Solar Panel Cost in Kentucky (2026)

Net metering: Full retail at LG&E and KU; avoided cost at Duke Kentucky

Kentucky law requires investor-owned utilities and electric cooperatives, excluding TVA, to offer net metering to customers with qualifying solar systems, and Senate Bill 100 raised the eligible system size from 30 kW to 45 kW. Compensation is overseen by the Kentucky Public Service Commission and set per utility, which has produced a genuinely split market. LG&E and Kentucky Utilities customers still receive full retail net metering, with exported electricity credited at the same rate they pay for it. That is now unusual: most neighbouring states have moved away from retail-rate credit in the last few years, and it is the single most valuable feature of solar in those territories. Duke Energy Kentucky moved in the other direction, introducing Rider NM II on January 1, 2025 to comply with a Commission order. Under NM II excess generation is credited at an avoided cost rate published at $0.062924 per kWh for residential customers, against a Kentucky residential average around 15 cents per kWh, so roughly 40 percent of retail. Systems in service by December 31, 2024 were grandfathered onto the previous Net Metering I rider for 25 years. An appeal against the Commission approval of NM II is pending in Franklin Circuit Court, so the position is not finally settled. Separately, TVA supplies much of western Kentucky through local power companies and municipal utilities, which sit outside the state requirement entirely and compensate exports at TVA avoided cost. The practical result is that the first question about any Kentucky solar quote is which utility bills the address.