Texas Solar Buyback Plans: Get Paid for Your Panels
Rooftop solar in Texas is a math problem with a twist: your electric plan determines whether your panels earn you money or just lower your grid usage. The difference is a solar buyback plan — a retail offer that credits you for the excess kilowatt-hours you send back to the grid. Not all buyback plans are created equal, and the wrong one can turn a five-figure solar investment into a worse deal than a plain fixed rate.
How solar billing works in ERCOT
Your smart meter tracks two numbers: import (grid to home) and export (home to grid). On a standard retail plan, export is ignored — you get no credit for it. On a buyback plan, the provider applies a credit rate ($/kWh) to your exports that offsets your import charges. The delivery portion of your bill (TDU charges) is never avoided on export — only the energy (supply) portion. So the buyback rate usually applies only to the supply component, and often with a cap (e.g., up to your total import for the month, or up to the kWh imported for the specific bill period).
The one-word fork: real-time vs. avoided-cost
Almost every solar buyback plan in Texas falls into one of two buckets:
- Real-time wholesale buyback. You get credited at the ERCOT market settlement price each 15-minute interval. When wholesale prices spike (summer afternoons), your credits can be generous. When they crater (mild spring days with lots of wind), credits can be fractions of a cent. This pairs well with batteries and smart load management but can feel like gambling if you lack storage.
- Avoided-cost buyback. A fixed or formula-based credit often tied to the provider's estimated cost of generation (e.g., "our blended cost of power" or a published index). More predictable, usually lower than peak wholesale but higher than troughs. The simpler option for most homes.
Some plans offer a fixed buyback rate (e.g., 5¢/kWh) independent of market conditions — rare but valuable if you can find one.
Where it gets tricky: TDU and size limits
Most buyback plans require you to be on specific TDU territories (Oncor and CenterPoint are the most commonly supported). Small residential-only plans may cap your system size (often 25 kW), which matters for larger arrays. Read the plan's EFL or terms of service looking for: buyback credit expiration, rollover rules (do credits carry month-to-month or expire?), and any minimum import requirements (some plans void the buyback rate if you export more than you import in a month).
How to compare buyback offers on this site
Our solar buyback plans are labeled in the comparison table. To compare fairly: set the usage slider to your net grid import — not your total consumption, but the kWh you actually draw from the grid after solar offsets. (A typical solar home might import 400–700 kWh/month, exporting the rest.) Then rank by estimated bill. The plan that looks best at your net import, with a buyback credit applied at your typical export, wins. We do not model the credit automatically; you'll need to mentally subtract it from the estimated bill if the plan description confirms a buyback rate. We flag these plans so you know to do that arithmetic.
The battery multiplier
A home with storage (a Powerwall or similar) can shift solar exports into peak-price hours, making real-time wholesale buyback far more lucrative. If you have storage, prioritize real-time or time-of-use buyback plans; treat avoided-cost plans as the fallback.
Bottom line
Solar buyback in Texas makes your panels a two-way deal, but only the right plan converts export into real savings. Match the buyback type to whether you have batteries, check your TDU compatibility, and always compare the estimated bill at your actual net import — not at 1,000 kWh — before choosing. A standard fixed plan that ignores export can still beat a bad buyback plan, so don't assume "solar plan" equals better.