What 100 percent public power means here
Nebraska is the only state with 100 percent public power. There are no investor-owned electric utilities, and every customer is served by a public power district, a municipal utility or a cooperative, more than 165 entities in total.
In most states solar terms come from a tariff filed by a shareholder-owned utility and approved by a public utilities commission. Nebraska does not have that structure.
Instead, terms are set by the utility itself, subject to the statutory floor. Omaha Public Power District is customer-owned and governed by an elected board.
That is why so much national solar guidance does not fit Nebraska. It is written around a regulator-and-utility relationship that does not exist here.
The statutory floor, and what sits above it
Nebraska statute at Sections 70-2001 to 70-2004 requires net metering to be offered to customer-generators at up to 25 kW. That is comfortably above what an ordinary household installs.
Above 25 kW the statute does not require net metering, though utilities may allow larger systems at their discretion. For a residential project that ceiling is unlikely to bind.
What the statute does not do is impose a uniform crediting scheme. How excess generation is credited and what happens to credits over time are decided by your own district.
So the useful questions are local ones, and Omaha Public Power District is the right place to ask them rather than a statewide guide.
The advantage worth using
Because these utilities are customer-owned and board-governed, the route to influencing terms is a public one. Board meetings are open and board members stand for election.
That is genuinely different from a state where a shareholder-owned utility files a tariff and a commission rules on it, and where an individual customer has little practical standing.
It also means terms can be inspected rather than inferred. Ask your utility directly for its net metering policy in writing rather than relying on an installer summary.
Ask what the current crediting arrangement is, whether it has been reviewed recently, and whether any change is under consideration. Those are reasonable questions to put to a utility you part-own.
Costing it out under public power
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 Omaha receives no federal tax credit, and Nebraska has no state solar tax credit.
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 net metering under your own district arrangement, subject to the statutory 25 kW floor, and the electricity you stop buying.
Ask your utility for its net metering policy in writing and ask that the projection be built on it rather than on a statewide assumption.