.

Incentives & rebates

Net metering: Idaho Power real-time net billing with season and time-varying export credits

Idaho Power moved non-legacy on-site generation customers to real-time net billing following Case IPC-E-23-14. The structure has two halves. Generation your household consumes on site as it is produced continues to offset your usage, which is the most valuable outcome and is unaffected by the export rate. Generation exported to the grid is compensated per kilowatt hour at an avoided-cost-based export credit rate that varies by season and by time of export. What makes Idaho unusual is the size of that variation. Recent rates have run at approximately 14.0598 cents per kWh for summer on-peak exports, 1.7682 cents for summer off-peak, and 0.9540 cents for all exported energy outside the summer season. That is roughly a fifteenfold spread between the best and worst hours, far wider than in most time-varying tariffs. The consequence is that when you export matters far more here than how much you export in total. A kilowatt hour delivered to the grid on a summer afternoon is worth about fifteen times one delivered on a November morning, so a battery that can hold generation for the summer on-peak window is doing something genuinely valuable, and load shifting to raise self-consumption outside summer peak hours is close to free money. The export credit rate is updated annually, and Idaho Power initial filing proposed reducing the average annual rate from around 6.2 cents per kWh to just under 2.5 cents, so confirm the current published figures rather than relying on an older guide. Rocky Mountain Power in eastern Idaho and Avista in the north operate their own arrangements.

Related Idaho resources

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

How payback works in Idaho

System cost: $21,600
Estimated net cost: $21,600
Estimated payback: ~13.3 years
25-year net savings: ~$18,900

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

Frequently asked questions

Is the Idaho solar incentive a credit or a deduction?

A deduction. It reduces the income you are taxed on rather than the tax you owe, so its cash value is the deducted amount multiplied by your marginal Idaho rate, not the deducted amount itself.

How does the deduction schedule work?

40 percent of the system cost in year one, then 20 percent in each of the next three years, capped at $5,000 per year and $20,000 in total, claimed on Idaho Form 39R in the Subtractions section.

How do I know if my quote gets this wrong?

If the projection subtracts 40 percent of the system cost from the price, it is describing a credit that does not exist. Ask directly whether it treats the incentive as a credit or a deduction.

Can I claim it on a leased system?

Ask before choosing a structure. Under a lease or power purchase agreement you generally do not own the system, which affects eligibility, while the surviving federal Section 48E credit is claimed by the provider rather than you.