Solar in Indiana, by the numbers

What do the Indiana utility figures mean for a solar quote?

EIA-861 lists 45 utilities serving homes in Indiana in 2024, across 3,056,214 residential accounts. The three largest, Duke Energy Indiana, LLC, AES Indiana and Northern Indiana Public Service Company, served 55.5% of those homes. By ownership: investor-owned utilities 73.7%, electric cooperatives 16.4%, small utilities EIA counts as a group 5.2% and municipal utilities 4.8%.

All 3,056,214 Indiana residential accounts bought energy from the utility that delivers it; EIA counted none on a competitive supplier. So a Indiana utility’s own tariff sets both the price you avoid and the credit for what you export.

Duke Energy Indiana, LLC, the largest, served 796,265 Indiana homes (26.1%). Its full-service residential customers paid 12.75¢ per kWh, below the Indiana average of 14.77¢, and used 943 kWh a month on average. 4,059 of its customers ran net-metered rooftop solar, 0.51% of its homes against 0.36% statewide.

Among the 43 Indiana utilities with at least 5,000 residential customers and a full-service price, the price ran from 8.52¢ at City of Auburn to 19.09¢ at Northern Indiana Public Service Company.

At the Indiana average of 10,814 kWh a year, that 10.57¢ gap is worth about $1,143 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 14.77¢ Indiana average.

Rooftop solar is concentrated: Duke Energy Indiana, LLC alone accounts for 4,059 net-metered residential systems, about 37% of the 11,045 counted in Indiana, and 34 Indiana utilities reported any at all. The highest adoption among the larger utilities was at South Central Indiana REMC, where 0.77% of homes had a system.

What does power cost in Indiana, and why does it matter?

Residential electricity in Indiana averaged 14.77¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2024, the 25th-lowest of 51 and below the national 16.48¢. The price sits near the middle of the 51. With the retail rate unremarkable, what your utility pays for exported power can decide the result.

The average Indiana household bill was $133.06 a month ($1,597 a year), the 24th-lowest of 51, against $142.26 nationally. That $1,597 is the ceiling on what solar could save a typical Indiana home, before fixed monthly charges.

Only 3.2% of Indiana homes were on a time-varying rate in 2024 (11.1% nationally), so a flat rate is the likely starting point. 80.5% of Indiana residential meters were smart meters (83.8% nationally), and a time-varying rate needs one. How time-of-use changes solar.

How many Indiana homes have solar?

Indiana had 11,045 rooftop systems on net metering in 2024, across 3,056,216 residential accounts: 0.36% of homes, the 7th-lowest of 51. Indiana is one of the least developed rooftop markets in the country. Expect few local installers and a permit office with little solar experience, and allow time for both.

The Indiana market counted 657 more systems in 2024 than in 2023 and has grown 25.4% a year over five years, the 24th-highest of 51. Where growth has turned nationally.

What does the Indiana trend mean for a savings estimate?

Over the same years the Indiana residential price went from 11.46¢ to 14.77¢ per kWh, up 29%, and the average system from 5.7 kW to 8.7 kW. A rate that has risen that far makes a 2024 bill a conservative base for a Indiana savings estimate only if the trend continues, which nobody can promise.

How big is a typical Indiana system?

The average Indiana system was 8.69 kW in 2024, the 8th-highest of 51, against 6.74 kW nationally. Indiana homes used 10,814 kilowatt-hours a year each, the 25th-highest of 51.

A Indiana home using 10,814 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 Indiana?

In Indiana, 0.0% 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 3rd-lowest of 38, against 29.1% nationally.

Nearly every Indiana system is owned by the household. A lease or power purchase agreement would be unusual here, which is a reason to read one closely. Whoever owns a Indiana system claims any tax credit on it: Section 48E explained.

Do Indiana homes add batteries?

In Indiana, 5.69% of solar systems were paired with a battery in 2024 (629 systems), the 9th-highest of 47. Indiana’s share is below the national 5.86%.

On reliability, the average Indiana customer went 310 minutes without power in 2024 counting major storms, and 123 minutes without them. The median state saw 297. Outages in every state.

Whether a battery pays in Indiana 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 Indiana?

We found no dedicated state register for solar work in Indiana, 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 11,045 systems in Indiana, 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.

Where do the Indiana numbers come from?

The Indiana figures are HyreSolar calculations from the Form EIA-861 annual files: 11,045 net-metered residential systems counted against 3,056,216 residential accounts, sizes as means, and 45 utility-level rows for the utility table, matched to net-metering records by EIA utility number.

The method and limits cover all 51; the Indiana row is in the data as a CSV.

No Indiana figure here is an estimate for one home: your roof, usage, utility tariff and tax position decide that.