Solar by state
Solar in Kentucky, by the numbers
Utilities and their rates, adoption, ten years of growth, batteries, ownership, state rules and installer licensing in Kentucky, from federal 2024 data.
Kentucky in brief
0.48% of Kentucky homes had rooftop solar in 2024, the 10th-lowest of 51 (3.55% nationally). Power cost 12.79¢/kWh, below the national 16.48¢, and the average system was 7.71 kW. Kentucky Utilities Company serves 21.7% of homes.
Where does Kentucky stand out?
The four measures, beyond price and adoption, on which Kentucky sits furthest from the middle of the ranking.
Kentucky solar in numbers, 2024
Every Kentucky figure next to the national one, with its place in the ranking (highest first, out of the jurisdictions reporting it).
| Measure | Kentucky | United States | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes with a metered rooftop system | 0.48% | 3.55% | 10th-lowest of 51 |
| Rooftop systems counted | 10,069 | 5,077,543 | 13th-lowest of 51 |
| Average system size | 7.71 kW | 6.74 kW | 19th-highest of 51 |
| Residential price | 12.79¢/kWh | 16.48¢/kWh | 12th-lowest of 51 |
| Average monthly bill | $133.81 | $142.26 | 26th-highest of 51 |
| Use per home | 12,558 kWh/yr | 10,359 kWh/yr | 12th-highest of 51 |
| Systems with a battery | 4.73% | 5.86% | 10th-highest of 47 |
| Leased or on a PPA | Not reported | 29.1% | No figure |
| Growth in systems, five years | 46.9% a year | — | 6th-highest of 51 |
| Minutes without power per customer | 538 | 297 (median state) | 16th-highest of 51 |
| Homes on a time-varying rate | 0.33% | 11.1% | 13th-lowest of 51 |
| Installed rooftop capacity | 77.7 MW | 34,226 MW | — |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861, 2024 final release, retrieved 2 September 2026. The Kentucky ratios and ranks are HyreSolar calculations from EIA inputs.
Which utility serves Kentucky, and what does it charge?
The 8 largest utilities selling to Kentucky 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky Utilities Company | Investor-owned | 450,673 (21.7%) | 11.85¢ | 1,097 kWh | 2,400 (0.53%) |
| Louisville Gas & Electric Company | Investor-owned | 384,902 (18.5%) | 12.28¢ | 911 kWh | 2,947 (0.77%) |
| Duke Energy Kentucky | Investor-owned | 139,405 (6.7%) | 13.44¢ | 889 kWh | 956 (0.69%) |
| Kentucky Power Company | Investor-owned | 130,852 (6.3%) | 15.07¢ | 1,183 kWh | 290 (0.22%) |
| South Kentucky Rural E C C | Co-op | 64,877 (3.1%) | 12.92¢ | 1,006 kWh | 154 (0.24%) |
| Owen Electric Co-op | Co-op | 63,984 (3.1%) | 12.55¢ | 1,108 kWh | 433 (0.68%) |
| Warren Rural Electric Co-op Corporation | Co-op | 60,701 (2.9%) | 11.98¢ | 1,262 kWh | None reported |
| Blue Grass Energy Co-op Corporation | Co-op | 60,641 (2.9%) | 12.32¢ | 1,167 kWh | 492 (0.81%) |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 2024, Sales to Ultimate Customers and Net Metering, utility level, retrieved 5 October 2026. Shares are of 2,077,215 Kentucky residential accounts. Each Kentucky 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 Kentucky utility figures mean for a solar quote?
EIA-861 lists 45 utilities serving homes in Kentucky in 2024, across 2,077,215 residential accounts. The three largest, Kentucky Utilities Company, Louisville Gas & Electric Company and Duke Energy Kentucky, served 46.9% of those homes. By ownership: investor-owned utilities 53.2%, electric cooperatives 38.2%, municipal utilities 7.1% and small utilities EIA counts as a group 1.4%.
All 2,077,215 Kentucky residential accounts bought energy from the utility that delivers it; EIA counted none on a competitive supplier. So a Kentucky utility’s own tariff sets both the price you avoid and the credit for what you export.
Kentucky Utilities Company, the largest, served 450,673 Kentucky homes (21.7%). Its full-service residential customers paid 11.85¢ per kWh, below the Kentucky average of 12.79¢, and used 1,097 kWh a month on average. 2,400 of its customers ran net-metered rooftop solar, 0.53% of its homes against 0.48% statewide.
Among the 36 Kentucky utilities with at least 5,000 residential customers and a full-service price, the price ran from 10.84¢ at Henderson City Utility Commission to 16.07¢ at Grayson Rural Electric Co-op Corporation.
At the Kentucky average of 12,558 kWh a year, that 5.23¢ gap is worth about $657 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 12.79¢ Kentucky average.
Rooftop solar is concentrated: Louisville Gas & Electric Company alone accounts for 2,947 net-metered residential systems, about 29% of the 10,069 counted in Kentucky, and 27 Kentucky utilities reported any at all. The highest adoption among the larger utilities was at Blue Grass Energy Co-op Corporation, where 0.81% of homes had a system.
What does power cost in Kentucky, and why does it matter?
Residential electricity in Kentucky averaged 12.79¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2024, the 12th-lowest of 51 and below the national 16.48¢. Retail power in Kentucky is cheaper than in 39 of the other 50 jurisdictions. Each kilowatt-hour a system avoids is worth less, which lengthens payback.
The average Kentucky household bill was $133.81 a month ($1,606 a year), the 26th-highest of 51, against $142.26 nationally. That $1,606 is the ceiling on what solar could save a typical Kentucky home, before fixed monthly charges.
Only 0.33% of Kentucky homes were on a time-varying rate in 2024 (11.1% nationally), so a flat rate is the likely starting point. 81.4% of Kentucky residential meters were smart meters (83.8% nationally), and a time-varying rate needs one. How time-of-use changes solar.
How many Kentucky homes have solar?
Kentucky had 10,069 rooftop systems on net metering in 2024, across 2,077,215 residential accounts: 0.48% of homes, the 10th-lowest of 51. Kentucky is a thin market. Fewer companies can mean slower quotes and less to compare, so ask each one how many local systems it has installed.
The Kentucky market counted 1,385 more systems in 2024 than in 2023 and has grown 46.9% a year over five years, the 6th-highest of 51. Where growth has turned nationally.
How has Kentucky solar changed since 2014?
Kentucky counted 355 net-metered rooftop systems in 2014 and 10,069 in 2024, 28.4 times as many. The share of homes with one moved from 0.02% to 0.48%. The biggest one-year addition came in 2022, with 2,580 more systems than the year before.
| Year | Rooftop systems | Share of homes | Average size | Residential price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 355 | 0.02% | 3.9 kW | 10.16¢ |
| 2016 | 631 | 0.03% | 6.2 kW | 10.49¢ |
| 2018 | 1,018 | 0.05% | 6.5 kW | 10.60¢ |
| 2020 | 2,142 | 0.11% | 8.1 kW | 10.87¢ |
| 2022 | 6,340 | 0.31% | 7.8 kW | 12.91¢ |
| 2024 | 10,069 | 0.48% | 7.7 kW | 12.79¢ |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 annual files 2014–2024, net-metered residential systems, retrieved 2 September 2026. Kentucky shares and sizes are HyreSolar calculations.
What does the Kentucky trend mean for a savings estimate?
Over the same years the Kentucky residential price went from 10.16¢ to 12.79¢ per kWh, up 26%, and the average system from 3.9 kW to 7.7 kW. A rate that has risen that far makes a 2024 bill a conservative base for a Kentucky savings estimate only if the trend continues, which nobody can promise.
How big is a typical Kentucky system?
The average Kentucky system was 7.71 kW in 2024, the 19th-highest of 51, against 6.74 kW nationally. Kentucky homes used 12,558 kilowatt-hours a year each, the 12th-highest of 51.
A Kentucky home using 12,558 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 Kentucky?
Form EIA-861 reports no third-party-ownership split for the 10,069 systems counted in Kentucky in 2024, so we publish none rather than infer one.
Ask any Kentucky company in writing whether it is selling you the system or a lease or power purchase agreement; the owner of a Kentucky system is the one who claims any tax credit.
Do Kentucky homes add batteries?
In Kentucky, 4.73% of solar systems were paired with a battery in 2024 (476 systems), the 10th-highest of 47. Kentucky’s share is below the national 5.86%.
On reliability, the average Kentucky customer went 538 minutes without power in 2024 counting major storms, and 146 minutes without them. The median state saw 297. Outages in every state.
Whether a battery pays in Kentucky turns on your utility’s export credit and your own outage history: what a home battery does.
Which Kentucky solar laws have we read?
Kentucky statutes we read ourselves. Any rule not listed here is one we have not read, not one that does not exist.
How long you have to cancel a contract
10 business days on a loan secured by the home, otherwise 3, from the later of loan consummation or delivery of the federal disclosures. This is the general home solicitation rule, which reaches solar sales.
KRS 367.420(6). Read at source September 2, 2026. Solar sales rules by state
How do you check a solar company’s license in Kentucky?
We found no dedicated state register for solar work in Kentucky, 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 10,069 systems in Kentucky, 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 Kentucky on adoption?
The six jurisdictions nearest to Kentucky’s 0.48% share of homes with rooftop solar.
Where do the Kentucky numbers come from?
The Kentucky figures are HyreSolar calculations from the Form EIA-861 annual files: 10,069 net-metered residential systems counted against 2,077,215 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 Kentucky row is in the data as a CSV.
No Kentucky figure here is an estimate for one home: your roof, usage, utility tariff and tax position decide that.
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Questions
How many homes in Kentucky have solar?
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Do Kentucky homeowners add batteries to solar?
Is Kentucky a good state for solar?
Which utility serves the most homes in Kentucky?
Can I cancel a solar contract in Kentucky?
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