There is no provider to shop for in San Antonio
CPS Energy is a municipally owned utility and San Antonio is not part of the deregulated Texas retail electricity market. There is no retail electricity provider to select, and there are no competing solar buyback plans to compare.
That matters because the standard Texas solar article is built around exactly that choice. Comparing retail plans is presented as the main lever a homeowner controls, and in San Antonio it is not a lever you have. CPS Energy also states that excess energy from a solar system cannot be sold by one individual to another individual and can only be sold back to CPS Energy.
So a friend in Austin, Dallas or Houston is describing a different arrangement when they tell you what they get paid for exports. Austin is on a municipal utility with its own structure, and the deregulated cities are on plans their households selected. None of those numbers transfer.
It is a quick test of an installer too. Someone who works San Antonio will talk about CPS Energy's own terms. Someone who asks which retail provider you are with, or promises to help you find a better buyback plan, is describing a market you are not in.
Start with the utility's own free assistance
CPS Energy states that its Bring Solar Home program provides free technical assistance on going solar, and it directs customers to use a registered solar contractor. Both are worth taking up before you sit through a sales presentation.
Free technical assistance from the party that sets your terms is a rare thing in residential solar. It gives you a source of answers with no commission attached, at the point where the questions are still cheap to ask and no equipment has been ordered.
Take a specific list. What arrangement will I be on as a residential solar customer. How is the energy I export credited, and at what rate. Is that rate fixed or does it change. Is there a size limit on a residential system. What does the interconnection process involve and how long does it take.
CPS Energy also offers a feature in its My Energy Portal that lets solar customers monitor net solar energy usage and track home energy consumption. Ask how to read it before your system is switched on, so that you can check actual production against what you were promised rather than taking it on trust.
The number this page will not guess at
What we did not confirm from CPS Energy's own published material is the rate it credits for exported or excess solar energy, or exactly which metering arrangement applies to a new residential customer.
Figures for both circulate widely on commercial solar sites, and they vary. We are not going to repeat them as though CPS Energy had published them, because the export rate is the single number that decides whether a system is worth buying and a wrong one is worse than none.
So put that question to CPS Energy directly, ideally through the Bring Solar Home technical assistance, and ask for the answer in writing. Then hold every quote against it. An installer's projection built on an export value they have not sourced from the utility is a projection built on a guess.
One structural point does come from CPS Energy and is worth planning around. CPS Energy states that unless you purchase a system with battery backup, it will supply your energy needs at night. Solar alone does not keep the lights on during an outage, and if resilience is part of why you are doing this, that has to be designed in rather than assumed.
The exemption you must claim, and your association
Texas Tax Code Section 11.27 exempts 100 percent of the appraised home value added by an installed solar energy device from property tax. Unlike most of what is on this page, this one needs an action from you: Form 50-123 must be filed with your county appraisal district, and the deadline for the current tax year is generally April 30.
It is not filed automatically. Ask whether your installer assists with it, put the deadline in your own calendar either way, and treat it as part of the project. An exemption you qualified for and never claimed is the most avoidable cost in a Texas solar installation.
On associations, Texas Property Code Section 202.010 forbids a property owners association from prohibiting a property owner from installing a solar energy device. House Bill 431, effective May 29, 2025, amended that section to include solar roof tiles in the definition, so a tile product is covered too.
The federal position has changed. The 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so such a provider may claim it and reflect part of that value in your rate. Ask what they claim and what actually reaches you, and confirm with a tax advisor rather than with the sales material.