Rebates and incentives, Missouri
No state tax credit, but retail-rate net metering for self-consumption still makes a real difference, and property tax now comes down to your county assessor's discretion. See your numbers.
How it works
Step 1
Since excess power pays much less than retail and credits expire after 12 months, oversizing tends to waste value rather than build up a bank of credits.
Step 2
These per-watt rebates are funded annually and fill up fast. Use the rebate deadline tracker to stay on top of application windows if one is currently available.
Step 3
There's no statutory exemption to rely on, so this is a discretionary call. Use the property tax exemption savings calculator for a longer-term projection once you confirm how your assessor treats systems like yours.
Missouri does not offer a state income tax credit for solar, and most current sources also indicate no statewide sales tax exemption, which sets Missouri apart from a state like Illinois that layers on more state-level financial incentives. This puts more weight on your federal eligibility and the net metering and property tax mechanics covered below. Check your federal ITC status to see exactly where that stands for 2026.
Under Missouri's Net Metering and Easy Connection Act, your solar production first offsets your own usage at the full retail rate, so you effectively only pay for the net difference between what you use and what you generate. Any power you export beyond your own usage, though, is credited at a much lower avoided cost rate, commonly around 2 to 4 cents per kWh, with Ameren customers seeing a seasonal split between roughly 3.9 and 5.4 cents. Any unused credits typically expire after 12 months, which means oversizing your system well beyond your household's needs tends to waste value rather than bank it for later.
Evergy and Empire District Electric, now operating under the Liberty Utilities name, have both offered per-watt rebates historically, up to around $0.25 per watt in some cycles. These programs are funded annually and often exhaust their budgets before the year is out, so treat any rebate figure you see online as provisional until you confirm current availability directly. Check the rebate deadline tracker to stay on top of open windows. Borrowing shifts when you pay, and the combined loan and rebate timing tool lays out the payments behind that shift.
Missouri did have a statutory solar property tax exemption, under RSMo 137.100(10), enacted in 2013. It's gone. In Johnson v. Springfield Solar 1, LLC, decided August 9, 2022, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously struck that exemption down as unconstitutional, since the state constitution limits property tax exemptions to a specific enumerated list that doesn't include solar. There is no statutory exemption today, so any guide describing a guaranteed statewide exemption is outdated. What actually happens now is a matter of assessor discretion: per the State Tax Commission's own post-ruling guidance, a residential rooftop system is typically treated as a fixture of the home, meaning its value gets folded into your overall property assessment rather than taxed as a separate line item, similar in practical effect to an exemption, though not one guaranteed by statute. Confirm directly with your county assessor how your specific system will be assessed, since this is a discretionary call rather than a fixed rule.
With your rebate total in hand, the combined loan and rebate timing tool shows the monthly payment on the amount you still need to borrow. For the source behind this number, see the Johnson v. Springfield Solar 1, LLC.
Questions
No. Missouri does not have a state income tax credit for residential solar, and most current sources also indicate no statewide sales tax exemption, which sets Missouri apart from neighboring states like Illinois that offer more state-level financial incentives. Missouri's main draw is retail-rate net metering for self-consumed power instead, since the state's statutory property tax exemption was struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2022.
Under the state's Net Metering and Easy Connection Act, your solar production first offsets your own usage at the full retail rate, so you only pay for the difference. Any excess power exported beyond your own usage is credited at a much lower avoided cost rate, commonly around 2 to 4 cents per kWh depending on your utility. Unused credits typically expire after 12 months, so oversizing your system well beyond your usage can leave value on the table.
Sometimes, but they're limited and fill up quickly. Evergy and Empire District Electric (now part of Liberty Utilities) have both offered per-watt rebates in the past, historically up to around $0.25 per watt. These programs are funded annually and often exhaust their budget well before the year ends, so check current availability directly rather than assuming a rebate will be there when you're ready to install.
No, not as a matter of statute. Missouri's exemption under RSMo 137.100(10), enacted in 2013, was struck down as unconstitutional by the Missouri Supreme Court in Johnson v. Springfield Solar 1, LLC on August 9, 2022. Any guide describing a guaranteed statewide exemption is outdated. In practice, county assessors now have discretion in how they treat solar equipment, and the State Tax Commission's own guidance describes a typical residential rooftop system as a fixture of the home whose value is folded into the overall property assessment rather than taxed separately, which can look similar to an exemption in effect. Confirm directly with your county assessor how your system will be treated.