Solar Panels in Cleveland, OH: 2026 Cost, The Illuminating Company Net Metering & Savings

Cleveland and the bill

The Illuminating Company, a FirstEnergy utility, serves Cleveland. AEP Ohio does not. Net metering follows that company's PUCO tariff. Cleveland has lake cloud and snow. The resource is among the lower Ohio figures we use. Steep roofs shed snow. The Illuminating Company's credit is not AEP's. Older city houses may have small planes and old services. Suburban roofs east and west of the city are often simpler. The 2025 EIA residential average for Ohio was 16.90 cents per kWh. That statewide figure is what our calculator uses. It is not the The Illuminating Company tariff. A rounded solar resource for this metro is about 3.9 peak sun hours a day.

Export credits and any SREC or REC

The Illuminating Company sets the export credit for Cleveland. AEP Ohio, the FirstEnergy companies (Toledo Edison, Ohio Edison, and The Illuminating Company), Duke Energy Ohio, and AES Ohio do not share a rider. Ohio-sited SRECs can be registered. Prices there have often been lower than in Maryland or Pennsylvania, and they still move, so no dollar figure is printed here. Ask for the current rider name and, if the bid counts credits, the contract that actually pays them.

Roofs, climate, permits, and HOAs

Doubles, bungalows, and colonials. Doubles need a clear answer on who owns the roof. Detached houses are simpler. A Cleveland permit comes from the local building department, not from The Illuminating Company. An HOA can add its own review. This page does not quote a OH permit fee or an approval, because both depend on the address. Use the Illuminating Company rider. Show winter in the model. Do not import a Columbus AEP savings chart.

Estimated cost range

Estimated cost range for Cleveland, 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. Cleveland is about 3.9 peak sun hours a day, against about 4.0 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.