Solar Panels in Tampa, FL: 2026 Cost, Tampa Electric Net Metering & Savings

Tampa and the bill

Tampa Electric is the investor-owned utility for most of Tampa. Hillsborough addresses just outside TECO territory should not assume the same rider. The bill, not the city limit sign, identifies the company. Tampa's solar question is a cooling bill plus a coastal roof. Summer afternoons are humid and stormy, so production is strong on clear days and interrupted when thunderheads build. That pattern does not show up in a single annual sun-hour number. Owners near the bay also think about wind and about insurance in a way a Lakeland bill does not. TECO's export rules are TECO's, not Florida's. A proposal that says 'Florida net metering' without the rider name is unfinished. The 2025 EIA residential average for Florida was 15.21 cents per kWh. That statewide figure is what our calculator uses. It is not the Tampa Electric tariff. A rounded solar resource for this metro is about 5.2 peak sun hours a day.

Export credits and any SREC or REC

Tampa Electric serves Tampa, and Florida does not have one export credit for the state. Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric, and municipal utilities such as OUC, JEA, Lakeland Electric, and the City of Tallahassee each publish their own rider. A neighboring city can be a different company. There is no Florida SREC price to put next to the bill. The proposal has to name the rider. Wind design follows the Florida Building Code and is stricter on exposed coasts than inland. An array is not a storm shelter and it is not an insurance promise.

Roofs, climate, permits, and HOAs

The housing mix runs from bungalows in older neighborhoods to newer inland subdivisions and a lot of tile roofs. Tile and flat commercial-style roofs need different flashing details. Many roofs are old enough that a reroof should be priced before the array, not discovered when the crew lifts the first tile. Shade from mature oaks is common on older lots and almost absent on new ones. A Tampa permit comes from the local building department, not from Tampa Electric. An HOA can add its own review. This page does not quote a FL permit fee or an approval, because both depend on the address.

Estimated cost range

Estimated cost range for Tampa, labeled as an estimate and not a local quote: Berkeley Lab's August 2026 update put 2025 host-owned residential systems at about $3.60 per watt before incentives, about $3.00 per watt in the cash subset, and about $4.50 per watt in the loan subset. The median size in that set was 7.7 kW. Tampa is about 5.2 peak sun hours a day, against about 5.2 statewide. The federal residential credit under 26 U.S.C. § 25D ended for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025. The IRS treats that expenditure as made when the original installation is completed.

• Cash

  $3.00/W

  $23,100

  Subset classified as cash

• Middle published case

  $3.60/W

  $27,720

  All host-owned systems

• Loan

  $4.50/W

  $34,650

  Financed subset, before interest

Before incentives. A loan price here excludes interest. The federal residential credit under section 25D ended for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025. Berkeley Lab, U.S. Distributed Solar and Storage, August 2026 data update.