San Francisco Solar 2026: PG&E Rates, Fog & NEM 3.0

San Francisco is a strong solar market for one blunt reason: Pacific Gas & Electric charges some of the highest electricity rates in the continental United States, so every kilowatt-hour your roof makes offsets an expensive one you would otherwise buy. But San Francisco is also different from a generic California solar page in ways that change the numbers. The city’s famous coastal fog means a roof in the Outer Sunset produces measurably less than one in sunnier SoMa, and both make less than a roof in San Jose or the Central Valley. New systems are on NEM 3.0, the Net Billing Tariff, which pays little for exported power and makes a home battery far more valuable. A lot of residents are confused about CleanPowerSF, the city’s Community Choice program, and about GoSolarSF, a local rebate that has since closed. And a dense city of flats, condos, and Victorians raises questions a suburb never does. This page walks through what solar actually produces and costs in San Francisco, how NEM 3.0 works with PG&E, which 2026 incentives still apply, and how City permitting works, so you can check your address in about a minute.

Why San Francisco’s PG&E rates make solar pay despite the fog

Solar pays in San Francisco because the power it replaces is unusually expensive. PG&E’s average bundled (non-CARE) residential rate was about 41.46 cents per kWh on January 1, 2026 and eased to about 40.6 cents effective March 1, 2026 (PG&E electric rate advisories, as of March 2026), and on its time-of-use plans the late-afternoon-to-evening peak climbs higher still (PG&E time-of-use plans, as of 2026). That is well above California’s statewide residential average near 35 cents per kWh, and roughly two and a half times the U.S. residential average near 18 cents (EIA, as of April 2026). So even though a San Francisco roof produces less than one in a sunnier part of the state, each kilowatt-hour it makes and you use on site offsets one of the most expensive grid kilowatt-hours in the nation.

The catch is timing, and it is why this page keeps coming back to batteries. PG&E’s highest prices land in the late afternoon and evening, roughly 4 to 9 pm, exactly when your panels are winding down and, on a foggy San Francisco evening, often already in the marine layer. Without storage, you make your cheapest power at midday and buy your most expensive power at dinner. That mismatch, more than the fog itself, is what shapes the San Francisco solar decision in 2026, and it is why we run the numbers below both with and without a battery.

How much sun does a San Francisco roof actually get? The fog question, answered with live numbers

San Francisco produces less than the rest of the Bay Area, and the fog is the reason, so we pulled the live numbers instead of guessing. Using NREL’s PVWatts model for a 6 kW system, a roof near 94103 in South of Market is estimated at about 9,368 kWh a year, while the same system near 94122 in the Outer Sunset, the city’s foggiest quarter, comes in at about 8,953 kWh (NREL PVWatts, as of July 2026). That is a real, cited gap of a few hundred kilowatt-hours a year within one city, driven by the marine layer that sits over the western neighborhoods far more than over the eastern, sunnier side. For comparison, the same 6 kW system is modeled at about 9,500 to 9,800 kWh a year in San Jose, and more still in the Central Valley or Southern California, so a San Francisco roof is genuinely on the lower end of California production.

The honest takeaway is that solar still works here, but you should size it on real output, not a California average. Your roof is not a ZIP code, so pitch, orientation, and shading from fog, neighboring buildings, and the hills all move these numbers. West-side and hillside homes in particular should model their own address. Run your exact roof on NREL’s free PVWatts calculator, then use that figure, and how much of it you can use on site, to size a system under NEM 3.0. To see how other California markets compare, read our San Jose solar guide, our Los Angeles solar guide, our Fresno solar guide in the sunnier Central Valley, and our Sacramento solar guide, which runs on SMUD rather than NEM 3.0.

CleanPowerSF is your power supplier, not an escape from NEM 3.0

This trips up a lot of San Francisco homeowners, so start here: CleanPowerSF is a Community Choice program, not a replacement for PG&E. When the city launched CleanPowerSF, most residents were automatically enrolled, and it is easy to think you left PG&E. You did not. CleanPowerSF, run by the SFPUC, buys the generation, the actual electricity, and sets the generation price and its clean-energy mix, but PG&E still owns the poles, wires, and your meter, delivers the power, handles your solar interconnection, and administers the underlying net metering and NEM 3.0 net-billing tariff (CleanPowerSF, as of 2026). On your bill you will see a CleanPowerSF generation line and PG&E delivery charges side by side.

What that means for your panels: being a CleanPowerSF customer does not exempt you from NEM 3.0. Because PG&E is the interconnection utility, a new San Francisco solar system is placed on California’s Net Billing Tariff just like any other PG&E-territory home, and the export math below applies to you (CleanPowerSF NEM tariff, as of 2026). CleanPowerSF does layer its own generation-side credit on top for solar customers, so the generation portion of your exports earns a separate CleanPowerSF credit, but that credit is set at avoided-cost-style rates and does not restore the near-retail net metering of the old NEM 2.0 era. In short: CleanPowerSF is who you buy power from, PG&E is who wires and meters you, and NEM 3.0 still governs how your exports are valued. For the statewide rules behind all of this, see our California solar and NEM 3.0 hub, and for how the whole PG&E territory works, our PG&E solar and net-billing guide.

How NEM 3.0 net billing works with PG&E, and why your bill can stay high

NEM 3.0 is the single biggest change to the San Francisco solar math, and it answers the question new solar owners keep asking: why is my PG&E bill still high? California moved new solar customers onto the Net Billing Tariff under CPUC Decision D.22-12-056 (CPUC, as of July 2026). Under the older NEM 2.0 rules, power you exported earned close to the full retail rate. Under NEM 3.0, exports are credited at time-varying avoided-cost values that are generally well below retail, often only single digits of cents per kWh, while the power you buy back in the evening still costs PG&E’s full retail price. If you export cheap midday power and then import expensive evening power, your bill can stay high even with a full roof of panels. The fix is to use your own solar rather than sell it.

A battery is what closes that gap in San Francisco. Because midday exports pay so little and evening power costs so much, storing your own production to run the house through the 4 to 9 pm peak is where the value is now, and it also keeps your lights on during a Public Safety Power Shutoff or storm outage. That is the core reason batteries are on most new San Francisco systems. If you submitted a complete interconnection application before April 15, 2023, you are grandfathered on the older NEM 1.0 or NEM 2.0 terms for 20 years from your interconnection date; applications on or after that date go on the Net Billing Tariff (CPUC, as of July 2026). For the mechanics of how credits work, see how net metering and net billing credit your solar exports.

What a San Francisco solar system costs, with and without a battery

Here is our own estimate for a representative San Francisco home under NEM 3.0. The table below is an original MySolarFY calculation, not a figure lifted from another site. It uses a 6 kW system producing about 9,150 kWh a year, the midpoint of the live PVWatts range above for the city, a blended PG&E retail value near 40 cents per kWh for power you use on site, an avoided-cost export value near 6 cents per kWh for power you send back, and typical 2026 California cash pricing of about $3.00 per watt installed, which works out to roughly $18,000 for the 6 kW system and about $13,000 more for a 13 kWh battery. It assumes no federal tax credit, because the homeowner credit ended after December 31, 2025, and it is before any income-qualified program. Your real numbers depend on your roof, your neighborhood’s sun, your usage, and your rate plan, so treat this as an estimate and get a written quote.

Scenario (6 kW, San Francisco, NEM 3.0)	Estimated cash cost, before incentives	How your solar is valued	Estimated first-year bill savings	Estimated simple payback
Solar only, no battery	About $18,000	Roughly half used on site at retail (near 40 cents), half exported at avoided cost (near 6 cents)	About $2,100	About 8 to 9 years
Solar plus a battery (about 13 kWh)	About $31,000	Most solar stored and used on site through the 4 to 9 pm peak, little low-value export	About $3,200	About 9 to 10 years, plus backup power and larger lifetime savings

How we derived first-year savings: we assume about 50 percent of your production is used on site without a battery, versus about 85 percent with a 13 kWh battery, valuing on-site use near 40 cents per kWh (blended PG&E retail) and exports near 6 cents (avoided cost), on about 9,150 kWh a year of live-modeled San Francisco production. Because PG&E’s evening peak is so expensive, a battery that shifts use into the 4 to 9 pm window can be worth more than this simple blend suggests. Your split depends on your neighborhood’s sun, your usage pattern, and battery size.

Notice the payback is close between the two, but what you get is not. A battery does not shorten payback dramatically at today’s prices, but it captures far more of your solar’s value under NEM 3.0, shields you from PG&E’s most expensive peak hours, and keeps the lights on during a Public Safety Power Shutoff or other outage. The difference shows up in the lifetime total, not the payback year. Over 25 years, assuming a conservative 3 percent annual rate increase and normal panel degradation, we estimate the solar-only system nets roughly $54,000 and the solar-plus-battery system roughly $68,000 in bill savings after the up-front cost, and after one mid-life battery replacement for the storage case (MySolarFY estimate, same live production and rate inputs as the table above). These are rough figures, not a guarantee; your result depends on your rate plan, your neighborhood’s sun, and your usage. Income-qualified households can do considerably better than these figures through the state programs in the next section. For a deeper look at storage pricing, see our breakdown of what a home battery costs, and to weigh the long-run numbers see how to power a California home with solar the right way.

Which California solar incentives still apply in San Francisco in 2026

California has no state solar income-tax credit, so the incentives that matter are a property-tax break and a set of income-qualified programs. The property-tax exclusion is worth special attention in San Francisco, where home values are high, because without it the added value of a solar system could push up your assessment. The table below shows what is active for a San Francisco homeowner in 2026 and what has ended, so you can plan around real programs rather than outdated ones.

Program	What it does	Status in 2026 for a San Francisco homeowner
California active solar property-tax exclusion	Keeps the added home value of a solar system out of a property-tax reassessment	Active, scheduled to sunset January 1, 2027; the system must be installed or under construction before then, and pending state legislation could extend the date (California BOE, as of 2026)
DAC-SASH (Disadvantaged Communities Single-family Solar Homes)	Up to $3 per watt upfront for income-qualified owner-occupants in disadvantaged-community census tracts	Active and accepting applications; PG&E customers are eligible, but only in qualifying tracts, so it is not automatic citywide (CPUC, as of 2026)
RSSE (Residential Solar and Storage Equity)	Income-qualified incentive for battery storage paired with solar	Open in 2026, income-qualified only; it is the successor path funded through AB 209 and runs through about 2028, and some regions have a waitlist (CPUC, as of 2026)
General SGIP battery rebate	Broad battery storage rebate open to most customers	Closed to new applicants at the end of 2025; the legacy equity and equity-resiliency budgets also stopped taking new applications then (CPUC, as of 2026)
GoSolarSF (SFPUC city rebate)	A former local per-watt incentive for San Francisco residents and businesses	Closed; the program funded about 6,000 systems and no longer accepts new applications (SFPUC, as of 2026)
California state income-tax credit	A state credit against income tax	None; California has no personal income-tax credit for residential solar (DSIRE, as of 2026)
Federal Residential Clean Energy Credit (Section 25D)	The 30 percent federal homeowner tax credit	Ended for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025 (IRS, as of 2026)

Note: To find out whether your home is in a disadvantaged-community tract that qualifies for DAC-SASH, check your address in the state’s CalEnviroScreen tool. Eligibility is set tract by tract, so it is not automatic for the whole city, and the income-qualified programs also have household-income limits. An installer experienced with these programs, or GRID Alternatives, which administers DAC-SASH, can confirm whether you qualify before you sign anything.

What happened to GoSolarSF, the city’s local rebate

If a search result or an AI answer told you San Francisco has its own solar rebate, that information is out of date. GoSolarSF was a genuine local incentive run by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission starting in 2008, paying a declining per-watt amount to city residents and businesses, with extra adders for low-income households and for hiring local, San Francisco-based installers. Over its life it helped fund roughly 6,000 solar systems in the city. That funding is now fully committed, and GoSolarSF is no longer accepting new applications, so a homeowner going solar in 2026 cannot count on it (SFPUC, as of July 2026). We call it out because it still shows up in older articles and AI summaries as though it were live. What is still real for a San Francisco homeowner in 2026 is the property-tax exclusion, the income-qualified DAC-SASH and RSSE programs, and the bill savings from using your own power at PG&E’s high rates.

What the federal tax-credit change means for San Francisco homeowners

The federal homeowner credit is gone, and you should ignore any page or AI answer that still applies it to your quote. The 30 percent federal Residential Clean Energy Credit (Section 25D) ended for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, so a San Francisco homeowner who completes an installation in 2026 with cash or a loan cannot claim it (IRS, as of 2026). You will still see search results and even AI answers claiming the 30 percent credit runs through 2032; that is out of date for the homeowner credit, which already ended. A homeowner whose system was placed in service on or before December 31, 2025 can still claim it on their 2025 return, but a 2026 installation cannot. For the full timeline, see what the federal solar tax credit change means in 2026.

One federal credit remains, but it is not the homeowner’s to claim. A separate commercial credit, Section 48E, can apply to the business that owns a leased or power-purchase-agreement system, not to the resident (IRS, as of 2026). On a lease or PPA you do not file for a federal credit yourself; the company that owns the panels does. The 25D homeowner credit, by contrast, ended after December 31, 2025.

San Francisco solar permits: an instant online path for standard systems

One genuine local advantage: San Francisco lets most standard residential solar permits be issued online, often instantly. The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI) reviews and issues residential rooftop solar permits, and for a standard small system on an existing single-family home, duplex, or townhouse that meets the eligibility rules, you can get an instant online electrical permit through the City’s SolarAPP+ integration, with no in-person plan check (City and County of San Francisco, get a permit for a solar photovoltaic system, as of 2026). This is backed by state law: California’s AB 2188 requires every city, San Francisco included, to offer an expedited, streamlined permitting path for small residential rooftop solar of 10 kW or less (DSIRE, California statewide solar permitting standards, as of 2026). In practice, a simple, code-compliant system can move fast, while anything that triggers a plan check takes longer.

Note for Victorians, historic districts, and hillside homes: San Francisco’s older housing stock is exactly where the instant path can stop. A system on a designated historic resource, in a historic district, on a steep hillside lot, or one that needs a main-panel upgrade or structural or fire-access review will route to a full plan review rather than the instant permit, which adds time. Older knob-and-tube or undersized electrical service is common in the city’s Victorians and can require an upgrade before panels go on. Ask your installer early which path your address falls under, and if you are in a condo or flat, confirm who controls the roof before you design anything.

Solar in a city of flats, condos, and Victorians

San Francisco’s dense housing stock raises questions a suburban roof never does, so sort out roof rights first. Much of the city is flats, condominiums, and tenancies-in-common, where you may not solely control the roof. If you own a condo or a unit in a multi-unit building, the roof is often common area governed by your HOA or condo board, and you will need their approval and a plan to share or allocate the system and its output. California’s Solar Rights Act limits an association’s ability to prohibit a residential solar system and bars conditions that significantly raise the cost or cut the output, but a board can still set reasonable placement and aesthetic rules (DSIRE, as of 2026). If you rent, the roof is the owner’s decision, though CleanPowerSF and PG&E also offer non-rooftop clean-power options for tenants.

For single-family Victorians and Edwardians, the roof itself is the variable. A small or steeply pitched roof, multiple dormers, or heavy shading from neighboring three-story buildings and street trees can limit how many panels fit and how much they produce, which is another reason to model your specific roof rather than trust a citywide average. A reputable installer will assess your roof’s age and condition first, since it rarely makes sense to put a 25-year system on a roof that needs replacing in five. If your roof is near end of life, our guide on powering a California home with solar the right way walks through sequencing the roof and the panels.

Paying for solar in San Francisco: cash, loan, lease, or PPA

There is no single right way to pay for solar; the best fit depends on whether you want to own the system and capture the incentives yourself, or avoid an up-front cost. A lease or PPA can mean no up-front cost for eligible homeowners, but it is a long-term agreement with monthly payments, not free solar, and the system owner, not you, would claim any incentive that goes to the owner. A leased system can also complicate a future home sale, since the buyer must qualify to assume the agreement, so read the transfer terms. The table compares the common paths at a high level.

Path	Up-front cost	Who owns the system and any owner incentives	Best when
Cash purchase	Full system cost	You, the owner	You want the fastest payback and the most lifetime savings
Solar loan	Little to none, financed	You, the owner	You want ownership without paying cash up front
Lease or PPA	$0-up-front where eligible	The third-party owner	You prefer no up-front cost and a simpler, fixed monthly bill

How to choose a solar installer in San Francisco

San Francisco and the wider Bay Area have a deep market of licensed solar companies, which is good for you because it means real competition on price and service. Rather than chasing a “best installer” list, screen any company against objective criteria:

• NABCEP certification, the industry’s professional standard for PV installers.
• A valid California Contractors State License Board (CSLB) license with the correct classification (C-46 solar or C-10 electrical).
• A clear workmanship and equipment warranty in writing.
• Real experience with PG&E interconnection, NEM 3.0 net billing, San Francisco DBI permitting, and the city’s older roofs and electrical service, plus honest battery sizing for your evening usage.
• A written production estimate for your specific roof and neighborhood, built on today’s NEM 3.0 export rules, not the old NEM 2.0 economics.

MySolarFY matches you with licensed installers that serve your area so you can compare real local quotes side by side, with no obligation. To see how we research and where our figures come from, read our data and methodology, and learn more about the MySolarFY editorial team.

Check which solar programs are available at your San Francisco address →

Frequently asked questions

Are solar panels worth it in San Francisco in 2026? For most owner-occupied San Francisco homes with a usable roof, yes, because PG&E’s rates are so high. Its average bundled residential rate is about 40.6 cents per kWh as of March 2026 (PG&E, as of March 2026), and even a foggier Outer Sunset roof is modeled near 8,950 kWh a year for a 6 kW system, with a sunnier SoMa roof near 9,370 kWh, on a live PVWatts run (NREL PVWatts, as of July 2026). Under NEM 3.0 the savings come from using your own power, often with a battery, since exports pay avoided-cost rates. Savings are not guaranteed and depend on your roof, neighborhood sun, usage, and how you pay, but the very high local rate keeps solar worthwhile in most of the city.

Does San Francisco’s fog make solar not worth it? No, but it does lower your output, so plan on real numbers. Live PVWatts modeling puts a 6 kW system near 8,953 kWh a year in the foggy Outer Sunset (94122) versus about 9,368 kWh in sunnier SoMa (94103), a gap of a few hundred kilowatt-hours within one city (NREL PVWatts, as of July 2026). Both are lower than San Jose or the Central Valley, but still well above much of the country, and PG&E’s high rates mean each kilowatt-hour is worth a lot. Model your specific address, especially on the west side or a hillside, before sizing a system.

Does CleanPowerSF change my net metering, or do I still deal with PG&E? You still deal with PG&E for the physical parts of solar. CleanPowerSF, run by the SFPUC, supplies the generation on your bill, but PG&E owns the meter, delivers the power, handles your interconnection, and administers NEM 3.0 net billing (CleanPowerSF, as of 2026). Being a CleanPowerSF customer does not exempt you from NEM 3.0, so the low avoided-cost export values still apply to a new system. CleanPowerSF does add its own generation-side credit for solar customers, but at avoided-cost-style rates that do not restore the old near-retail net metering. Treat CleanPowerSF as who you buy power from and PG&E as who wires and meters you.

Is GoSolarSF still available? No. GoSolarSF was a local San Francisco solar rebate run by the SFPUC starting in 2008, and it helped fund roughly 6,000 systems, but its funding is fully committed and it no longer accepts new applications (SFPUC, as of 2026). If you see it listed as a current incentive, that page is out of date. The benefits a San Francisco homeowner can still use in 2026 are the state property-tax exclusion, the income-qualified DAC-SASH and RSSE programs, and the bill savings from offsetting PG&E’s high rates with your own power.

Do I need a battery to go solar in San Francisco? You do not strictly need one, but it is what makes the NEM 3.0 rules pay. Under the Net Billing Tariff, exported power is credited well below the retail rate, so selling your midday surplus earns little (CPUC, as of July 2026). A battery stores that cheap midday solar and lets you run your home during PG&E’s expensive evening peak instead of buying it back, and it adds backup power during a Public Safety Power Shutoff or other outage. Solar without a battery still saves money at these rates, but storage is where most of the new value is in San Francisco.

How much do solar panels cost in San Francisco? As a planning figure, typical 2026 California cash pricing runs around $3.00 per watt installed before any incentive, so a 6 kW system is roughly $18,000 and adding a 13 kWh battery is about $13,000 more, for around $31,000 for solar plus storage (MySolarFY estimate, see the cost table above). Your real price depends on system size, roof complexity, whether your older home needs an electrical upgrade, your equipment choice, and whether you pay cash, finance, or lease. Because the 30 percent federal homeowner credit ended after December 31, 2025 (IRS, as of 2026), do not count on it in your budget. Get at least a couple of written quotes to compare price and equipment.

Can I get solar with no up-front cost in San Francisco? Some homeowners can, through a lease or power purchase agreement (PPA) where eligible, which can mean no out-of-pocket cost at installation in exchange for monthly payments. This is not free solar; it is a long-term agreement, typically 20 to 25 years, and total payments may exceed the cost of a cash purchase. On a lease or PPA the third-party owner, not you, owns the system and any incentive that goes to the owner, and the agreement can complicate a future home sale. If you want to own the system and keep the property-tax exclusion and any income-qualified incentive yourself, a cash purchase or solar loan is the path that keeps them. Check what you qualify for before deciding.

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Written by SolarFY Editor and reviewed by the MySolarFY editorial team on July 9, 2026. Figures were verified against the linked PG&E, CPUC, California BOE, DSIRE, IRS, EIA, CleanPowerSF, SFPUC, City and County of San Francisco, and NREL PVWatts sources as of July 2026; PG&E rates, NEM 3.0 export values, the SGIP, RSSE, and DAC-SASH program terms, and the property-tax exclusion deadline can change, so confirm current terms with PG&E, the CPUC, and the City before you decide. MySolarFY does not provide tax or financial advice; consult a licensed professional about your own situation. Learn more about the MySolarFY editorial team and how we research and source our data.

MySolarFY is a free service that matches homeowners with licensed solar installers. We are not an installer, financing company, tax advisor, or government program, and we do not provide tax advice. The federal residential solar tax credit (Section 25D) ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025, and most homeowners whose systems are placed in service in 2026 cannot claim it, so confirm your tax situation with a professional. “No up-front cost” refers to qualifying lease or PPA financing where eligible; these agreements 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 system owner, not the homeowner, owns any incentive that goes to the owner. Solar panels are not free and monthly payments apply. Production, incentives, savings, and rates vary, change over time, and are not guaranteed. See our full disclaimer.