Battery storage incentives, by state (2026)

Start here: in 2026, the federal purchase credit is gone. The Section 25D residential credit that gave home battery buyers 30% back expired on December 31, 2025. A cash buyer in 2026 gets $0 federal credit. That is true in every state.

So state and utility programs are now the entire incentive picture for a cash buyer. And that picture is uneven. California is the clear standout. Most states offer little to nothing on the purchase side. A few run programs that pay you over time instead. The rest, you have to look up for yourself, which is exactly what the end of this guide helps you do.

One honest warning before the state list: the most common way people get the incentive math wrong is by confusing two completely different things.

Two kinds of incentive, and why the difference matters

There are two types of battery incentive. They are not the same, and a battery can qualify for one, both, or neither.

• Purchase rebates and tax credits. These cut your upfront cost once. You buy the battery, and a program hands back a chunk of the price or a tax credit. California's SGIP is one. The late, lamented federal 25D credit was one. Maryland's storage tax credit is one.
• Performance or grid-services payments. These pay you over time for letting the utility dispatch your battery during peak demand. You keep the battery; the utility borrows its capacity a few times a season and pays you for it. ConnectedSolutions in the Northeast is the classic example. Most virtual power plant (VPP) and bring-your-own-battery programs work this way.

Why this matters: a salesperson may quote you a "$1,000 incentive" that is actually a multi-year grid-services payment, not money off the sticker. Both have value. But only a purchase rebate lowers what you finance and pay today. Keep them in separate mental buckets.

California: the one with real specifics

In 2026, if you are a Californian buying a home battery outright, SGIP is the incentive that matters. It is the state's main battery rebate, and with the federal homeowner credit gone, it is doing most of the heavy lifting on the incentive side.

SGIP, the Self-Generation Incentive Program, is administered by the CPUC and paid out through the big utilities, PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E. It has tiers:

• General Market tier: roughly $150 to $200 per usable kWh of battery capacity. On a typical whole-home battery, that is a meaningful but not enormous chunk off the price.
• Equity Resiliency tier: up to roughly $1,000 per usable kWh for qualifying homes, generally those in high fire-threat districts or on a medical baseline. At that level the rebate can cover most of the battery cost for the households who need backup most.

The catch, and it is a real one: SGIP funding is limited and runs in rounds, not guaranteed year-round. Budgets get allocated, fill up, and reopen. The tier you qualify for and whether money is currently available both change. So treat any SGIP number as "confirm current availability and your tier on the CPUC SGIP portal" before you count on it.

For the full picture, see SGIP, explained and our California home battery report.

Texas and Florida: no statewide rebate, check your utility

Both states sit in our calculator, so let us be direct. In 2026 there is no statewide battery purchase rebate in Texas or Florida. Buying a battery outright in either state, you should plan on no state-level money off the price.

That is not the whole story, though. Some individual Texas utilities and co-ops, and some Florida utilities, have run their own storage or bring-your-own-battery programs. These typically pay you for grid participation, the performance type above, rather than rebating your purchase. They are utility specific, the dollar amounts move, and programs open and close. So the honest instruction is: check with your specific utility for any current BYOB or VPP program, and do not assume a figure you saw last year still holds.

States that have run residential storage incentives

Beyond California, several states have run residential storage incentives. The important caveat applies to every name below: verify each one directly on the program's site, because amounts and eligibility rules change often, and some programs pause or run out of funding mid-year. We are naming categories here, not quoting current dollar figures we cannot stand behind.

• Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island have run ConnectedSolutions-style programs. These are performance payments: the utility pays you per season for letting it use your battery during peak events. This is grid-services money over time, not a purchase rebate.
• Maryland has had a state energy-storage income-tax credit, a purchase-side incentive that offsets part of your cost at tax time. Confirm whether it is funded and open for the current year before counting on it.
• New York has run storage incentives through NY-SUN and individual utilities such as Con Edison. Oregon and several other states have offered residential storage or solar-plus-storage programs at various points.

Notice the split: the Northeast ConnectedSolutions states pay you over time, while Maryland's credit cuts your upfront cost. Same goal, opposite mechanics. Sort any offer into the right bucket before you compare it to a California SGIP rebate.

How to actually find yours

Lists like this go stale. The reliable way to find what you qualify for is to check the live, canonical source and then verify locally.

• Start at DSIRE. The DSIRE database, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, tracks state and utility energy incentives and is updated regularly. Search your state and your utility. It is the single best honest move on this page.
• Make your installer name the program in writing. A real incentive has a program name, an administrator, and eligibility rules. Ask for those in writing. If an installer cannot name the program, treat the number as a sales estimate, not a rebate.
• Confirm funding is open right now. Many programs, SGIP included, run on limited budgets that fill up mid-year. A program that exists is not the same as a program with money left this round.
• Separate a real rebate from an optimistic estimate. Salespeople round up and assume best-case tiers. Until you have the program name and confirmed current eligibility, do not bank on the figure.

A note on the federal route, because people ask: the only surviving federal credit is Section 48E, and it applies to commercial or third-party-owned systems. The single way a homeowner touches it in 2026 is a lease or PPA where the provider owns the battery and claims the credit, then prices that into your deal. See the federal battery tax credit in 2026 and battery leases and PPAs for how that works, and whether it is worth it.

Folding an incentive into your numbers

One modeling rule, because it changes payback math. A confirmed purchase rebate reduces your net upfront cost. Fold it into the cost side, not the savings side. A $3,000 SGIP rebate makes the battery cost $3,000 less; it does not add $3,000 to your annual savings. Performance payments are different, those are ongoing income and belong on the savings side, but only at the realistic per-season amount, not a sales brochure maximum.

When you run the calculator, enter the battery's net price after any rebate you have actually confirmed. Leave unconfirmed incentives out until they are in writing with a program name. Honest inputs, honest payback.

The short version: no federal purchase credit in 2026, California's SGIP is the one statewide rebate worth real specifics, a handful of states pay you to share your battery, and most states offer nothing on the purchase side. Look up your own state on DSIRE, confirm funding is open, and run the real net number in the calculator.