The tier belongs to the address, not to you
Customers who sign up under any tier keep it for a period of 20 years at the location where the net metering system was originally installed. New customers must enroll in Tier 4, which credits excess energy at 75 percent of the retail rate.
If you sell, the arrangement is part of what the house comes with. That is worth documenting for a buyer alongside the permits and interconnection paperwork, because a system with clear documentation of its arrangement is a more attractive asset than one with an unknown status.
If you buy a home that already has solar, ask the utility directly what arrangement the address is on, how many of the twenty years remain, and whether it transfers to you. Get that in writing before closing rather than relying on the seller or the listing.
And if you move to another Nevada address and install again, you join whatever tier is open at that time rather than carrying your existing one. Earlier tiers credited 95, 88 and 81 percent and are closed, so a second installation will be on Tier 4 terms.
Buying a house that already has solar
Establish first whether the system is owned outright, financed with a loan, or subject to a lease or power purchase agreement. Those are three different situations and only the first is straightforward.
Under a lease or power purchase agreement you do not get the array by buying the house. A third-party owner holds it and you would generally have to qualify for and assume the agreement, so ask for the agreement itself and read the transfer terms and buyout cost.
Ask for the permits, inspection sign-offs, interconnection approval and equipment specifications with model numbers. A system without documentation is difficult to warranty, difficult to service and difficult to sell on again.
Ask for production history if any exists. Actual generation over a year or two is far better evidence than a projection, and a system that has quietly underperformed is worth knowing about while you can still act on it.
Northern Nevada is not the Las Vegas valley
Most Nevada solar content is written about southern Nevada. At this elevation there is real winter, snow and a heating season, and the production shape is different from the low desert rather than uniformly worse.
Cold helps output, since panel efficiency falls as cell temperature rises. Snow does not, because it stops production while it sits, so ask how the proposed layout sheds and what the mounting is rated to carry as a load.
Ask what temperature and snow assumptions sit behind your production estimate, whether it was modelled for your actual location, and ask to see monthly figures rather than an annual total that averages the seasons away.
If your home heats with electricity, consumption peaks when production is lowest. That mismatch belongs explicitly in the projection, and the carry-forward of export credits into later billing periods is what softens it.
The tier you join, your association, and the federal credit
New Nevada customers must enroll in Tier 4, which credits excess energy at 75 percent of the retail rate, and keep that tier for a period of 20 years at the location where the system was originally installed. Earlier tiers credited 95, 88 and 81 percent and closed in August 2018, June 2019 and June 2020.
Because exports are credited at 75 percent while electricity you consume as it is generated avoids a purchase at the full retail rate, ask your installer to model the self-consumed share explicitly and value the remainder at 75 percent rather than at retail.
On associations, NRS 111.239 makes void and unenforceable any covenant that prohibits or unreasonably restricts an owner from using a system for obtaining solar energy, and treats a restriction reducing the effectiveness of the system by more than 10 percent as unreasonable. If a committee proposes moving your array, have your installer model both placements and put the difference in writing.
There is also a route that does not require litigation: under NRS 701.180(6) the Director of the Governor's Office of Energy shall make a determination within 30 days if asked to decide whether an unreasonable restriction has been placed on a solar energy system. Separately, the 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025.