South Carolina
Solar in Charleston, SC: Costs, Savings, Incentives & Local Options
What Dominion and Berkeley Electric pay for your exports, what the City permit needs, and which Charleston guide answers your next question.
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Charleston solar at a glance
| Factor | Charleston, SC |
|---|---|
| Electric utility | Dominion Energy South Carolina for most of the city; Berkeley Electric Cooperative on parts of Johns Island and the outer islands. Check the address. |
| Electricity context | Dominion averaged 14.59¢/kWh for homes in 2024 and Berkeley Electric 14.93¢ (EIA-861). Dominion’s Rate 5 on-peak is 29.907¢ (4–8 p.m. in summer). |
| Export rules for a new system | Dominion Solar Choice: monthly netting by time-of-use period, $13.50 minimum bill, November payout at avoided cost. Berkeley Electric: 6.03¢/kWh. |
| Incentives | SC credit of 25% up to $3,500 a year (§12-6-3587). No federal homeowner credit after 2025. No City rebate found. |
| System considerations | 150 mph design wind, seismic category D2, very heavy termite risk, salt air near the harbour and marshes |
| Permitting | City Building Inspections, 2 George St; online via the Customer Self Service portal; sealed structural letter; BAR in historic districts |
| Battery relevance | High on Dominion Rate 5, where midday solar cannot offset the evening peak; lower on Berkeley Electric’s flat credit |
| Homes | Median year built 1994; 55.6% owner-occupied; median value $469,100 (ACS 2023 5-year) |
| Next step | Get Solar Options or start with the savings calculator |
Sources at the foot of the page, all retrieved 5 October 2026 unless marked.
Charleston solar guides, topic by topic
Each page goes deep on one decision. Start with cost or incentives if you are early; start with installation or installers if you already have a proposal.
Where Charleston is growing, and what that means for solar
The City of Charleston issued permits for 2,804 new homes and apartments in 2025, up from 742 in 2024, according to its January 2026 Fast Facts.
Daniel Island and Cainhoy took 1,307 of them and West Ashley 759; Johns Island, whose population more than doubled from 5,266 in 2010 to 11,884 in 2020, added 188.
New construction matters for solar because a roof planned with an array in mind avoids the structural letter surprises and re-roofing that older houses meet.
The older stock is a different job. The Peninsula holds about 37,000 residents on roughly 8 square miles, much of it inside the historic districts, where the Board of Architectural Review decides what can be seen from the street.
Citywide, the median home was built in 1994, so many West Ashley and James Island roofs are near or past their first replacement. Check the roof before signing anything: roof before solar.
Which Charleston utility serves you, and why it changes the answer
A new Dominion customer-generator goes on the Residential Solar Choice rider (PSC Order No. 2026-374), takes time-of-use Rate 5, and is limited to 20 kW AC.
Exports net monthly within each price period, so midday output in the off-peak window cannot cancel 4–8 p.m. summer use at 29.907¢. Credits never touch the basic facilities charge of $0.4274/day.
Systems that applied before 1 June 2021 keep legacy net metering until 31 May 2029.
Santee Cooper’s Johns Island transmission project says the island is served by both Berkeley Electric and Dominion, and Berkeley Electric calls its own boundary map approximate, so look the address up on the territory search.
A Berkeley Electric member files for the Renewable Surplus Rider ($150 application, $50 inspection) and cannot combine it with a time-of-day rate. The rest of the state’s export rules are compared on net metering in South Carolina.
How much solar a Charleston home might need
Size from your own twelve months of bills, not from the roof.
On Dominion, every kilowatt-hour you use at home is worth the Rate 5 price of its hour, while a kilowatt-hour banked to November is paid at avoided cost, so an array sized past your annual use earns little.
Berkeley Electric publishes its own ceiling: annual kWh ÷ 1,800, or average monthly kWh ÷ 150.
A home using the 2024 South Carolina average of 12,605 kWh (EIA-861) would be capped near 7.0 kW under that formula.
We have not published a Charleston production figure per kilowatt because we have not yet run NREL’s PVWatts for the city; ask any proposal to show its production model and inputs. System size calculator.
How we estimate solar savings for a Charleston bill
Savings on Dominion come in three parts, and a proposal should show each: kilowatt-hours used as they are produced (worth the Rate 5 price of that hour), surplus netted against lower-priced periods the same month, and any bank left in November paid at avoided cost.
The $13.50 minimum bill and the daily basic facilities charge stay whatever you produce. A proposal that multiplies annual production by an average price overstates the result under this rider.
Run your own bill through the savings calculator or the net billing calculator.
What solar costs in Charleston before the panels
The City bills a solar permit as a residential alteration on the total contract price: $15 for the first $1,000, $5 for each further $1,000, a plan review of half that, and a $40 application fee on both the building permit and the electrical sub-permit.
On a $25,000 example contract that totals $282.50. Dominion’s residential solar chart lists a $100 interconnection application fee. The full arithmetic, three scenarios and the costs proposals leave out are on solar cost in Charleston.
Which solar incentives apply in Charleston
For a homeowner the list is short. The state credit pays back 25% of a system you own over one or more tax years; the federal §25D credit is closed; Dominion and Berkeley Electric offer export credit, not rebates; and we found no City of Charleston or Charleston County homeowner rebate.
Santee Cooper’s $0.95-per-watt rebate applies only to Santee Cooper’s own retail customers, so check the name on your bill before counting on it.
Details and the verification table are on solar incentives in Charleston, and the credit itself on the SC solar tax credit.
Charleston’s historic districts and solar panels
The Board of Architectural Review’s policy statement for solar collectors applies in the Old and Historic District and the Old City District.
On buildings rated Category 1 or 2, collectors “shall not be visible from the public right-of-way”; Category 3, 4 and unrated buildings may be allowed some visibility.
Rear slopes, positions behind parapets and accessory buildings are preferred, panels should sit no more than 8 inches above the roof at its pitch, and conduit is painted to match.
The City’s permit checklist requires the BAR application up front, so a historic-district job starts with a design the Board will accept. How that fits the permit sequence: solar panel installation in Charleston.
Charleston roofs, wind and flood: what the City requires
The City’s design criteria under the 2021 South Carolina Building Codes set a 150 mph design wind speed and seismic category D2, which is why every residential solar permit needs a structural letter, report or plan sealed by a South Carolina design professional.
NOAA recorded about 24 damaging wind events a year in Charleston County from 2015 to 2025 and 21 tornadoes, against 61 hail reports with none of 2 inches or more.
Flood rules matter for equipment placed on walls and in garages. The City requires 2 feet of freeboard above base flood elevation for new construction and 1 foot for residential substantial improvements, and the county flood map in force is dated 29 January 2021.
Ask the installer where the inverter, disconnect and any battery will sit relative to your base flood elevation. Storm and service questions are on solar repair in Charleston.
Battery storage on a Charleston bill
Dominion’s Rate 5 charges 29.907¢ on-peak against 15.074¢ off-peak, so each kilowatt-hour a battery moves from midday into the summer evening window is worth roughly the 14.833¢ difference before losses.
Solar Choice counts a battery as part of the system only if it charges solely from your panels. Only 1.88% of South Carolina solar systems had a battery in 2024 (EIA-861).
Worked numbers, and why Berkeley Electric members see different math: solar battery storage in Charleston.
Paying for solar in Charleston
Cash, a solar loan or home equity keep you the owner, which the state credit requires.
South Carolina bars a third party from selling you power from panels on your roof, so no power purchase agreement is legal here; leases are allowed from lessors certified by the Office of Regulatory Staff, but a lessee cannot claim the 25% credit.
With a median owner-occupied home value of $469,100 in the 2023 ACS, many Charleston owners have equity to borrow against, which brings its own risks. Comparisons and payment arithmetic: solar financing in Charleston.
Residential and commercial solar in Charleston
A business on Dominion does not use the residential rider. Dominion’s non-residential chart puts small general service customers on Solar Choice with time-of-use Rate 16 up to 1,000 kW, and offers PR-1 buy-all/sell-all up to 100 kW, a standard offer above that, and Offset Only.
The City permits commercial arrays on the same contract-price table with lower marginal rates above $100,000. More on commercial solar in Charleston.
Questions to ask before hiring a Charleston installer
Ask in writing and keep the answers with the contract.
A “Solar Panel Installer” registration may not install roof mounting or framing, per the City’s own permit guidance.
Dominion Solar Choice and Berkeley Electric’s Renewable Surplus Rider pay very differently.
The City will not issue the permit without it.
Get the cancellation terms for a refused design in the contract.
Wall-mounted inverters and batteries in a ground-floor garage are the usual question.
The City’s permitting guidance requires one.
We do not rank or name installers. How to check one: solar installers in Charleston and South Carolina installer licensing.
Questions
Is solar worth it in Charleston, SC?
Does Dominion Energy still offer net metering in Charleston?
Am I on Dominion or Berkeley Electric in Charleston?
Do I need permission for solar in Charleston’s historic district?
How much is a solar permit in the City of Charleston?
Can I get a solar PPA in Charleston?
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