Your utility is the city, and that changes the rules
The Lansing Board of Water and Light is municipally owned. Because of that it sits outside the Michigan Public Service Commission framework that governs DTE Electric and Consumers Energy, including the state Distributed Generation Program that replaced net metering for their customers.
BWL runs its own distributed generation program, under which it pays customers for excess solar energy sent back to its grid. What that program pays, how it treats a monthly surplus and what limits it sets are BWL's own terms rather than a version of the state rules, so they have to come from BWL directly.
The practical instruction is narrow and important: get the current program terms from BWL, in writing, before you accept a payback figure from anyone. An installer who works across mid-Michigan will be used to quoting DTE and Consumers customers, and the assumptions that are correct for those two are not automatically correct for you. If a proposal cites Rider 18, an inflow and outflow tariff, or a sizing cap tied to your prior twelve months of usage, it is quoting the investor-owned utility framework at a BWL customer.
What to ask BWL before you sign anything
Ask what the distributed generation program currently pays for exported energy, and on what basis. Ask whether surplus in a month is paid, credited or carried forward, because that determines whether generating beyond your own use is worth anything to you. Ask what system size the program allows and whether it is tied to your historical consumption.
Ask what the interconnection process involves and how long it takes, and confirm whether the utility approval and any municipal approval are separate steps. Where they are, a project can be complete and still waiting, so knowing which approval is outstanding is how you get a straight answer about progress.
Finally, ask whether the program is open. Municipal utility programs are administered locally and can be capped, revised or paused without the public notice that a commission-regulated tariff change attracts. A quote built on a program that has closed is worth nothing, and the utility is the only reliable place to check.
GreenWise, if a rooftop system is not possible
BWL also offers GreenWise Renewable Power, a subscription for customers who want utility-scale renewable energy without installing anything of their own. It is a different product from a rooftop array, and it does not produce a payback in the way owned generation does, but it is the option that exists for people whose housing rules the roof out.
That covers a real share of the city. Buildings of 20 or more apartments hold 10.6 percent of Lansing's housing units and buildings of 10 to 19 units hold a further 8.7 percent, and in both the roof belongs to the building owner rather than the resident.
If you are in that position, ask BWL what GreenWise costs and how it appears on your bill, and compare it against what you would actually have paid for a system you cannot install anyway. It is a subscription decision rather than an investment decision, and it should be judged as one.
What a Lansing roof makes in a year
Plan on roughly 1,189 kWh a year for every kW of panels installed. The figure is derived from satellite irradiance data with a standard performance ratio applied rather than measured on local systems, so it is a screening number: good enough to decide whether to get quotes, not good enough to put in a contract.
Orientation, pitch, shade and usable area do the rest of the work. South-facing planes generate across the whole day while east and west faces load one end of it, a steeper pitch sheds snow faster, and the usable area is what is left after vents, stacks, chimneys and setbacks are subtracted. Winter shading is the item most often missed, because a low sun reaches under canopy that clears the roof easily in summer.
Ask for modelled production plane by plane rather than as a single house total, and ask what the model assumes about shading. That breakdown is the only way to see whether the panels at the end of the design are earning their cost or filling space.
Roofs, and paying for the system
Single-detached houses are 61.9 percent of Lansing's 55,943 housing units, so most residents do control their own roof and can run a project themselves. Mobile homes are 1.7 percent, and those need a structural assessment and the park's rules settled before anything else.
On cost, remove the federal credit from any arithmetic you have been given. The 30 percent residential credit under Section 25D applied through December 31, 2025 and does not cover a purchased home system placed in service after that date, so a 2026 purchase here cannot claim it. Lease and power purchase agreement providers may still claim the business version under Section 48E and reflect part of it in the rate they offer, which is a question for the provider and a tax advisor.
Michigan Saves financing is available statewide and does not depend on which utility serves you. It connects homeowners with participating credit unions for qualifying improvements including solar and battery storage, with rates starting at 5.99 percent APR and terms up to 180 months, conditional on using an authorized contractor and applying through the Michigan Saves portal. Rates and the contractor list are both updated, so confirm them at the point you are quoted.