Year-round sun. Big rooftops. Low install cost per watt. The catch: APS and SRP don't do traditional net metering anymore — your installer's time-of-use design matters.
Arizona is a paradox: more sun than almost anywhere in the country, but no traditional net metering. The economics still work — installs are cheap, summer demand is high, and the sun makes up for the lower retail rate. But the design has to be right.
No traditional net metering. APS, SRP, and TEP no longer credit excess solar exports at retail. Export rates are well below retail. Time-of-use design — sizing the system to consume your own production rather than export — is essential.
Time-of-use rate plans. Most AZ utilities have shifted residential customers to time-of-use plans where peak rates (typically 4–7 PM in summer) are 2–3x off-peak rates. Battery storage lets you avoid those peak rates by self-consuming. For premium-suburb installs, battery is increasingly worth it.
Federal ITC + AZ state credit. 30% federal ITC, plus Arizona's $1,000 Residential Solar Tax Credit (one of the few state-level credits remaining). Sales tax exemption.
Large rooftops, low cost per watt. Phoenix-area homes typically have 2,500–4,000 sq ft of usable roof — among the largest in the country. Combined with mature installer competition, AZ has some of the lowest install costs per watt in the US.
For a typical Phoenix-metro premium-suburb household: 9–13 kW of panels paired with a 13.5 kWh battery sized for time-of-use shifting. List price $28,000–48,000. After 30% federal ITC and $1,000 AZ credit, net roughly $19,600–32,600. Battery is the difference between mediocre and good economics under time-of-use rates — strongly recommended for new AZ installs.