IN · Solar

Solar quotes in Hammond, IN.

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

One vetted local installer · no lead list

What you get

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

7.5 kW
Average system size: $2.90/W
Average cost (USD): 12 yrs
Average payback: 80+
Local installers

Why solar in Hammond

Indiana sets its Excess Distributed Generation credit per utility rather than statewide, and different utilities have taken different positions on how often excess generation is measured. That means two Indiana homeowners with identical systems can be on materially different terms. In Hammond, as anywhere in the state, the first step is establishing which utility bills you and what it actually does.

The terms are set per utility

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission sets the Excess Distributed Generation credit using a formula, the prior year average wholesale cost of electricity plus 25 percent, but the resulting figure is set for each utility rather than as a single statewide number.

The netting method also varies. The Indiana Supreme Court permitted a utility to use instantaneous netting, but it did not require every utility to adopt it, so some may still net across a billing period.

Those two variables together determine most of what your system will be worth, and neither is visible from a statewide guide.

So check the utility name on a recent bill, then take two specific questions to that utility: what is the current Excess Distributed Generation credit, and is excess generation measured instantaneously or across the billing period.

Getting the answers from the right source

Ask the utility rather than the installer, and ask for the answers in writing where you can. The utility is the organisation that will administer your account and set your credit.

Then take those answers back to the quote. Ask which credit rate and which netting method the projection assumed, and reconcile them against what the utility told you.

If they do not match, ask for the projection to be rebuilt rather than explained. A discrepancy between a quote and the utility own statement is the most useful thing you can find at this stage.

Ask also what the interconnection process involves, what it costs, and how long it takes with your specific utility. Practice varies and the gap between installation and permission to operate is where most project frustration lives.

The design follows from those two answers

If your utility nets instantaneously, self-consumption is overwhelmingly dominant and the design should be built around your daytime load, with load shifting and possibly storage doing real work.

If it nets across a billing period, midday generation offsets evening consumption within the month before any export is calculated, which softens the impact of the low credit considerably.

Either way the export credit is well below retail, so a system sized to annual consumption will still send a meaningful share of its output out at the low rate.

Ask for the design built from your consumption pattern with the confirmed netting method applied, and for a smaller system modelled alongside so you can compare returns directly.

Building the number from what Indiana still offers

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 Hammond receives no federal tax credit, and Indiana has no state income tax credit for solar.

Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so ask what a provider claims and what reaches you in the rate.

What exists is the 7 percent sales tax exemption, the property tax exemption on added value, retail value for self-consumed generation, and your utility own Excess Distributed Generation credit under its own netting method.

Confirm those last two with the utility in writing, then ask for the projection rebuilt on them rather than on a statewide assumption.

Incentives & rebates

Net metering: Net metering closed; EDG credit at 125% of wholesale

Indiana closed net metering to new solar customers under Senate Enrolled Act 309, no later than July 1, 2022. New residential systems instead receive the Excess Distributed Generation credit, which the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission sets at the average wholesale cost of electricity from the prior year plus 25 percent. That has produced a credit roughly 70 to 80 percent below the retail rate, so an exported kilowatt hour is worth a small fraction of one you consume yourself. A second change compounds the first. The Indiana Supreme Court held that a utility may measure excess generation instantaneously rather than netting across a billing period, on the reasoning that the statute does not direct utilities on how often the measurement must be made. Under instantaneous netting a household pays the full retail rate for everything it draws from the grid at any moment while everything it sends to the grid earns only the Excess Distributed Generation rate, with no monthly offset in between. The practical consequences are large. A system sized to annual consumption will export a great deal of its midday output at the low rate, so a smaller system matched to daytime load frequently returns better. Shifting flexible loads into daylight converts low-value exports into full-value offsets at no cost, and storage carries more weight here than the national conversation suggests. Existing customers were grandfathered: systems installed before 2018 keep full net metering until July 1, 2047, and those installed between the start of 2018 and the close of the programme until July 1, 2032.

Related Indiana resources

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

How payback works in Indiana

System cost: $21,750
Estimated net cost: $21,750
Estimated payback: ~13.4 years
25-year net savings: ~$18,750

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

Frequently asked questions

Is the Indiana export credit the same statewide?

No. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission applies a formula, the prior year average wholesale cost plus 25 percent, but the resulting figure is set for each utility. Confirm the current credit with the utility that bills your address.

Does every Indiana utility net instantaneously?

Not necessarily. The Supreme Court permitted instantaneous netting but did not require it, so some utilities may still net across a billing period. Ask your utility directly which method it uses.

Why do those two answers matter so much?

Because together they determine most of what your system will be worth. Instantaneous netting makes self-consumption dominant; monthly netting softens the impact of a low export credit considerably.

What if the quote does not match what my utility said?

Ask for the projection to be rebuilt rather than explained. A discrepancy between a quote and the utility own statement is the most useful thing you can find before signing.