Solar in Tennessee: how the rules work
How Tennessee credits the power solar panels send back to the grid, what homes there pay for electricity, and what to check when a home with solar is bought or sold.
How exported power is credited
There is no single statewide rule; each utility sets its own terms for exported power.
Tennessee has no net metering law, and TVA sets wholesale terms. TVA ended its Green Power Providers buyback in 2019, leaving export compensation to each local power company: some pay nothing for exports, others run their own programs. The largest, Nashville Electric Service, uses NESolar Savings (guidelines dated 10/2024). On-site use offsets retail, and only net excess flowing onto the grid is purchased. The purchase rate is 3.069 cents/kWh in summer, 3.197 in winter and 3.244 in transition months, plus TVA's monthly fuel cost adjustment (2.515 cents in Sept 2026), for about 5.6-5.8 cents/kWh. NES's residential energy rate is 9.254 cents base plus the FCA, about 11.77 cents/kWh, so the share is about 5.7/11.77 = 0.48. Eligibility: on-site PV up to 250 kW, not over 100% of annual usage, with at least 50 kWh average monthly excess. The program is capped at 10 MW first-come; current remaining capacity was not confirmed. The alternative NESolar Connect is interconnection without compensation. All customers pay the NES service charge plus a Grid Access Charge ($4.50-$7.88/month). No grandfathering dates were found.
What changes for a home with solar
What a system saves depends on which utility serves the address, so two similar homes in the same state can see very different results.
Electricity here costs about 13.9¢ per kWh (2026) and has risen about 1.9% a year over the last decade. A lease or PPA escalator above that pace makes the solar payment rise faster than utility rates have.
When a home with solar is sold in Tennessee
- Owned outright: proof it is paid off, the warranties, and the utility’s interconnection or net-metering agreement, which has to move into the buyer’s name.
- Loan: a payoff letter, and whether the buyer can assume the loan. Many solar loans are secured by a UCC-1 fixture filing that title will find.
- Lease or PPA: the transfer process and how long approval takes, the buyer’s credit check, the current payment or rate and its yearly increase, and a buyout quote.
- Every case: whether the export-credit terms above stay with the home after the sale, and the last 12 months of production from the monitoring app.
Have the solar contract for a Tennessee home?
Upload it and get a letter-graded report card: price, production, payment changes, value and transfer terms, measured against Tennessee’s rates and rules.
Grade a solar contractSources
- www.nespower.com/-/media/project/nes/common/pdfs/nesolar-savings/nesolar-guidelines---1020 (2024-10)
- www.nespower.com/rates/ (2026-09)
- wpln.org/post/nes-plots-future-for-solar-beyond-tva/
- Electricity prices: EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B (2026) and EIA state annual averages 2014–2024
- Installed price: EnergySage marketplace, September 2026