Solar by state
Solar in Wisconsin, by the numbers
Utilities and their rates, adoption, ten years of growth, batteries, ownership, state rules and installer licensing in Wisconsin, from federal 2024 data.
Wisconsin in brief
0.65% of Wisconsin homes had rooftop solar in 2024, the 14th-lowest of 51 (3.55% nationally). Power cost 17.18¢/kWh, above the national 16.48¢, and the average system was 7.24 kW. Wisconsin Electric Power Company serves 36.9% of homes.
Where does Wisconsin stand out?
The four measures, beyond price and adoption, on which Wisconsin sits furthest from the middle of the ranking.
Wisconsin solar in numbers, 2024
Every Wisconsin figure next to the national one, with its place in the ranking (highest first, out of the jurisdictions reporting it).
| Measure | Wisconsin | United States | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes with a metered rooftop system | 0.65% | 3.55% | 14th-lowest of 51 |
| Rooftop systems counted | 18,581 | 5,077,543 | 21st-lowest of 51 |
| Average system size | 7.24 kW | 6.74 kW | 22nd-lowest of 51 |
| Residential price | 17.18¢/kWh | 16.48¢/kWh | 16th-highest of 51 |
| Average monthly bill | $110.87 | $142.26 | 10th-lowest of 51 |
| Use per home | 7,742 kWh/yr | 10,359 kWh/yr | 12th-lowest of 51 |
| Systems with a battery | 1.54% | 5.86% | 22nd-lowest of 47 |
| Leased or on a PPA | Not reported | 29.1% | No figure |
| Growth in systems, five years | 28.9% a year | — | 19th-highest of 51 |
| Minutes without power per customer | 297 | 297 (median state) | 26th-highest of 51 |
| Homes on a time-varying rate | 1.8% | 11.1% | 25th-lowest of 51 |
| Installed rooftop capacity | 134.6 MW | 34,226 MW | — |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861, 2024 final release, retrieved 2 September 2026. The Wisconsin ratios and ranks are HyreSolar calculations from EIA inputs.
Which utility serves Wisconsin, and what does it charge?
The 8 largest utilities selling to Wisconsin 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin Electric Power Company | Investor-owned | 1,048,148 (36.9%) | 19.23¢ | 625 kWh | 5,796 (0.55%) |
| Wisconsin Power & Light Company | Investor-owned | 437,211 (15.4%) | 16.89¢ | 673 kWh | 4,751 (1.1%) |
| Wisconsin Public Service Corporation | Investor-owned | 411,775 (14.5%) | 16.23¢ | 595 kWh | 1,859 (0.45%) |
| Northern States Power Company | Investor-owned | 220,574 (7.8%) | 15.83¢ | 691 kWh | 550 (0.25%) |
| Madison Gas & Electric Company | Investor-owned | 147,501 (5.2%) | 20.34¢ | 486 kWh | 2,600 (1.8%) |
| Adams-Columbia Electric Co-op | Co-op | 35,910 (1.3%) | 17.63¢ | 615 kWh | 314 (0.87%) |
| Polk-Burnett Electric Co-op | Co-op | 20,379 (0.72%) | 15.90¢ | 752 kWh | 191 (0.94%) |
| Barron Electric Co-op | Co-op | 19,266 (0.68%) | 15.72¢ | 826 kWh | 184 (0.96%) |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 2024, Sales to Ultimate Customers and Net Metering, utility level, retrieved 5 October 2026. Shares are of 2,843,874 Wisconsin residential accounts. Each Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin utility figures mean for a solar quote?
EIA-861 lists 66 utilities serving homes in Wisconsin in 2024, across 2,843,874 residential accounts.
The three largest, Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Wisconsin Power & Light Company and Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, served 66.7% of those homes.
By ownership: investor-owned utilities 81.2%, municipal utilities 7.6%, small utilities EIA counts as a group 6.0% and electric cooperatives 5.2%.
All 2,843,874 Wisconsin residential accounts bought energy from the utility that delivers it; EIA counted none on a competitive supplier. So a Wisconsin utility’s own tariff sets both the price you avoid and the credit for what you export.
Wisconsin Electric Power Company, the largest, served 1,048,148 Wisconsin homes (36.9%). Its full-service residential customers paid 19.23¢ per kWh, above the Wisconsin average of 17.18¢, and used 625 kWh a month on average. 5,796 of its customers ran net-metered rooftop solar, 0.55% of its homes against 0.65% statewide.
Among the 32 Wisconsin utilities with at least 5,000 residential customers and a full-service price, the price ran from 10.07¢ at City of Marshfield to 20.34¢ at Madison Gas & Electric Company.
At the Wisconsin average of 7,742 kWh a year, that 10.27¢ gap is worth about $795 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 17.18¢ Wisconsin average.
Rooftop solar is concentrated: Wisconsin Electric Power Company alone accounts for 5,796 net-metered residential systems, about 31% of the 18,581 counted in Wisconsin, and 58 Wisconsin utilities reported any at all. The highest adoption among the larger utilities was at Madison Gas & Electric Company, where 1.8% of homes had a system.
What does power cost in Wisconsin, and why does it matter?
Residential electricity in Wisconsin averaged 17.18¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2024, the 16th-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 Wisconsin household bill was $110.87 a month ($1,330 a year), the 10th-lowest of 51, against $142.26 nationally. That $1,330 is the ceiling on what solar could save a typical Wisconsin home, before fixed monthly charges.
Only 1.8% of Wisconsin homes were on a time-varying rate in 2024 (11.1% nationally), so a flat rate is the likely starting point. 89.8% of Wisconsin residential meters were smart meters (83.8% nationally), and a time-varying rate needs one. How time-of-use changes solar.
How many Wisconsin homes have solar?
Wisconsin had 18,581 rooftop systems on net metering in 2024, across 2,843,874 residential accounts: 0.65% of homes, the 14th-lowest of 51. Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin market counted 3,237 more systems in 2024 than in 2023 and has grown 28.9% a year over five years, the 19th-highest of 51. Where growth has turned nationally.
How has Wisconsin solar changed since 2014?
Wisconsin counted 1,401 net-metered rooftop systems in 2014 and 18,581 in 2024, 13.3 times as many. The share of homes with one moved from 0.05% to 0.65%. The biggest one-year addition came in 2023, with 3,741 more systems than the year before.
| Year | Rooftop systems | Share of homes | Average size | Residential price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 1,401 | 0.05% | 5.5 kW | 13.67¢ |
| 2016 | 2,342 | 0.09% | 5.7 kW | 14.07¢ |
| 2018 | 3,906 | 0.14% | 5.8 kW | 14.02¢ |
| 2020 | 6,466 | 0.24% | 5.9 kW | 14.32¢ |
| 2022 | 11,603 | 0.42% | 6.6 kW | 15.62¢ |
| 2024 | 18,581 | 0.65% | 7.2 kW | 17.18¢ |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 annual files 2014–2024, net-metered residential systems, retrieved 2 September 2026. Wisconsin shares and sizes are HyreSolar calculations.
What does the Wisconsin trend mean for a savings estimate?
Over the same years the Wisconsin residential price went from 13.67¢ to 17.18¢ per kWh, up 26%, and the average system from 5.5 kW to 7.2 kW. A rate that has risen that far makes a 2024 bill a conservative base for a Wisconsin savings estimate only if the trend continues, which nobody can promise.
How big is a typical Wisconsin system?
The average Wisconsin system was 7.24 kW in 2024, the 22nd-lowest of 51, against 6.74 kW nationally. Wisconsin homes used 7,742 kilowatt-hours a year each, the 12th-lowest of 51.
A Wisconsin home using 7,742 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 Wisconsin?
Form EIA-861 reports no third-party-ownership split for the 18,581 systems counted in Wisconsin in 2024, so we publish none rather than infer one.
Ask any Wisconsin company in writing whether it is selling you the system or a lease or power purchase agreement; the owner of a Wisconsin system is the one who claims any tax credit.
Do Wisconsin homes add batteries?
In Wisconsin, 1.54% of solar systems were paired with a battery in 2024 (287 systems), the 22nd-lowest of 47. Wisconsin’s share is well under half the national 5.86%.
On reliability, the average Wisconsin customer went 297 minutes without power in 2024 counting major storms, and 98 minutes without them. The median state saw 297. Outages in every state.
Whether a battery pays in Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin?
We checked 58 Wisconsin solar companies from June to August 2026 against the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, Division of Industry Services. 29.3% of those did not hold a current license when checked (17 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 Wisconsin, and a license current then may have lapsed since. How to verify a solar license.
Which states are closest to Wisconsin on adoption?
The six jurisdictions nearest to Wisconsin’s 0.65% share of homes with rooftop solar.
Where do the Wisconsin numbers come from?
The Wisconsin figures are HyreSolar calculations from the Form EIA-861 annual files: 18,581 net-metered residential systems counted against 2,843,874 residential accounts, sizes as means, and 66 utility-level rows for the utility table, matched to net-metering records by EIA utility number.
The method and limits cover all 51; the Wisconsin row is in the data as a CSV.
No Wisconsin 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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