Latest EnergySage report shows more homeowners going solar, despite loss of ITC

The federal tax credit for buying home solar systems is gone, but new data covering the first half of 2026 shows homeowners are still going solar, largely because financing options are picking up some of the slack. Solar prices rose about 3% and solar-plus-storage prices rose 5% over the past year, which the report ties to higher labor costs rather than equipment. Even so, third-party ownership plans, where a company owns the system and you pay for the power or lease the equipment instead of buying it outright, have become far more common. About 41% of homeowners shopping on EnergySage were quoted these plans, up from 14% six months earlier. Pre-paid lease-to-own deals offered the biggest savings, running 39 to 57% cheaper than paying cash, and solar power-purchase agreements cost less than utility electricity rates in every state that offers them, with the deepest discounts in California and Illinois.

Battery storage interest hit a record high, with 76% of shoppers saying they want it, though only 31% actually installed one, likely because of the upfront cost. Interest is being driven by changing utility rate structures, including time-of-use pricing, fixed charges, and cuts to net metering (the credit you get for power your panels send back to the grid), all of which make storing your own power more valuable. Rate changes vary a lot by state, so what storage or solar actually saves you depends on your local utility's rules.