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Get a Free QuoteTwo things separate a Tyler project from the Dallas project 100 miles west: the pine canopy that decides how much roof is actually usable, and an inspection queue that the federal permitting record measures at more than five times the Texas median. Neither shows up on a price sheet. Both show up on your calendar.
Installed solar in Tyler runs $2.10 to $2.50 per watt in 2026, so a 10 kW system lands between $21,000 and $25,000 before incentives. Tyler is Oncor delivery territory, which means your export credit comes from the Retail Electric Provider you choose rather than from the utility. The federal 25D credit expired December 31, 2025.
The table below is the Tyler price band applied straight across the sizes East Texas homes usually land on. The spread between the two columns is real, not padding: the low end is a simple, unshaded, single-plane composition roof, and the high end is a cut-up roof with trees, a service upgrade, or both.
| System size | At $2.10/W | At $2.50/W |
|---|---|---|
| 6 kW | $12,600 | $15,000 |
| 8 kW | $16,800 | $20,000 |
| 10 kW | $21,000 | $25,000 |
| 12 kW | $25,200 | $30,000 |
| 14 kW | $29,400 | $35,000 |
There is no federal credit on a Tyler purchase. Section 25D expired on December 31, 2025. Any 2026 quote that still shows 30% coming back on a cash or loan purchase is quoting a credit that no longer exists. The third-party-owned route is different — see how that works.
Because the wait is at the inspection, not the permit. NREL's SolarTRACE dataset records the median calendar days each phase of a completed residential rooftop project actually took, broken out by permitting jurisdiction and serving utility. Read the Tyler row against the Texas row and the shape of the delay is obvious.
| Jurisdiction & utility | Cohort | Permit review | Utility pre-install | Inspection wait | Final IX → PTO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Tyler · Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC | 2022 · 18 installs | 8.5 d | 0 d | 27 d | 1 d |
| Smith County · Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC | 2022 · 16 installs | not reported | 0 d | 6 d | 1 d |
| Smith County · Wood County Electric Coop, Inc | 2022 · 16 installs | not reported | not reported | 6 d | not reported |
| Texas, all jurisdictions | 2024 · 2673 installs | 4 d | 3 d | 5 d | 4 d |
Inside the city, the median inspection wait is 27 days. On addresses the county permits instead, it is 6. That is the same utility, the same installers and the same equipment — the only variable is which office stamps the paperwork. Tyler's built-up area does not stop neatly at the city limit, so on a lot near the edge this is a genuine question to ask before anyone quotes you a completion date, not a technicality.
Both utility-side phases came in at or below a day on Tyler projects — a 0-day median for the pre-install interconnection review and 1 day from final interconnection to permission-to-operate, against Texas medians of 3 and 4. Whatever is slow about a Tyler schedule, it is not the wires company. A quote that blames Oncor for a two-month timeline is describing something the federal record does not show.
For context on the paperwork itself: the City of Tyler takes solar permits online, the fee band sits at $50-$100, and contract-to-PTO on completed local projects has run roughly 5–11 weeks. The inspection queue is the single line item most likely to push you to the far end of that range.
Source: NREL SolarTRACE Dataset v9-9-2025 (data.nlr.gov), median timelines for 0-10kW residential PV. Figures are medians for the reporting year shown, not commitments; cells the federal file leaves empty appear as “not reported”.
Yes, and more here than in most of the state. Tyler sits in the East Texas pine belt, where mature canopy over a roof is the normal case rather than the exception. West Texas quoting habits — assume the roof is clear, size to the available plane, move on — produce optimistic numbers on a Tyler lot.
Not a sentence in the proposal saying shading was considered — the actual per-plane, per-month model with the tree line in it. If the modelled production does not reconcile with the roof you can see from the street, that is the conversation to have before signing.
On an unshaded Panhandle roof, string-level design is defensible. Under dappled pine shade that moves through the afternoon, per-module optimisation stops being an upsell and starts being the reason the array hits its estimate at all.
A heavily canopied lot can be a genuinely worse solar site, and the honest recommendation is a smaller array on the one clean plane, trimming first, or a ground mount on an open part of the lot. An installer who will say that is worth more than one who will not.
Your Retail Electric Provider does — not Oncor. Oncor is the delivery utility: it owns the poles, runs the meter and processes the interconnection, but it does not sell you energy and it publishes no export rate. Every credit you earn for solar you push back onto the grid is a term of the REP plan you signed, which makes plan selection a solar decision, not a billing chore.
That first number is the quiet advantage of being on the state's largest delivery utility. A Tyler homeowner shops the same broad menu a Dallas homeowner does, including the retail-match plans that credit exports at the full energy rate. Homeowners in the co-op and municipal pockets of Texas have no equivalent choice at all.
| Provider | Plan | Export credit | Term | Rollover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green Mountain Energy | Renewable Rewards Solar Buyback 36 | Retail-match — 100% of energy charge credited for exports up to consumption | 36 mo | |
| TXU Energy | Solar Buyback Match 36 | Retail-match — export credits at your plan consumption rate | 36 mo | |
| Reliant Energy | Solar Payback Plus 12 | 4.3¢/kWh fixed export credit | 12 mo | — |
| Almika Energy | 60 Energy Plus Buyback | 10.0¢/kWh fixed export credit | 60 mo | |
| Chariot Energy | GreenVolt Solar Buyback 12 | 7.0¢/kWh fixed export credit | 12 mo | |
| TXU Energy | Solar Buyback Saver 24 | 5.5¢/kWh fixed export credit | 24 mo | — |
| Rhythm Energy | PowerShift Solar Buyback 12 | 9.5¢/kWh fixed export credit | 12 mo | |
| Gexa Energy | Battery Benefits 12 | 16.9¢/kWh fixed export credit (requires battery) | 12 mo | |
| Direct Energy | Direct Solar Unlimited 12 | 5.3–5.9¢/kWh fixed export credit (varies by TDU) | 12 mo | — |
| Frontier Utilities | Solar Saver 12 | 5.0¢/kWh fixed export credit | 12 mo | — |
| Constellation | Solar Buyback 12 | 4.5¢/kWh fixed export credit | 12 mo | — |
| Ambit Energy | Texas Solar Buyback 12 | 3.5¢/kWh fixed export credit | 12 mo | — |
| Gexa Energy | Solar Export Saver 12 | 3.0¢/kWh fixed export credit | 12 mo | — |
| Tesla Energy | TE Drive Plan | 3.0¢/kWh fixed export credit | 12 mo | |
| Chariot Energy | Shine Solar Buyback | Real-time ERCOT wholesale rate (varies hourly) | 1 mo | |
| Octopus Energy | Solar Buyback | Real-time TX wholesale rate (15-min intervals, no cap) | 1 mo | — |
Plan terms change frequently. Confirm the current export rate and term directly with the provider before you sign, and read the full Texas buyback comparison first. Oncor's own solar-plus-battery rebate runs across its delivery territory and requires a battery — eligibility details here.
No — provided you file. Texas exempts 100% of the appraised value a solar device adds to a home, so the system can raise what the house is worth without raising what you are taxed on. The catch is procedural: the exemption is not applied for you.
Enter your own bill and roof assumptions rather than borrowing an average someone else's house produced.
Estimate your solar cost, payback period, and 25-year savings for any major TX metro.
Federal Residential Solar Tax Credit (Section 25D) Expired
Homeowners who purchase solar with cash or a loan receive $0 in federal tax credits. Section 25D expired December 31, 2025.
CenterPoint delivery area. Deregulated — choose a solar buyback REP for best export value. High humidity reduces panel efficiency slightly. Strong solar irradiance despite cloud cover. Largest TX solar market by installed capacity.
Cost Range
$2.00–$2.40/W
Peak Sun Hours
5.3 hrs/day
Avg Electric Rate
$0.14/kWh
County Tax Rate
2.31%
Annual Production
15,476
kWh/year
Annual Savings
$1,800
per year
Payback Period
12.2
years
25-Year Savings
$65,627
total
Estimates based on average 2026 TX solar pricing, 5.3 peak sun hours/day, 0.5%/year panel degradation, 3%/year electricity rate increase, and TX property tax exemption (Tax Code §11.27). Actual costs vary by installer, roof condition, and system configuration. Section 25D residential ITC expired Dec 31, 2025 — $0 federal tax credit for cash/loan purchases.
Verified August 2026 against the NREL SolarTRACE release cited above and Oncor's published service-territory information.
Shade study, Oncor interconnection, and a realistic inspection timeline — before you sign anything.