- Is solar worth it in Hicksville? For most homes with decent roof exposure, yes. Long Island’s electricity is among the priciest in the country, and New York still hands you a 25% state tax credit, so a typical system pays back in roughly 7 to 8 years even though the federal residential credit ended after 2025 and the standard Long Island rebate is closed.
- Your utility is PSEG Long Island, and its power is expensive. New York residential electricity averaged about 28.55 cents per kWh in March 2026, and PSEG Long Island sits near the top of that range; one documented Long Island bill hit 29.68 cents per kWh in 2025 (EIA, as of March 2026; Newsday, as of 2026).
- New York’s 25% state credit survives even though the federal one ended. New York gives a state income-tax credit worth 25% of the system cost, capped at $5,000 (NY Department of Taxation and Finance, as of 2026), while the 30% federal residential credit (Section 25D) ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025 (IRS, as of 2026).
- PSEG Long Island still offers net metering to new rooftop solar. A bidirectional meter banks your extra production as credits across a 12-month cycle, with a small monthly Customer Benefit Contribution for systems that connected after 2021 (DSIRE PSEG Long Island net metering; NYSERDA 2026 CBC rates, as of 2026).
- The standard NY-Sun cash rebate for Long Island is gone. The standard residential Megawatt Block for the Long Island region is fully subscribed, so a typical Hicksville homeowner gets $0 per watt; only the income-eligible Affordable Solar block remains (NYSERDA Long Island Dashboard, as of 2026).
- One permit office, not a village board. As an unincorporated hamlet, Hicksville permits solar through the Town of Oyster Bay directly, and Nassau County is excluded from New York’s statewide fast-track solar permit (Town of Oyster Bay Building Division; NYSERDA Unified Solar Permit, as of 2026).
Hicksville is one of the simpler places in Nassau County to actually get solar approved, and the economics still work because Long Island power is so expensive. Unlike the nearby villages of the North Shore, Hicksville is an unincorporated hamlet, so you deal with one building office, the Town of Oyster Bay, instead of a village board. This page covers what going solar in Hicksville actually involves in 2026: your PSEG Long Island rate and net metering, the New York incentives you can still claim and the federal one you cannot, our own payback estimate for a classic Nassau roof, and the single permit path you follow, so you can check your address in about a minute. Updated for 2026.
Why Hicksville’s electric rates make solar worth it
The reason solar pays in Hicksville is the price of the power it offsets. New York residential electricity averaged about 28.55 cents per kWh in March 2026, well above the national average, and PSEG Long Island customers sit near the top of the state’s range, with bills that have climbed again in 2026 (EIA, as of March 2026). PSEG Long Island does not publish one simple all-in rate; it bills a fixed delivery charge plus a Power Supply Charge that resets monthly, and the all-in result lands in the mid-to-high 20s of cents per kWh, with one Newsday-documented customer bill reaching 29.68 cents in 2025 (Newsday, as of 2026). Every kilowatt-hour your roof makes offsets one you would otherwise buy at that high rate, so a household spending $150 or more a month on electricity is a strong solar candidate here.
Your production is what turns that high rate into savings. A per-address run of NREL PVWatts (v8) for a Hicksville ZIP (11801) models about 8,080 kWh in year one from a 6 kW system, or roughly 1,346 kWh per kW of panels (NREL PVWatts v8, as of 2026). That is still a planning figure, not a reading for your roof. Hicksville’s classic postwar housing stock, much of it built between the late 1940s and early 1960s in the Levittown-adjacent boom, tends to have simple, moderate-pitch asphalt-shingle gable roofs that are straightforward to mount, though roof area can be modest and a 1950s-era electrical panel sometimes needs a service upgrade first. Run PVWatts for your own address before you size anything.
See what solar programs are available in your Hicksville ZIP code
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Your Hicksville utility is PSEG Long Island
For every Hicksville address, your electric utility is PSEG Long Island, which delivers your power and administers your solar net metering under the LIPA tariff. Con Edison serves New York City and Westchester, not Long Island, so guidance written for Con Edison does not describe your bill. There is a fitting local detail here: PSEG Long Island runs its solar and distributed-generation interconnection office in Hicksville, at 175 East Old Country Road (PSEG Long Island interconnection, as of 2026), so the paperwork that connects a Hicksville roof to the grid is processed in your own hamlet. The statewide and utility-wide mechanics live on our New York solar guide and our PSEG Long Island net metering and rates page, so we keep this page focused on what is specific to Hicksville.
How PSEG Long Island net metering credits you, and the one charge to know about
Net metering is the engine of your savings, and PSEG Long Island still offers it to new residential rooftop systems. When your panels make more than your home is using, a bidirectional meter banks the surplus as credits valued near your retail rate, and those credits carry across a 12-month cycle to cover the months your roof makes less (DSIRE PSEG Long Island net metering, as of 2026). New York is gradually moving toward a value of distributed energy resources framework for some customers, but mass-market residential rooftop on Long Island, generally 25 kW and under, is still administered under net metering rather than forced onto the value-stack tariff.
The one charge to budget for is the Customer Benefit Contribution. New York solar customers who interconnect after the start of 2022 pay a small monthly fee called the Customer Benefit Contribution, and for LIPA the 2026 residential rate is about $1.13 per kW of system size per month (NYSERDA 2026 Customer Benefit Contribution rates, as of 2026). On a 7 kW Hicksville system that is roughly $8 a month, about $95 a year, which we subtract in the payback table below so the estimate is honest. Your installer files the interconnection through PSEG Long Island’s small-generator process, and the system goes live once PSEG approves it and swaps in the meter. For the mechanics in plain English, see how net metering credits your solar exports.
What solar costs in Hicksville, and when it pays back
Here is our own calculation for a Hicksville home, with every input shown, so you can follow the math. We combine the New York residential rate, a per-address PVWatts production run, a typical Nassau installed cost, the LIPA Customer Benefit Contribution, and the 25% New York state credit. We label the result an estimate and state the assumptions; your real number depends on your roof, your usage, and your financing.
Inputs and their sources:
- Rate: about 28.55 cents per kWh, the New York residential average for March 2026 (EIA). PSEG Long Island net metering credits a typical home near this retail rate.
- Production: about 1,346 kWh per installed kW per year, from a per-address NREL PVWatts v8 run for ZIP 11801 (8,078 kWh on a 6 kW system) (NREL PVWatts v8, as of 2026).
- Installed cost: about $3.40 per watt before incentives, the middle of the roughly $3.20 to $3.60 per watt range reported for Nassau County (NYSERDA Paying for Solar, as of 2026).
- New York state credit: 25% of cost, capped at $5,000 (NY Department of Taxation and Finance, as of 2026). No federal credit is included, because the federal residential credit ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025.
The math is simple enough to audit. Estimated simple payback equals the net cost after the New York state credit divided by year-one bill savings minus the Customer Benefit Contribution. It holds today’s rate flat, ignores panel degradation, and assumes a cash purchase, so a financed buyer’s number will differ.
| System size | Est. annual production | Year-one bill savings (28.55 cents) | Less LIPA CBC ($1.13/kW-mo) | Cost before incentives ($3.40/W) | Cost after 25% NY credit (max $5,000) | Est. simple payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 kW | about 6,730 kWh | about $1,920 | about $68/yr | $17,000 | $12,750 | about 6.9 years |
| 7.5 kW | about 10,100 kWh | about $2,880 | about $102/yr | $25,500 | $20,500 | about 7.4 years |
| 10 kW | about 13,460 kWh | about $3,840 | about $136/yr | $34,000 | $29,000 | about 7.8 years |
Notice that the smaller system pays back fastest, which is the opposite of what most people assume. Because New York’s state credit is capped at $5,000, a 5 kW system captures the full 25% of its cost while a 10 kW system hits the cap and gets a smaller percentage back, so the larger array takes about a year longer to break even. That is a Hicksville-specific quirk worth knowing before you let an installer upsize you: build to your actual usage, not to the biggest roof. For the full method behind numbers like these, see the financial case for whether solar panels are worth it.
New York’s incentive stack on a Hicksville home: what still pays, what ended
Beyond net metering, a Hicksville homeowner stacks New York’s benefits, and a clean accounting of what is live matters more than a long one. Most of these go to the system owner, so on a lease or PPA the company that owns the panels keeps the credit, though New York’s state credit is unusual in also reaching long-term lease and PPA customers. We keep the full statewide detail on our New York solar guide and solar incentives pages rather than repeating it all here.
| Incentive | What it is worth | Status in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| New York state credit (Form IT-255) | 25% of cost, up to $5,000 | Active |
| PSEG Long Island net metering | Exports banked near retail over a 12-month cycle | Active for new residential systems 25 kW and under |
| New York sales-tax exemption | The 4% state tax plus the 3/8% MCTD tax waived | Active statewide; local county treatment varies |
| RPTL 487 property-tax exemption | 15 years on the home value the system adds | In effect unless the Town of Oyster Bay opted out, so verify with the assessor |
| LIPA Customer Benefit Contribution | About $1.13 per kW per month (a cost, not a credit) | Applies to systems connected after 2021 |
| NY-Sun standard Long Island rebate | $0 per watt for standard income | Closed, fully subscribed; only the income-eligible block remains |
| Federal residential credit (Section 25D) | 30% (historical) | Ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025 |
The New York state credit is the headline incentive that survived. New York gives you a personal income-tax credit worth 25% of your system’s cost, capped at $5,000, claimed on Form IT-255, and you can carry forward any unused amount for up to five years (NY Department of Taxation and Finance, as of 2026). It is entirely separate from the federal residential credit that ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025, and is unaffected by that change, so a Hicksville buyer in 2026 still gets the state credit.
The tax exemptions are quieter but real. New York exempts residential solar equipment and its installation from the 4% state sales tax and the 3/8% metropolitan transportation tax, and many localities exempt their portion too, though the county line is worth confirming for your address (NY sales-tax Publication 718-S, as of 2026). New York’s RPTL 487 also exempts the added home value a solar system creates from your property taxes for 15 years, which is automatically in effect unless your taxing jurisdiction opted out, so confirm the Town of Oyster Bay’s status with the assessor before counting on it (NY RPTL 487 opt-out list, as of 2026).
Note: the federal credit and the standard NY-Sun rebate are both off the table for a 2026 Hicksville buyer. The 30% federal residential credit (Section 25D) ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025, so a homeowner paying cash or financing a purchase this year cannot claim it; see what the end of the federal solar tax credit means in 2026. And the standard residential NY-Sun rebate for the Long Island region is fully subscribed at $0 per watt, with only the income-eligible Affordable Solar block still open (NYSERDA Long Island Dashboard, as of 2026). We are not a tax advisor, so confirm your own situation with a professional. The honest Hicksville pitch is high bills plus the state credit, not a stack of federal and rebate money that no longer exists.
One permit office: the Town of Oyster Bay
This is where Hicksville is genuinely easier than its North Shore neighbors. Because Hicksville is an unincorporated hamlet rather than an incorporated village, there is no village building department or architectural board in the loop; the Town of Oyster Bay is the authority that issues your residential rooftop solar permit, through its Building Division and online building portal (Town of Oyster Bay Building Division, as of 2026). Compare that with the nearby Great Neck peninsula, where nine separate incorporated villages each run their own building department, and the Hicksville path is a single counter.
Two things to expect on the paperwork. A Town of Oyster Bay solar permit application is filed by your licensed installer and typically needs the signed permit application plus a notarized disclosure affidavit and a current survey and construction plans. And one Long Island wrinkle applies everywhere in Nassau: New York’s statewide expedited Unified Solar Permit explicitly excludes Nassau and Suffolk Counties, so Hicksville installs follow the town’s own building-permit process rather than the state fast-track form (NYSERDA Unified Solar Permit, as of 2026). A good local installer already knows the Oyster Bay process and the PSEG Long Island interconnection, and prices both into the timeline.
How to screen a Hicksville solar installer
Judge installers on objective criteria rather than a ranking, because the right company for your roof is a local decision. The Hicksville search results are crowded with national directories and a few local incumbents, so use a short, concrete checklist instead of a best-of list:
- A New York State licensed electrician on the job and proper home-improvement licensing and insurance for work in the Town of Oyster Bay.
- NABCEP certification, the solar industry’s recognized installer credential, on the team doing the work.
- Familiarity with the Town of Oyster Bay permit process and PSEG Long Island interconnection, including the Customer Benefit Contribution and net-metering setup.
- Clear equipment and workmanship warranties in writing, and who honors them if the installer closes.
- A written estimate that shows the net-metering, CBC, and 25% state-credit assumptions behind its savings claims, so you can check them against this page.
Our guide to the right questions to ask a solar installer walks through each of these. MySolarFY does not rank or sell installers; we match you with licensed companies that serve your address so you can compare on these criteria yourself.
Check which solar programs are available at your Hicksville address →
Weighing your options across the area? Compare nearby solar markets with our local guides for Port Washington.
Frequently asked questions
Is solar worth it in Hicksville, NY?
For most homes with usable roof exposure, yes. PSEG Long Island’s rates are among the highest in the country, near or above the 28.55 cent New York average, so every kilowatt-hour your roof offsets is an expensive one (EIA, as of March 2026). With New York’s 25% state credit (up to $5,000) and PSEG Long Island net metering, our own estimate puts a typical system’s simple payback around 7 to 8 years, and a smaller system can be a bit faster because the state credit is capped. The 30% federal residential credit (Section 25D) ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025, so the 2026 case rests on those high bills plus the New York state credit rather than a federal rebate.
Who is my electric utility in Hicksville, NY?
Your electric utility is PSEG Long Island, which delivers your power and administers your solar net metering under the LIPA tariff (PSEG Long Island, as of 2026). Con Edison serves New York City and Westchester, not Long Island, so guidance written for Con Edison does not match your bill. PSEG Long Island even runs its distributed-generation interconnection office in Hicksville, at 175 East Old Country Road, so the paperwork connecting your roof to the grid is handled in your own hamlet.
Does New York still have a solar credit if the federal one ended?
Yes, New York’s state credit is separate and still active. New York gives a personal income-tax credit worth 25% of your system cost, capped at $5,000 and claimed on Form IT-255, with up to five years to use it (NY Department of Taxation and Finance, as of 2026). That state credit is unaffected by the end of the 30% federal residential credit (Section 25D), which ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025 (IRS, as of 2026). A Hicksville buyer in 2026 gets the New York credit but not the federal one.
How much do solar panels cost in Hicksville, and what is the payback?
A typical Nassau installed price is about $3.40 per watt before incentives, so a mid-size 7.5 kW system runs roughly $25,500, or about $20,500 after the 25% New York state credit (NYSERDA; NY Department of Taxation and Finance, as of 2026). At the 28.55 cent New York rate, our own estimate puts the simple payback around 7 to 8 years, a bit faster for a smaller system because the state credit caps at $5,000. Those are estimates with the inputs shown above, not a quote.
Did the 30 percent federal solar tax credit end?
Yes. The federal residential solar credit (Section 25D) ended for expenditures made after December 31, 2025, so a Hicksville homeowner who pays cash or finances a purchase in 2026 cannot claim it (IRS, as of 2026). A separate commercial credit can apply to a leased or third-party-owned system and is claimed by the company that owns the panels, not by you. New York’s 25% state credit is separate and still applies. We are not a tax advisor; confirm your situation with a professional, and see what the end of the federal solar tax credit means in 2026.
Can I get the NY-Sun rebate in Hicksville?
Probably not, unless you are income-eligible. The standard residential NY-Sun Megawatt Block for the Long Island region is fully subscribed, so a standard-income Hicksville homeowner generally receives $0 per watt; only the income-eligible Affordable Solar block, around $0.40 per watt, remains open (NYSERDA Long Island Dashboard, as of 2026). That is why the Hicksville case rests on high electricity bills plus New York’s state credit rather than an upfront rebate. Ask your installer to check the current Long Island block status for your situation.
Do I get my solar permit from Hicksville or the Town of Oyster Bay?
From the Town of Oyster Bay. Hicksville is an unincorporated hamlet with no village government, so the Town of Oyster Bay Building Division issues your residential solar permit directly, which is simpler than the multi-village setup on the nearby Great Neck peninsula (Town of Oyster Bay Building Division, as of 2026). Your licensed installer pulls that town permit, and the project also needs PSEG Long Island interconnection approval. Note that Nassau County is excluded from New York’s statewide expedited solar permit, so the town’s own process applies.
See the solar programs available in your Hicksville ZIP code →
Reviewed by the MySolarFY team for 2026. Figures were verified against the linked EIA, NREL PVWatts, NYSERDA, NY Department of Taxation and Finance, PSEG Long Island, DSIRE, and IRS sources as of June 2026; the PSEG Long Island rate, the NY-Sun Long Island block status, the LIPA Customer Benefit Contribution, installed prices, and the Town of Oyster Bay permit steps can change, so confirm current terms with PSEG Long Island, the Town of Oyster Bay Building Division, and the Nassau County assessor before you decide. MySolarFY does not provide tax or financial advice; consult a licensed professional about your own situation. Learn more about the MySolarFY team and how we work.
MySolarFY is a free service that matches homeowners with licensed solar installers. We are not an installer, financing company, tax advisor, or government program. “No up-front cost” refers to qualifying lease or PPA financing, where eligible homeowners may have no out-of-pocket cost at installation; it does not mean free solar, and solar panels are not free. Lease and PPA terms typically run 20 to 25 years, may include an annual price escalator, and total payments may exceed the cost of a cash purchase; on a lease or PPA the New York state tax credit goes to the company that owns the system, not the homeowner. Homeowners do not get the federal residential credit (Section 25D) that ended after December 31, 2025. Eligibility, savings, incentives, net-metering terms, the Customer Benefit Contribution, and rates vary and are not guaranteed. See our full disclaimer.
