A municipal utility, still inside the law
Missouri's Net Metering and Easy Connection Act, Section 386.890 RSMo, covers qualified net metering units of 100 kW or less, and the law applies to all regulated electric utilities, to municipal electric utilities and to rural electric cooperatives.
Municipal utilities and cooperatives are required by the law to adopt policies establishing a simple contract to be used for interconnection and net metering. So being on a city-owned utility here does not put you outside the framework the way it would in most states.
That said, each utility adopts its own policies under the law, so ask yours for its net metering policy in writing rather than assuming the statutory minimum is exactly what you will be offered.
Ask specifically how exported electricity is credited, how the year-end reconciliation works, what size limit applies and whether there is an interconnection fee. Those four answers decide your return.
The case that changed Missouri solar tax treatment
The property tax decision that reshaped Missouri solar started here. On August 9, 2022 the Missouri Supreme Court issued its decision in Johnson v. Springfield Solar 1, LLC, holding that the exemption for solar energy systems not held for resale under Section 137.100(10) is unconstitutional.
The court held that the Missouri Constitution delineates the categories of property that may be exempt from taxation and that the legislature lacked the authority to create an exemption outside them. The State Tax Commission has since issued guidance to assessors on the assessment of solar property following the decision.
Most Missouri solar guides still list a property tax exemption. If you have budgeted for one on the strength of a guide or a sales presentation, that is worth checking before you sign.
Ask your county assessor directly how residential solar is being assessed at your address. This page will not guess, because the answer is administered county by county rather than stated in a single rule.
What to build the arithmetic on
Standard residential tariffs apply a retail-rate offset for in-period consumption, with year-end surplus reconciled at avoided cost. So build to your consumption rather than beyond it, and ask your installer to work from your last twelve months of bills.
Ask what percentage of your annual usage the proposed system covers and how the year-end reconciliation was handled in the projection. A model carrying surplus forward at retail indefinitely is describing something the tariff does not do.
Missouri investor-owned utilities historically ran solar rebate programmes but these have largely been discontinued. If a rebate appears in a quote, confirm with your own utility whether one is currently open before you count it.
And note 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 now receives no federal credit.
Building the number from confirmed pieces only
Three things people expect in Missouri are either gone or unreliable, and a quote built on any of them overstates your return. 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 now receives no federal credit.
Utility solar rebates historically existed here but have largely been discontinued. If a rebate appears in a quote, confirm directly with your own utility whether it is currently open, what it pays and whether funding remains, before you sign anything.
And the property tax exemption most guides still list was held unconstitutional by the Missouri Supreme Court on August 9, 2022. Ask your county assessor how residential solar is being assessed at your address rather than assuming an exemption applies.
What does exist is net metering under the Easy Connection Act and the electricity you stop buying. Ask any installer to rebuild the arithmetic from those two things alone, and treat resistance to producing that version as informative in itself.