About the calculator
The problem it solves
Two utilities serve the Austin area and they treat rooftop solar in opposite ways. Austin Energy pays a Value of Solar credit on every kWh your panels make and offers a rebate; Pedernales Electric (PEC) pays far less for what you export and offers no rebate. Search results mostly cover one utility, or come from installers. This page runs the same roof through both.
What you enter
- System size in kW DC, the installed price in dollars per watt, and production in kWh per kW per year.
- Your home's electricity use in kWh per year.
- Optional: your yearly Austin Energy electric charges, which cap the credit.
- For PEC: the share of solar you use yourself, with PEC payback also shown at 10%, 50% and 100%.
- Whether to count Austin Energy's $4,000 rebate, which needs a system of at least 3 kW DC.
Where the rates come from
Austin Energy and PEC's own rate and program pages, Austin Energy's October 22, 2026 Value of Solar release and its tariff rider, and EnergySage for the price per watt. Each is listed with the date we read it on the method and sources page, together with the assumptions that are ours and the costs we leave out, such as financing and panel degradation.
How we make money
Currently we earn nothing from this site and it has no partner or affiliate links. Nothing has been applied for. If we later add quote-request partners such as Solar.com or EnergySage, the links will be marked sponsored, we may earn a commission when you request quotes or buy, at no cost to you, and the calculator will still show a utility result that is unfavorable to solar when that is what the numbers say.
Who runs it
Spicewood Secure Storage LLC, Spicewood, Texas. Our team can be reached at [email protected] with a rate that changed or a number that looks wrong.
Where it stops
We are not an installer, utility, tax or legal adviser. Austin Energy points to the Texas Comptroller for the property tax exemption and the TDLR for complaints; we do not give tax advice.