In a true net metering state, the power your panels send to the grid is credited at the same rate you pay to pull power back later, effectively letting you use the grid as free storage. Texas never adopted that rule statewide. Most of the state runs on a deregulated retail electricity market, so instead of one utility setting one net metering rule, dozens of competing retail electric providers each publish their own solar buyback plan, and the rate you get depends entirely on which one you choose.
What Texas homeowners get instead
Buyback rates vary widely and change often, so treat any specific number you see as an example rather than a rate you can count on. Some providers have offered rates close to the retail price for a limited time, others a lower fixed rate locked in for a year or more, and some pay only a few cents per kilowatt hour. A handful of plans do not credit exported power at all unless you specifically choose a plan built for solar owners. Whatever the number is when you shop, confirm it directly with the provider before signing, since published rates shift.
Reading the buyback rate on your own plan matters as much as reading the specs on your own panels.
Not every utility works the same way
Municipal utilities and electric cooperatives sit outside the competitive retail market and set their own rules instead of leaving it to competing providers. That does not mean better, only different, and the difference between cooperatives alone can be significant. Pedernales Electric Cooperative, one of the larger cooperatives in the state, credits exported power at its avoided cost rate, similar to a wholesale rate and well below what a homeowner pays for power pulled from the grid. Bartlett Electric Cooperative, by comparison, carries a homeowner's excess forward at the full retail rate each month, and only pays a lower wholesale rate for whatever is left over at the end of the year, a meaningfully more generous approach. The lesson is not that one type of utility beats another across the board. It is that the name of your own utility or cooperative is one of the first things worth checking, not an afterthought.
What a pitch might imply
Every kilowatt hour your panels send back is worth the same as one you buy.
What is actually true
The credit for exported power depends entirely on your plan or utility, and it is often lower, sometimes zero.
Free nights plans
Since buyback rates can run so low, some homeowners look past exporting altogether and consider alternatives instead, a free nights electricity plan paired with solar being one that comes up often. Whether that actually pays off turns out to be a genuinely nuanced question, depending heavily on your own daily usage pattern and whether a battery is part of the setup. We cover that in real depth in our guide on how buyback plans work with rooftop solar.