Solar by state
Solar in Ohio, by the numbers
Utilities and their rates, adoption, ten years of growth, batteries, ownership, state rules and installer licensing in Ohio, from federal 2024 data.
Ohio in brief
0.54% of Ohio homes had rooftop solar in 2024, the 12th-lowest of 51 (3.55% nationally). Power cost 15.99¢/kWh, below the national 16.48¢, and the average system was 7.44 kW. Ohio Power Company serves 26.1% of homes.
Where does Ohio stand out?
The four measures, beyond price and adoption, on which Ohio sits furthest from the middle of the ranking.
Ohio solar in numbers, 2024
Every Ohio figure next to the national one, with its place in the ranking (highest first, out of the jurisdictions reporting it).
| Measure | Ohio | United States | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes with a metered rooftop system | 0.54% | 3.55% | 12th-lowest of 51 |
| Rooftop systems counted | 27,520 | 5,077,543 | 24th-highest of 51 |
| Average system size | 7.44 kW | 6.74 kW | 24th-highest of 51 |
| Residential price | 15.99¢/kWh | 16.48¢/kWh | 18th-highest of 51 |
| Average monthly bill | $135.16 | $142.26 | 25th-highest of 51 |
| Use per home | 10,146 kWh/yr | 10,359 kWh/yr | 22nd-lowest of 51 |
| Systems with a battery | 5.98% | 5.86% | 8th-highest of 47 |
| Leased or on a PPA | 3.8% | 29.1% | 16th-lowest of 38 |
| Growth in systems, five years | 30.5% a year | — | 16th-highest of 51 |
| Minutes without power per customer | 511 | 297 (median state) | 18th-highest of 51 |
| Homes on a time-varying rate | 0.70% | 11.1% | 20th-lowest of 51 |
| Installed rooftop capacity | 204.6 MW | 34,226 MW | — |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861, 2024 final release, retrieved 2 September 2026. The Ohio ratios and ranks are HyreSolar calculations from EIA inputs.
Which utility serves Ohio, and what does it charge?
The 8 largest utilities selling to Ohio 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio Power Company | Investor-owned; wires, 41% on its own supply | 1,339,232 (26.1%) | 19.33¢ | 879 kWh | 11,036 (0.82%) |
| Ohio Edison Company | Investor-owned; wires, 26% on its own supply | 957,780 (18.6%) | 16.18¢ | 816 kWh | 3,791 (0.40%) |
| Duke Energy Ohio | Investor-owned; wires, 42% on its own supply | 693,435 (13.5%) | 15.00¢ | 897 kWh | 5,334 (0.77%) |
| Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company | Investor-owned; wires, 19% on its own supply | 676,098 (13.2%) | 16.76¢ | 671 kWh | 2,458 (0.36%) |
| Dayton Power & Light Company | Investor-owned; wires, 28% on its own supply | 478,741 (9.3%) | 15.32¢ | 921 kWh | 388 (0.08%) |
| The Toledo Edison Company | Investor-owned; wires, 28% on its own supply | 278,814 (5.4%) | 16.64¢ | 760 kWh | 636 (0.23%) |
| South Central Power Company | Co-op | 117,469 (2.3%) | 14.87¢ | 1,074 kWh | None reported |
| City of Cleveland | Municipal | 64,914 (1.3%) | 14.87¢ | 493 kWh | 175 (0.27%) |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 2024, Sales to Ultimate Customers and Net Metering, utility level, retrieved 5 October 2026. Shares are of 5,141,816 Ohio residential accounts. Each Ohio 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 Ohio utility figures mean for a solar quote?
EIA-861 lists 36 utilities serving homes in Ohio in 2024, across 5,141,816 residential accounts. The three largest, Ohio Power Company, Ohio Edison Company and Duke Energy Ohio, served 58.2% of those homes. By ownership: investor-owned utilities 86.0%, electric cooperatives 5.9%, municipal utilities 4.6% and small utilities EIA counts as a group 3.5%.
3,005,826 Ohio homes (58.5%) bought their energy from 70 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.
Ohio Power Company, the largest, served 1,339,232 Ohio homes (26.1%). Its full-service residential customers paid 19.33¢ per kWh, above the Ohio average of 15.99¢, and used 879 kWh a month on average. 11,036 of its customers ran net-metered rooftop solar, 0.82% of its homes against 0.54% statewide.
Among the 34 Ohio utilities with at least 5,000 residential customers and a full-service price, the price ran from 9.12¢ at City of Celina to 19.90¢ at Buckeye Rural Electric Co-op. At the Ohio average of 10,146 kWh a year, that 10.78¢ gap is worth about $1,094 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 15.99¢ Ohio average.
Rooftop solar is concentrated: Ohio Power Company alone accounts for 11,036 net-metered residential systems, about 40% of the 27,520 counted in Ohio, and 16 Ohio utilities reported any at all.
What does power cost in Ohio, and why does it matter?
Residential electricity in Ohio averaged 15.99¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2024, the 18th-highest of 51 and below 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 Ohio household bill was $135.16 a month ($1,622 a year), the 25th-highest of 51, against $142.26 nationally. That $1,622 is the ceiling on what solar could save a typical Ohio home, before fixed monthly charges.
Only 0.70% of Ohio homes were on a time-varying rate in 2024 (11.1% nationally), so a flat rate is the likely starting point. 62.3% of Ohio residential meters were smart meters (83.8% nationally), and a time-varying rate needs one. How time-of-use changes solar.
How many Ohio homes have solar?
Ohio had 27,520 rooftop systems on net metering in 2024, across 5,142,108 residential accounts: 0.54% of homes, the 12th-lowest of 51. Ohio 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 Ohio market counted 5,113 more systems in 2024 than in 2023 and has grown 30.5% a year over five years, the 16th-highest of 51. Where growth has turned nationally.
How has Ohio solar changed since 2014?
Ohio counted 1,453 net-metered rooftop systems in 2014 and 27,520 in 2024, 18.9 times as many. The share of homes with one moved from 0.03% to 0.54%. The biggest one-year addition came in 2024, with 5,113 more systems than the year before.
| Year | Rooftop systems | Share of homes | Average size | Residential price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 1,453 | 0.03% | 5.9 kW | 12.50¢ |
| 2016 | 2,658 | 0.05% | 7.1 kW | 12.47¢ |
| 2018 | 4,673 | 0.09% | 6.9 kW | 12.56¢ |
| 2020 | 10,192 | 0.20% | 7.7 kW | 12.29¢ |
| 2022 | 17,303 | 0.34% | 7.4 kW | 13.85¢ |
| 2024 | 27,520 | 0.54% | 7.4 kW | 15.99¢ |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 annual files 2014–2024, net-metered residential systems, retrieved 2 September 2026. Ohio shares and sizes are HyreSolar calculations.
What does the Ohio trend mean for a savings estimate?
Over the same years the Ohio residential price went from 12.50¢ to 15.99¢ per kWh, up 28%, and the average system from 5.9 kW to 7.4 kW. A rate that has risen that far makes a 2024 bill a conservative base for a Ohio savings estimate only if the trend continues, which nobody can promise.
How big is a typical Ohio system?
The average Ohio system was 7.44 kW in 2024, the 24th-highest of 51, against 6.74 kW nationally. Ohio homes used 10,146 kilowatt-hours a year each, the 22nd-lowest of 51.
A Ohio home using 10,146 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 Ohio?
In Ohio, 3.8% 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 16th-lowest of 38, against 29.1% nationally.
Nearly every Ohio 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 Ohio system claims any tax credit on it: Section 48E explained.
Do Ohio homes add batteries?
In Ohio, 5.98% of solar systems were paired with a battery in 2024 (1,647 systems), the 8th-highest of 47. Ohio’s share is above the national 5.86%.
On reliability, the average Ohio customer went 511 minutes without power in 2024 counting major storms, and 133 minutes without them. The median state saw 297. Outages in every state.
Whether a battery pays in Ohio 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 Ohio?
We checked 41 Ohio solar companies from June to August 2026 against the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, Division of Industrial Compliance, Ohio Department of Commerce. None of those showed an expired or revoked license when checked.
Ask which license a company holds, then confirm the number with the issuing authority yourself.
These counts describe the companies we checked on those dates, not every company in Ohio, and a license current then may have lapsed since. How to verify a solar license.
Which states are closest to Ohio on adoption?
The six jurisdictions nearest to Ohio’s 0.54% share of homes with rooftop solar.
Where do the Ohio numbers come from?
The Ohio figures are HyreSolar calculations from the Form EIA-861 annual files: 27,520 net-metered residential systems counted against 5,142,108 residential accounts, sizes as means, and 36 utility-level rows for the utility table, matched to net-metering records by EIA utility number.
The method and limits cover all 51; the Ohio row is in the data as a CSV.
No Ohio 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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