Both legs of the tax credit stack have gone
The Utah Renewable Energy Systems Tax Credit for residential solar phased down from $2,000 before 2018 to $400 in 2023, and systems installed from 2024 onward are not eligible.
The 30 percent federal Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D then expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025.
Because the two happened within about two years, a great deal of Utah solar material predates one or both. A quote showing either is not necessarily dishonest, but it is out of date and it overstates your return.
Section 48E, the commercial credit, survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements. That is the only remaining route by which a 30 percent federal credit touches an Ogden rooftop, and the provider claims it rather than you.
What the case rests on now
Utah installed costs are among the lowest in the country at around $2.65 per watt, and the solar resource along the Wasatch Front is genuinely strong. Neither of those changed.
The return comes from the electricity you displace. Utah residential power has averaged around 13 cents per kWh, roughly 22 percent below the national figure, so each displaced kilowatt hour is worth less than it would be in a high-rate state.
And only part of your generation earns that rate. Under Schedule 137 Net Billing, exports earn about 4.855 cents per kWh in summer and 4.033 in winter as of March 1, 2026.
So the whole case is production times self-consumption share, at the retail rate, plus the remainder at the export credit. Both of those are modelled assumptions rather than published facts.
Where the diligence should go
Ask for the annual production estimate in kilowatt hours with the data source named and location-specific irradiance for your address. Ask what shading analysis was done and what it assumed about tree growth.
Ask what self-consumption share the model assumed and what it was based on. Ask to see the projection at a lower share so you can judge how sensitive the case is.
Ask which export credit rates were applied and whether summer and winter were treated separately. Utah generation is weighted toward summer, when the higher rate applies, so blending them understates or overstates depending on which way it was done.
Ask for the projection with the export credit reduced, since it is recalculated every March and existing customers move to the new rate. That is the part of the return nobody has guaranteed.
Rebuilding the estimate from current figures
Strike the Utah residential solar tax credit and the federal residential credit from any quote that shows either, since neither applies to a new cash or loan purchase.
Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so if that route is on the table, evaluate it as a rate and ask for the side-by-side against a cash purchase.
Rebuild from a production estimate you have interrogated, a stated self-consumption share, your actual retail rate, and the seasonal export credit applied separately.
Ask for that version in writing. With both credits gone, an unrevised template is the most likely source of an inflated number.