Arizona solar / San Tan Valley

San Tan Valley became a town. Your solar permit has not moved yet.

SLWritten by the Solar Learning Lab research desk·Updated August 25, 2026·11 min read

Almost everything written about solar in San Tan Valley is now out of date on the first fact. The place incorporated as a town on September 17, 2025 and took over municipal services on July 1, 2026. But if you file a rooftop solar application today, it still goes to Pinal County, which reviews, permits, inspects, and signs off under an intergovernmental agreement that runs through December 31, 2026. Getting that wrong sends homeowners to the wrong counter.

Until December 31, 2026, submit to Pinal County. The Town stacks a $75.00 solar processing fee on top of the county's per-kW schedule. On January 1, 2027, the Town's own building code takes over, based on the 2024 I-codes.

Know your reviewer before you sign

A bid written for the wrong code year or the wrong counter costs you a correction cycle. Here is the handover timeline in plain terms.

See the county-to-town handover

Photo: mrganso, via Pixabay

The permit math is published, so make bidders show it

Pinal County prices residential solar by system size: a $42.00 issuance fee, then $13.60 per kW from 1 to 5 kW, $12.50 per kW from 6 to 10, $11.70 from 11 to 20, and $11.00 at 21 kW and up. Plan review adds 65 percent of the building permit fee at submittal, and the Town's IGA exhibit adds its $75.00 solar processing fee for roof or ground mount. No mystery, no flat guess. Anyone hand-waving "permit costs" in a San Tan Valley bid is choosing not to read a public table. The county fee schedule and the IGA fee exhibit.

The submittal standard is also public. Information Bulletin 021 spells out the county's residential PV requirements: at least two access pathways on separate roof planes, one reachable from the street or driveway side, each 36 inches wide from roof edge to ridge. Arrays covering not more than 33 percent of the plan-view roof area need an 18 inch clear setback on both sides of the ridge; go past 33 percent and it becomes 36 inches, per 2018 IFC Section 1204. Plan notes must cite NEC 2017, specifically 690, 705-10, 690-13, 690-31, and 690-54. Bulletin 021 is the document to hand your designer.

Two quirks worth knowing before you file. Solar permits go through the county's Citizen Access Portal, which caps online submittals at 3 applications per applicant or contractor per day depending on workload. And PV on a modular or mobile home roof requires a sealed certification letter from an Arizona registered engineer under the 2018 IRC and IBC, a real gate given the local manufactured-home stock. The online submittal bulletin covers the portal rules.

One town, two utilities, and a 3.45 cent export credit

Local reporting states the Town of San Tan Valley is served entirely by Salt River Project, with Arizona Public Service picking up the area south of Arizona Farms. SRP's own service-area page is an address-lookup tool, not a boundary map, so verify your specific address before trusting any rate on this page. The local coverage and SRP's lookup.

Look at the spread. On-peak retail reaches into the 20 to 40 cent range depending on plan, and every exported kWh earns a fixed 3.45 cents. SRP's solar lineup splits into demand plans like Customer Generation, where energy charges are about half the TOU rate but a per-kW demand charge keys off 30 minute on-peak intervals, and export plans with no demand charge and the 3.45 cent credit. On-peak windows are weekday 5 to 9 a.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. from November through April, and weekday 2 to 8 p.m. from May through October. The play is the same on either plan family: consume your own production, shift load out of the peak window, and treat export revenue as a rounding error. Customer Generation details.

South of Arizona Farms the story is APS, where the Corporation Commission voted on August 12, 2026 to cut the solar export rate 10 percent to 5.5 cents per kWh, the maximum annual decline its rules allow. Advocates note APS households pay 34 cents per kWh in summer evening hours against that 5.5 cent credit. Different utility, identical conclusion. Vote Solar's account and AriSEIA coverage.

The $1,000 credit is the headline now, so state it honestly

With the federal 25D credit repealed for expenditures after calendar year 2025, the remaining direct tax incentive here is A.R.S. 43-1083: 25 percent of the device cost, capped at $1,000 per taxable year and capped at $1,000 in aggregate for the same residence, with a five year carryforward. Married taxpayers filing separately may each claim half. Say the cap out loud. A quote that implies "25 percent off" the full system price is misleading a customer about a $1,000 credit. The statute and the CRS federal summary.

Two quieter provisions still help. Under A.R.S. 42-11054(C)(2), grid-tied photovoltaic systems are considered to add no value to the property, so the array does not raise your assessment. And A.R.S. 42-5061 deducts solar energy device sales from the transaction privilege tax base when the retailer is registered as a solar energy retailer. On the utility side, SRP lists a $250 demand management system rebate for solar customers as a limited-time offer, a Battery Partner Program with no dollar amount published on the page we reviewed, and a program that buys your renewable energy credits for bill savings. Property tax statute, sales tax statute, and SRP's rebate list.

The local directory is thin, so vet harder

San Tan Valley's installer listings carry small review counts, some in the single digits, which is what a brand-new town looks like in a ratings feed. Low volume is not a verdict either way. It does shift the burden to your questions: which counter gets the permit before January 1, 2027, does the bid line-item the county per-kW fee plus the $75.00 town processing fee, and which named SRP plan does the savings model assume?

Ratings snapshot: Google Maps, August 2026, via the DataForSEO SERP feed. Zero companies paid us and none are endorsed by us.

What San Tan Valley homeowners actually ask

Talk through a San Tan Valley project

We are a solar installer and we also partner with other solar companies. Bring your bill and your address; with the SRP and APS line nearby and a permitting handover dated January 1, 2027, both details change the answer.