Generous on size, not on value
The 100 kW ceiling is far above what an ordinary household would install, so it is not the constraint on your design. Very few residential systems approach a tenth of it.
The constraint is the export rate. Excess generation is usually credited at avoided cost, a wholesale-style measure, rather than at the retail rate you pay.
At roughly 2 to 4 cents per kWh against a retail rate around 11 to 12, an exported kilowatt hour is worth something like a quarter to a third of one you consume yourself.
So a requirement to offer net metering is not the same as a requirement to pay retail for it, and North Dakota illustrates that distinction clearly.
What that means for the design
Annual production stops being a useful summary of what a system is worth. What matters is how much of it your household absorbs at the moment it is generated.
The marginal panels at the top of a design produce mostly exports, earning a fraction of retail while costing full price, so the return on each additional panel falls as the system grows.
Ask what self-consumption share the savings model assumed, and ask for the savings split into two lines: avoided purchases at retail and exports at the avoided cost rate.
Ask for a smaller system modelled alongside the proposal. Under this arrangement a design covering less than your full annual usage frequently returns better.
The improvements that cost nothing
Shifting flexible loads into daylight converts an export worth 2 to 4 cents into an avoided purchase worth 11 to 12. That is a threefold or fourfold uplift on every kilowatt hour moved.
Dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and any pool pump all move easily, and charging an electric vehicle during the day rather than overnight is the largest single shift for a household that has one.
None of that requires equipment or a contract, which makes it the first thing to consider rather than the last.
Ask for the projection with and without load shifting assumed, so you can see how much improvement is available before spending anything.
Costing it out where the incentives are thin
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 Fargo receives no federal tax credit, and North Dakota 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 retail value for self-consumed generation, avoided cost for exports, and a five-year property tax exemption on the system.
Ask for the two values separated with the self-consumption share stated, and confirm your utility current avoided cost rate directly.