Solar by state
Solar in Pennsylvania, by the numbers
Utilities and their rates, adoption, ten years of growth, batteries, ownership, state rules and installer licensing in Pennsylvania, from federal 2024 data.
Pennsylvania in brief
1.47% of Pennsylvania homes had rooftop solar in 2024, the 24th-lowest of 51 (3.55% nationally). Power cost 17.77¢/kWh, above the national 16.48¢, and the average system was 8 kW. FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Company serves 32.7% of homes.
Where does Pennsylvania stand out?
The four measures, beyond price and adoption, on which Pennsylvania sits furthest from the middle of the ranking.
Pennsylvania solar in numbers, 2024
Every Pennsylvania figure next to the national one, with its place in the ranking (highest first, out of the jurisdictions reporting it).
| Measure | Pennsylvania | United States | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes with a metered rooftop system | 1.47% | 3.55% | 24th-lowest of 51 |
| Rooftop systems counted | 81,375 | 5,077,543 | 14th-highest of 51 |
| Average system size | 8 kW | 6.74 kW | 15th-highest of 51 |
| Residential price | 17.77¢/kWh | 16.48¢/kWh | 14th-highest of 51 |
| Average monthly bill | $145.17 | $142.26 | 17th-highest of 51 |
| Use per home | 9,806 kWh/yr | 10,359 kWh/yr | 20th-lowest of 51 |
| Systems with a battery | 1.60% | 5.86% | 23rd-lowest of 47 |
| Leased or on a PPA | 31.8% | 29.1% | 12th-highest of 38 |
| Growth in systems, five years | 23.7% a year | — | 25th-lowest of 51 |
| Minutes without power per customer | 353 | 297 (median state) | 22nd-highest of 51 |
| Homes on a time-varying rate | 0.11% | 11.1% | 5th-lowest of 51 |
| Installed rooftop capacity | 651.3 MW | 34,226 MW | — |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861, 2024 final release, retrieved 2 September 2026. The Pennsylvania ratios and ranks are HyreSolar calculations from EIA inputs.
Which utility serves Pennsylvania, and what does it charge?
The 8 largest utilities selling to Pennsylvania 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Company | Investor-owned; wires, 81% on its own supply | 1,802,612 (32.7%) | 17.37¢ | 858 kWh | 21,679 (1.2%) |
| PECO Energy Company | Investor-owned; wires, 79% on its own supply | 1,535,818 (27.9%) | 16.16¢ | 750 kWh | 21,660 (1.4%) |
| PPL Electric Utilities Corporation | Investor-owned; wires, 62% on its own supply | 1,295,883 (23.5%) | 16.99¢ | 915 kWh | 27,443 (2.1%) |
| Duquesne Light Company | Investor-owned; wires, 79% on its own supply | 550,405 (10.0%) | 21.74¢ | 610 kWh | 9,240 (1.7%) |
| UGI Utilities | Investor-owned; wires, 99% on its own supply | 55,011 (1.0%) | 18.93¢ | 835 kWh | 253 (0.46%) |
| Adams Electric Cooperative | Co-op | 32,231 (0.58%) | 14.42¢ | 1,152 kWh | 350 (1.1%) |
| Central Electric Co-op, Inc | Co-op | 23,629 (0.43%) | 17.03¢ | 762 kWh | 105 (0.44%) |
| REA Energy Co-op | Co-op | 20,932 (0.38%) | 14.53¢ | 930 kWh | 62 (0.30%) |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 2024, Sales to Ultimate Customers and Net Metering, utility level, retrieved 5 October 2026. Shares are of 5,511,689 Pennsylvania residential accounts. Each Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania utility figures mean for a solar quote?
EIA-861 lists 18 utilities serving homes in Pennsylvania in 2024, across 5,511,689 residential accounts. The three largest, FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Company, PECO Energy Company and PPL Electric Utilities Corporation, served 84.1% of those homes. By ownership: investor-owned utilities 95.3%, electric cooperatives 3.1% and small utilities EIA counts as a group 1.4%.
1,284,955 Pennsylvania homes (23.3%) bought their energy from 83 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.
FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Company, the largest, served 1,802,612 Pennsylvania homes (32.7%). Its full-service residential customers paid 17.37¢ per kWh, below the Pennsylvania average of 17.77¢, and used 858 kWh a month on average. 21,679 of its customers ran net-metered rooftop solar, 1.2% of its homes against 1.47% statewide.
Among the 17 Pennsylvania utilities with at least 5,000 residential customers and a full-service price, the price ran from 11.95¢ at Borough of Chambersburg to 21.74¢ at Duquesne Light Company.
At the Pennsylvania average of 9,806 kWh a year, that 9.79¢ gap is worth about $960 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 17.77¢ Pennsylvania average.
Rooftop solar is concentrated: PPL Electric Utilities Corporation alone accounts for 27,443 net-metered residential systems, about 34% of the 81,375 counted in Pennsylvania, and 18 Pennsylvania utilities reported any at all.
What does power cost in Pennsylvania, and why does it matter?
Residential electricity in Pennsylvania averaged 17.77¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2024, the 14th-highest of 51 and above the national 16.48¢. Pennsylvania sits in the top quarter on price, so power used on site replaces power bought at well above the national rate.
The average Pennsylvania household bill was $145.17 a month ($1,742 a year), the 17th-highest of 51, against $142.26 nationally. That $1,742 is the ceiling on what solar could save a typical Pennsylvania home, before fixed monthly charges.
Only 0.11% of Pennsylvania homes were on a time-varying rate in 2024 (11.1% nationally), so a flat rate is the likely starting point. 97.6% of Pennsylvania residential meters were smart meters (83.8% nationally), and a time-varying rate needs one. How time-of-use changes solar.
How many Pennsylvania homes have solar?
Pennsylvania had 81,375 rooftop systems on net metering in 2024, across 5,534,580 residential accounts: 1.47% of homes, the 24th-lowest of 51. Adoption in Pennsylvania sits in the middle of the 51: neither an early market nor a late one.
The Pennsylvania market counted 13,009 more systems in 2024 than in 2023 and has grown 23.7% a year over five years, the 25th-lowest of 51. Where growth has turned nationally.
How has Pennsylvania solar changed since 2014?
Pennsylvania counted 7,978 net-metered rooftop systems in 2014 and 81,375 in 2024, 10.2 times as many. The share of homes with one moved from 0.15% to 1.47%. The biggest one-year addition came in 2023, with 16,765 more systems than the year before.
| Year | Rooftop systems | Share of homes | Average size | Residential price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 7,978 | 0.15% | 7.7 kW | 13.32¢ |
| 2016 | 12,100 | 0.23% | 7.6 kW | 13.86¢ |
| 2018 | 22,554 | 0.42% | 7.7 kW | 13.89¢ |
| 2020 | 34,078 | 0.63% | 7.9 kW | 13.58¢ |
| 2022 | 51,601 | 0.94% | 7.8 kW | 15.94¢ |
| 2024 | 81,375 | 1.47% | 8.0 kW | 17.77¢ |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 annual files 2014–2024, net-metered residential systems, retrieved 2 September 2026. Pennsylvania shares and sizes are HyreSolar calculations.
What does the Pennsylvania trend mean for a savings estimate?
Over the same years the Pennsylvania residential price went from 13.32¢ to 17.77¢ per kWh, up 33%, and the average system from 7.7 kW to 8.0 kW. A rate that has risen that far makes a 2024 bill a conservative base for a Pennsylvania savings estimate only if the trend continues, which nobody can promise.
How big is a typical Pennsylvania system?
The average Pennsylvania system was 8 kW in 2024, the 15th-highest of 51, against 6.74 kW nationally. Pennsylvania homes used 9,806 kilowatt-hours a year each, the 20th-lowest of 51.
A Pennsylvania home using 9,806 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 Pennsylvania?
In Pennsylvania, 31.8% 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 12th-highest of 38, against 29.1% nationally.
Leases and power purchase agreements are a large share of the Pennsylvania market, so expect one to be offered alongside a purchase. Whoever owns a Pennsylvania system claims any tax credit on it: Section 48E explained.
Do Pennsylvania homes add batteries?
In Pennsylvania, 1.60% of solar systems were paired with a battery in 2024 (1,298 systems), the 23rd-lowest of 47. Pennsylvania’s share is well under half the national 5.86%.
On reliability, the average Pennsylvania customer went 353 minutes without power in 2024 counting major storms, and 132 minutes without them. The median state saw 297. Outages in every state.
Whether a battery pays in Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania?
We checked 19 Pennsylvania solar companies from June to August 2026 against the state license register. 26.3% of those did not hold a current license when checked (5 expired).
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 Pennsylvania, and a license current then may have lapsed since. How to verify a solar license.
Which states are closest to Pennsylvania on adoption?
The six jurisdictions nearest to Pennsylvania’s 1.47% share of homes with rooftop solar.
Where do the Pennsylvania numbers come from?
The Pennsylvania figures are HyreSolar calculations from the Form EIA-861 annual files: 81,375 net-metered residential systems counted against 5,534,580 residential accounts, sizes as means, and 18 utility-level rows for the utility table, matched to net-metering records by EIA utility number.
The method and limits cover all 51; the Pennsylvania row is in the data as a CSV.
No Pennsylvania 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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