The Post-NEM Era: Selling Energy Back to the Grid in 2026 & Beyond
For years, selling home solar energy followed a simple script: generate more power than you need, send the extra to the grid, and let utility credits shrink the bill. Net energy metering (NEM) made that pitch easy to understand and easy for selling back to the grid. That era is ending.
Across the country, energy export credits are shrinking while evening electricity rates climb. Homeowners are becoming frustrated and confused. Installers are starting to field uncomfortable questions about the solar energy systems they sold their customers only a few years back. And many solar systems that once looked like slam-dunk investments now feel underwhelming on monthly bills.
The fix is not bigger systems or better marketing. It is a shift in how solar value is explained. In today’s market, the real win is self-consumption. And self-consumption only works when energy storage is part of the conversation.
Why Net Metering No Longer Anchors Solar Savings
In its current iteration, NEM allows homeowners to export excess solar electricity to the grid and receive bill credits in return. For years, those credits were close to the retail price of electricity, which made exporting energy just as valuable as using it directly. Utilities tolerated that model when solar adoption was low.
As more efficient and powerful residential solar solutions and adoption have grown in the last five (5) years, the math stopped working. Midday solar production began flooding the grid at the same time demand was dropping. Meanwhile, evening demand surged when solar output disappeared.
Regulators responded by adjusting compensation to better reflect grid realities. The new reality in 2026 is that NEM 3.0 and the exported solar energy from your rooftop is worth far less than electricity purchased during peak evening hours. In some markets, that gap is dramatic.
Top 5 Largest NEM 3.0 Gaps (2025)
$0.554
$0.524
$0.435
$0.282
$0.199
The Mismatch Homeowners Are Experiencing
Most households use electricity when people are home: early mornings and evenings. Solar panels do their best work in the middle of the day, when demand is lowest. Under older net-metering rules, that mismatch barely mattered. Today, it matters a lot.
Homeowners are discovering that selling energy at noon and buying it back at night is a losing trade. Oversizing solar panels does not solve the problem. It can actually make it worse by increasing exports that earn little value. What matters now is not how much energy a system produces over a year, but when that energy is used.
THE SELF-CONSUMPTION ERA OF GRID BUYBACK PROGRAMS
The United States Government and Energy Utilities define self-consumption as: the portion of on-site solar generation that is used directly by the customer rather than exported to the electric grid.
That’s just a more complicated way of saying: you use your own solar power first to offset the hours when electricity from the utility is most expensive. And secondarily, exporting any surplus solar power to the utilities to help balance the grid for additional revenue.
The result is a quiet but important shift: solar systems still produce energy, but exporting that energy no longer guarantees savings.
SELF-CONSUMPTION MODEL = BATTERY STORAGE MODEL
WHY THE FUTURE IS BATTERY-BASED
Without energy storage, excess solar power has only one place to go: the grid. Batteries change that dynamic, capturing surplus solar energy produced during the middle of the day and saving it for when electricity prices are higher and solar production drops. That single shift changes the economics of residential solar.
Electricity and energy bill savings are no longer tied to utility buyback rates or regulatory decisions. They depend on how much stored battery energy can be used to offset grid at peak demand and peak rates. Not how energy is credited.
PV + Inverter-only systems rise and fall with utility rate structures. Solar-plus-storage systems operate with far more insulation from them. That difference will matter more each year.
HOW HYBRID INVERTERS + BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE CREATE LONG-TERM BENEFITS
Battery energy storage systems age better than export-dependent solar. They are built around real household behavior, not long-term promises from utilities.Self-consumption reduces energy costs through several reinforcing mechanisms:
- Avoiding peak rates: Stored solar replaces the most expensive grid power.
- Stabilizing costs: As utility rates rise, stored energy becomes more valuable.
- Managing growing loads: Batteries help absorb demand from EVs, heat pumps, and electrification.
- Reducing exposure: Homeowners rely less on rules they cannot control.
REFRAMING THE INSTALLER CONVERSATION
Installers who continue leading with buyback rates are fighting yesterday’s battle. The more effective approach is reframing solar as an energy-management system rather than a power plant. That means shifting language:
- From credits to control
- From system size to energy flow
- From payback charts to monthly cost behavior
Batteries should be explained as tools for shaping energy use, not just insurance against outages. When homeowners understand that connection, the conversation becomes calmer, more rational, and easier to defend.
TALKING TO EXISTING SOLAR CUSTOMERS
Many early residential solar adopters might feel blindsided by the changes. They were sold certainty in a system that depended on policy stability. For these homeowners, storage is not about chasing new incentives. It is about protecting the value of what they already own. A battery allows existing solar systems to work the way customers assumed they always would by keeping energy available when it is needed most.
A Simple Way to Explain It
Without storage, excess solar energy leaves the house at midday and comes back later at a higher price. With storage, that same energy waits. It is the difference between selling groceries cheaply at lunch and buying them back at dinner or storing them at home and eating later. No new panels. Just better timing.
Why This Shift Is Permanent
As homes electrify and grids strain under peak demand, export-heavy solar becomes harder to justify. Batteries will move from optional to expected. Self-consumption will replace net metering as the primary value driver for residential solar.
Net metering sold credits. Self-consumption sells stability, flexibility, and long-term control. Installers who learn to explain that difference clearly will not just survive the post-NEM world they will lead it.
References
U.S. Department of Energy. Solar Integration and Net Metering.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Residential Battery Storage Under Time-of-Use Rates.
California Public Utilities Commission. Net Energy Metering Successor Tariff.