Solar by state
Solar in Delaware, by the numbers
Utilities and their rates, adoption, ten years of growth, batteries, ownership, state rules and installer licensing in Delaware, from federal 2024 data.
Delaware in brief
2.98% of Delaware homes had rooftop solar in 2024, the 16th-highest of 51 (3.55% nationally). Power cost 16.57¢/kWh, above the national 16.48¢, and the average system was 7.67 kW. Delmarva Power serves 64.3% of homes.
Where does Delaware stand out?
The four measures, beyond price and adoption, on which Delaware sits furthest from the middle of the ranking.
Delaware solar in numbers, 2024
Every Delaware figure next to the national one, with its place in the ranking (highest first, out of the jurisdictions reporting it).
| Measure | Delaware | United States | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes with a metered rooftop system | 2.98% | 3.55% | 16th-highest of 51 |
| Rooftop systems counted | 14,087 | 5,077,543 | 15th-lowest of 51 |
| Average system size | 7.67 kW | 6.74 kW | 21st-highest of 51 |
| Residential price | 16.57¢/kWh | 16.48¢/kWh | 17th-highest of 51 |
| Average monthly bill | $150.87 | $142.26 | 14th-highest of 51 |
| Use per home | 10,928 kWh/yr | 10,359 kWh/yr | 24th-highest of 51 |
| Systems with a battery | 0.02% | 5.86% | 5th-lowest of 47 |
| Leased or on a PPA | 26.7% | 29.1% | 13th-highest of 38 |
| Growth in systems, five years | 12.5% a year | — | 6th-lowest of 51 |
| Minutes without power per customer | 118 | 297 (median state) | 8th-lowest of 51 |
| Homes on a time-varying rate | 55.5% | 11.1% | 2nd-highest of 51 |
| Installed rooftop capacity | 108.1 MW | 34,226 MW | — |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861, 2024 final release, retrieved 2 September 2026. The Delaware ratios and ranks are HyreSolar calculations from EIA inputs.
Which utility serves Delaware, and what does it charge?
The 6 largest utilities selling to Delaware homes, by residential customers, with the price full-service customers paid and how many run net-metered solar.
| Utility | Type | Homes served | Price per kWh | Use per home, monthly | Net-metered systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delmarva Power | Investor-owned; wires, 91% on its own supply | 301,950 (64.3%) | 17.23¢ | 880 kWh | 9,678 (3.2%) |
| Delaware Electric Cooperative | Co-op | 104,839 (22.3%) | 14.22¢ | 1,031 kWh | 3,111 (3.0%) |
| City of Dover | Municipal | 21,601 (4.6%) | 15.52¢ | 814 kWh | 540 (2.5%) |
| City of Newark | Municipal | 11,888 (2.5%) | 18.99¢ | 692 kWh | 199 (1.7%) |
| Town of Middletown | Municipal | 9,071 (1.9%) | 17.12¢ | 924 kWh | 342 (3.8%) |
| City of Milford | Municipal | 7,169 (1.5%) | 15.17¢ | 930 kWh | 217 (3.0%) |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 2024, Sales to Ultimate Customers and Net Metering, utility level, retrieved 5 October 2026. Shares are of 469,772 Delaware residential accounts. Each Delaware price is residential revenue divided by sales for full-service customers (HyreSolar calculation); a wires company’s price is its default-service price.
What do the Delaware utility figures mean for a solar quote?
EIA-861 lists 6 utilities serving homes in Delaware in 2024, across 469,772 residential accounts. The three largest, Delmarva Power, Delaware Electric Cooperative and City of Dover, served 91.2% of those homes. By ownership: investor-owned utilities 64.3%, electric cooperatives 22.3%, municipal utilities 10.6% and small utilities EIA counts as a group 2.8%.
27,160 Delaware homes (5.8%) bought their energy from 28 competitive suppliers, while the local utility kept delivering it. On a supplier, the energy price on your bill is the supplier’s, so price a solar quote against your own bill rather than the utility prices in the table.
Delmarva Power, the largest, served 301,950 Delaware homes (64.3%). Its full-service residential customers paid 17.23¢ per kWh, above the Delaware average of 16.57¢, and used 880 kWh a month on average. 9,678 of its customers ran net-metered rooftop solar, 3.2% of its homes against 2.98% statewide.
Among the 6 Delaware utilities with at least 5,000 residential customers and a full-service price, the price ran from 14.22¢ at Delaware Electric Cooperative to 18.99¢ at City of Newark.
At the Delaware average of 10,928 kWh a year, that 4.77¢ gap is worth about $521 a year (our arithmetic), so the same system offsets more money in one territory than the other.
Price a quote on your own utility’s rate, not the 16.57¢ Delaware average.
Rooftop solar is concentrated: Delmarva Power alone accounts for 9,678 net-metered residential systems, about 69% of the 14,087 counted in Delaware, and 6 Delaware utilities reported any at all. The highest adoption among the larger utilities was at Town of Middletown, where 3.8% of homes had a system.
What does power cost in Delaware, and why does it matter?
Residential electricity in Delaware averaged 16.57¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2024, the 17th-highest of 51 and above the national 16.48¢. The price sits above the middle of the 51, which tilts the arithmetic toward using production on site rather than exporting it.
The average Delaware household bill was $150.87 a month ($1,810 a year), the 14th-highest of 51, against $142.26 nationally. That $1,810 is the ceiling on what solar could save a typical Delaware home, before fixed monthly charges.
In Delaware, 55.5% of homes were on a time-varying rate in 2024.
On those rates the hour you use or export power changes its value, so ask for a proposal modeled on your own tariff.
93.6% of Delaware residential meters were smart meters (83.8% nationally), and a time-varying rate needs one. How time-of-use changes solar.
How many Delaware homes have solar?
Delaware had 14,087 rooftop systems on net metering in 2024, across 473,508 residential accounts: 2.98% of homes, the 16th-highest of 51. Adoption in Delaware sits above the middle of the 51, so there is a working installer market to choose between.
The Delaware market counted 1,126 more systems in 2024 than in 2023 and has grown 12.5% a year over five years, the 6th-lowest of 51. Where growth has turned nationally.
How has Delaware solar changed since 2014?
Delaware counted 1,950 net-metered rooftop systems in 2014 and 14,087 in 2024, 7.2 times as many. The share of homes with one moved from 0.48% to 2.98%. The biggest one-year addition came in 2016, with 2,147 more systems than the year before.
| Year | Rooftop systems | Share of homes | Average size | Residential price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 1,950 | 0.48% | 6.3 kW | 13.29¢ |
| 2016 | 5,037 | 1.20% | 7.3 kW | 13.42¢ |
| 2018 | 7,219 | 1.67% | 7.4 kW | 12.53¢ |
| 2020 | 8,241 | 1.85% | 7.6 kW | 12.56¢ |
| 2022 | 11,017 | 2.39% | 7.6 kW | 13.71¢ |
| 2024 | 14,087 | 2.98% | 7.7 kW | 16.57¢ |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 annual files 2014–2024, net-metered residential systems, retrieved 2 September 2026. Delaware shares and sizes are HyreSolar calculations.
What does the Delaware trend mean for a savings estimate?
Over the same years the Delaware residential price went from 13.29¢ to 16.57¢ per kWh, up 25%, and the average system from 6.3 kW to 7.7 kW. With Delaware prices up 25% across ten years, a savings estimate that assumes steep yearly rate rises is assuming more than this record shows.
How big is a typical Delaware system?
The average Delaware system was 7.67 kW in 2024, the 21st-highest of 51, against 6.74 kW nationally. Delaware homes used 10,928 kilowatt-hours a year each, the 24th-highest of 51.
A Delaware home using 10,928 kWh is an average, not a design input: size from your own twelve months of bills and usable roof with cost by system size and the system size calculator.
Who owns the systems in Delaware?
In Delaware, 26.7% of systems were third-party owned in 2024: leased, or on a power purchase agreement (PPA), rather than owned by the household. That is the 13th-highest of 38, against 29.1% nationally.
Leases and power purchase agreements are a large share of the Delaware market, so expect one to be offered alongside a purchase. Whoever owns a Delaware system claims any tax credit on it: Section 48E explained.
Do Delaware homes add batteries?
In Delaware, 0.02% of solar systems were paired with a battery in 2024 (3 systems), the 5th-lowest of 47. Delaware’s share is well under half the national 5.86%.
On reliability, the average Delaware customer went 118 minutes without power in 2024 counting major storms, and 67 minutes without them. The median state saw 297. Outages in every state.
Whether a battery pays in Delaware turns on your utility’s export credit and your own outage history: what a home battery does.
How do you check a solar company’s license in Delaware?
We found no dedicated state register for solar work in Delaware, so we publish no company counts. That is not evidence of light regulation: electrical work can be licensed at state or local level even where solar is never named.
With 14,087 systems in Delaware, the company quoting you may be based out of state. Ask which license it holds, in which state, and confirm it with that authority. What to do when the search comes back empty.
Which states are closest to Delaware on adoption?
The six jurisdictions nearest to Delaware’s 2.98% share of homes with rooftop solar.
Where do the Delaware numbers come from?
The Delaware figures are HyreSolar calculations from the Form EIA-861 annual files: 14,087 net-metered residential systems counted against 473,508 residential accounts, sizes as means, and 6 utility-level rows for the utility table, matched to net-metering records by EIA utility number.
The method and limits cover all 51; the Delaware row is in the data as a CSV.
No Delaware figure here is an estimate for one home: your roof, usage, utility tariff and tax position decide that.
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Questions
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