Your utility is the city, and it writes its own rules
Fayetteville Public Works Commission operates the largest municipal electric system in North Carolina and the 38th largest in the nation. That matters beyond civic trivia, because Electric Membership Cooperatives and municipal electric providers are not regulated by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, unlike investor-owned utilities, and the Commission does not regulate the retail rates of municipally-owned systems.
So the rules that govern your project are PWC's own, set locally rather than by a state regulator. North Carolina has 76 municipally-owned electric utilities, and ElectriCities provides power supply and related services to more than 90 community-owned systems across North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, most of them belonging to one of two municipal power agencies. Fayetteville is one of the largest.
The practical consequence is that guidance about Duke Energy's net metering, its time-differentiated rates and its bridge rate options is describing a utility you are not a customer of. That is most of what is published about North Carolina solar. Before you accept any figure from an article, a calculator or an installer, confirm it is a PWC figure.
It also gives you a fair test of an installer. Someone who works in Fayetteville regularly will raise REBB before you do. Someone who opens with Duke's net metering has not done a job here, and that is worth knowing before you sign anything.
Renewable Energy Buy Back: a 10 kW ceiling and a wholesale price
PWC does not offer one-to-one net metering. Its programme is Renewable Energy Buy Back, available for solar electric renewable generation of 10 kW or less, and it credits excess energy you export at a wholesale rate rather than at the retail rate you pay to buy electricity back.
Take the cap first, because it is a hard limit rather than a guideline. At 10 kW, PWC's programme sits below what a large house with electric heat or an electric vehicle might otherwise install. If your consumption would justify a bigger array, the question to put to PWC is what happens above that threshold, and to get the answer before a designer starts drawing.
Then take the price. A wholesale credit is worth considerably less than the retail rate you avoid by consuming your own generation as it is produced. That inverts the usual sizing advice: rather than building to cover your annual consumption and letting the grid balance the seasons, you want an array matched to what your household actually uses during daylight hours. Ask your installer to model the self-consumed share of production and to value the remainder at the wholesale rate rather than at retail.
Get the current REBB terms in writing from PWC directly. A wholesale rate is a moving number rather than a fixed tariff, and a payback calculation built on last year's figure is not a calculation you should sign against.
What does still apply, and what has ended
The state property tax treatment applies regardless of who your utility is. North Carolina excludes most of the added assessed home value of a residential active solar heating, cooling or electric system from property tax, so the improvement does not raise your tax bill the way an equivalent renovation would. That is a genuine benefit and it is easy to overlook because it never appears as a cheque.
The federal position has changed and much published material has not caught up. The 30 percent residential tax credit under Section 25D applied through December 31, 2025 and is not available for a purchased home system placed in service after that date. A purchase in Fayetteville today cannot claim it, and a quote that still applies it is overstating your return substantially.
If you go solar through a lease or a power purchase agreement rather than buying, the provider may claim the business version of the credit under Section 48E and reflect part of that value in the rate they offer you. What they claim and what actually reaches you are separate questions, so put both to the provider and confirm with a tax advisor rather than with the sales material.
PWC has done more than most municipal utilities in this space: in 2019 it built North Carolina's first municipal community solar and battery storage project, capable of generating up to 1 MW. If a rooftop array does not suit your property, ask whether a community solar option is open to residential customers, since that is a different route to the same outcome.
The roof, and the permit
Orientation is the decision that most affects output and it cannot be recovered later with better equipment. A south-facing unshaded plane produces the most, east and west planes produce usefully but give up output, and a north plane rarely repays the hardware.
Shading is the costliest variable because it removes production in the middle of the day, when the array is otherwise at its strongest. Under a wholesale export credit that midday production matters even more than usual, since the value comes from consuming it rather than selling it. Ask for a shading assessment covering the whole year rather than the hour of the site visit.
Check the roof covering age before anything is ordered. Panels outlast most coverings, so one within a few years of replacement should be replaced first rather than paying later to remove and reinstall the array.
On permits, North Carolina projects generally need both a building permit and an electrical permit from the local authority having jurisdiction. Confirm with the city what a rooftop installation requires at your address, what the application must contain and what processing time to expect, and agree in writing with your installer who files each one.