Quick definition
Under a buy-all sell-all arrangement, your solar panels don't power your home directly at all, at least not on paper. Every kWh they produce gets sold to the utility at whatever rate the program sets, and separately, every kWh your home uses gets bought from the utility at the normal retail rate.
This is different from net metering, where your solar production directly offsets your consumption and you're only billed for the net difference.
At a glance: buy-all sell-all is more common outside net metering states and provinces, and in some utility territories that have moved away from traditional net metering toward export-rate structures.
Why it matters
The economics of buy-all sell-all live or die on one number: the sell rate. If the utility pays close to the retail rate for exported solar power, buy-all sell-all can look similar to net metering. If the sell rate is set closer to a wholesale price, which is common in many programs, the math changes a lot; the definition NARUC's own review of state net metering and successor rate designs uses is exactly this: customers buy all consumption at retail rate and sell all generation at a separately set, commission-approved price. You could be selling solar power for a lower rate than you're simultaneously paying to buy power back.
Say a homeowner's system produces 30 kWh on a sunny day while the home uses 25 kWh that same day. Under net metering, that home would likely net out to a small credit. Under buy-all sell-all with a lower export rate, the homeowner sells all 30 kWh at the lower rate and buys back all 25 kWh at the full retail rate, which can end up costing more overall than net metering would have, even with identical production and consumption. To see Buy-all sell-all in a real example, the 25-year lifetime savings calculator in our Savings & Payback section applies it to a working system.
This is exactly why battery storage becomes more attractive under buy-all sell-all than it might be under generous net metering, a shift IRENA's own analysis of battery storage economics notes is happening across many markets moving away from favorable export credit. Storing solar power and using it directly at home avoids the sell-low, buy-back-high spread entirely, since that stored energy never has to pass through the utility's meter at all.
Where you'll see this
Before assuming which billing structure applies to you, the buy-all sell-all vs net metering comparison tool shows the real bill difference between the two structures using your actual production and usage numbers.
If your utility caps how much power you're allowed to export, the grid export cap calculator checks whether your system size fits within that limit. Once you know your specific rate structure, the solar savings calculator by utility rate models total savings using your actual buy and sell rates rather than a generic assumption.
This term comes up in interconnection applications, in utility rate schedules, and any time a solar quote in a non-net-metering territory explains how your bill credits will actually work.
Related terms
Frequently asked
It depends entirely on the sell rate the utility offers. Net metering typically credits solar production at or near the retail rate, which is usually more favorable. Buy-all sell-all sometimes pays a lower wholesale-style rate for exported power, which can make the economics noticeably worse than net metering in the same territory.
Often, yes. Because the utility is billing production and consumption as two separate transactions at potentially different rates, many buy-all sell-all programs require dual metering to track each direction independently, rather than the single bidirectional meter typical net metering uses.
It gives the utility more control over the rate paid for solar exports, separate from the retail rate charged to consumers. Some utilities and regulators have shifted toward buy-all sell-all or similar export-rate structures specifically to pay solar owners closer to wholesale value rather than full retail credit.
It can help significantly. If the sell rate for exported power is well below the retail rate you pay to buy it back, storing solar power in a battery and using it directly at home avoids that spread entirely, rather than selling low and buying high.