Rows of photovoltaic panels installed across a rooftop

Photo: sferrario1968, via Pixabay

Tracy solar: nine year locks and a 3 to 8 pm bonus window

Written by the Solar Learning Lab research deskUpdated August 27, 202611 min read

Two companies stand behind every Tracy electric bill. PG&E owns the lines, the meters and the billing. Ava Community Energy, the CCA Tracy's council voted to join on August 20, 2019, supplies the generation, with service running since 2021. Ava's Tracy page counts 31,300 residential accounts in the city as of May 25, 2026. Generic California solar advice treats this as a footnote. For export economics it is the headline, because Ava pays credits PG&E alone never would.

Three things make Tracy unusually legible for a solar shopper: the export credit structure locks for nine years from interconnection, Ava adds a published bonus for power exported between 3 and 8 pm, and the city permit fee sits in a public schedule at 450 dollars plus 15 dollars per kW above 15 kW. Almost nothing in this market requires guessing. That should raise your standards for every quote you receive.

Hold quotes to documented numbers

Run the estimator first, then make each bidder reconcile their savings claims against Ava's published credits and Tracy's published fee.

Estimate Tracy solar

Two names on one bill, and why it works in your favor

Tracy sits in PG&E territory under San Joaquin County per PG&E's service area list, and PG&E's 2024 average residential price ran 39.62 cents per kWh in EIA data. Ava's default Bright Choice product prices 0.5 percent below comparable PG&E generation rates, per its Tracy page, so the combined bill tracks the PG&E benchmark closely by design. The retail price is not where Ava changes the game.

Exports are. The CPUC's Net Billing Tariff, D.22-12-056, covers PG&E territory customers including CCA customers for interconnection applications on or after April 15, 2023, per the CPUC page. Within that framework, Ava's Solar Billing Plan bills imports at retail on PG&E's required E-Elec rate plan and credits exports at hourly Avoided Cost Calculator values. Then Ava stacks its own money on top, which is the next section. Households that applied for interconnection before April 15, 2023 keep legacy NEM instead: retail rate export credits, an April true up, and payout of surplus over 100 dollars at the Net Surplus Compensation rate, per Ava's NEM page. Do not let anyone talk a legacy customer out of that arrangement casually.

The lock, the bonus window, and what a battery does with both

Under the Solar Billing Plan, export credit values lock for nine years from interconnection. Ava then publishes three adders on its plan page. First, a Peak Hours Export Bonus of 2.5 cents per kWh for exports between 3 pm and 8 pm for non CARE customers. Second, an extra 1 cent per kWh on all exports for CARE and FERA customers. Third, Energy Export Bonus Credits fixed for nine years by interconnection year: 1.3 cents per kWh for 2025 interconnections, 0.9 cents for 2026, rising to 5.4 and 3.6 cents respectively for income qualified customers.

Notice the step from 1.3 to 0.9 cents between 2025 and 2026 interconnections. The credit schedule rewards moving sooner, quietly, without a countdown timer. And the 3 to 8 pm window is not an arbitrary perk: those are the hours when avoided cost values already run highest. A battery that soaks up the midday surplus and discharges into that window earns the high hourly values plus the 2.5 cent bonus on the same kWh. In Tracy, storage is not an upsell bolted onto solar. It is the instrument the tariff was practically shaped for.

Energy source	Type	Average price	What that means
PG&E, EIA 2024	average residential price benchmark	39.62¢ per kWh	Bundled figure; Ava's Bright Choice generation prices 0.5 percent below comparable PG&E generation rates.
Ava peak export bonus	exports 3 pm to 8 pm, non CARE	2.5¢ per kWh	Paid on top of Solar Billing Plan hourly export values.
Ava export bonus credit	2026 interconnections, fixed nine years	0.9¢ per kWh	1.3 cents for 2025 interconnections; 3.6 and 5.4 cents income qualified. CARE and FERA add 1 cent on all exports.
Onsite solar	self-consumed kWh	avoids retail E-Elec plan	Self consumption still beats exporting; the bonuses soften the export side, they do not restore retail netting.

Ava Solar Billing Plan, Ava's Tracy page, and EIA 2024 data. Credits shown are published values, not a bill forecast.

A permit fee you can hold in your hand

Most cities make you guess. Tracy prints it: Fee No. 26 in the FY 2026 to 2027 Citywide Master Fee Schedule, Solar Photovoltaic Systems, Residential, is 450 dollars flat up to 15 kW plus 15 dollars per kW above that, listed as state mandated and not subject to inflationary adjustment. That mirrors the cap in Government Code 66015 word for word. If a quote shows a permitting line meaningfully above the documented number for your system size, ask what the extra buys.

Process wise, Tracy is electronic but not automated. The Building Safety Division accepts submittals digitally only, with payments through the eTRAKiT portal, per its submittal requirements. The CEC's SB 379 tracker lists Tracy as a Custom Platform jurisdiction rather than SolarAPP+, despite a 60,000 dollar CalAPP grant awarded February 14, 2024, so budget for plan check time instead of instant issuance. Solar questions have their own inbox, photovoltaic@cityoftracy.org, and submittals on or after January 1, 2026 must meet the 2025 California Building Standards Code. HOA resistance, should it appear, runs into Civil Code 714.

Delta breezes, dry summers, 1,662 kWh per kW

Our downtown Tracy model returns 1,662.3 kWh per installed kW annually, with August on top at 174.9 kWh per kW and December at the bottom with 84.2. Tracy's cold semi arid climate brings hot dry summers moderated by Delta breezes, per the city's Wikipedia entry, and the moderation matters: panels here run slightly cooler than deep Central Valley installs on the worst afternoons.

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August models at 174.9 kWh per kW. Under the Solar Billing Plan, shifting that summer surplus into the 3 to 8 pm window is where Tracy systems earn their keep.

PVGIS v5.2 model run by Solar Learning Lab on August 27, 2026, NSRDB radiation database. Fixed south facing mount, 30 degree tilt, 14 percent losses, downtown Tracy coordinates. Your roof will differ. Full parameters at the PVGIS tool. The audience for these numbers is unusually deep: ACS 2023 data shows 64 percent owner occupancy, 85 percent single family housing and a 118,253 dollar median household income across 27,943 households, the profile of a Bay Area commuter city over the Altamont Pass with roofs, equity and daytime EV charging to feed.

Your neighbors already ran this experiment

Ava's Tracy page reports 9,300 residential solar accounts out of 31,300 residential accounts as of May 25, 2026. Call it roughly 30 percent penetration, alongside 12,978,600 dollars in reported community savings. Two practical consequences. For shoppers: thousands of local roofs mean local installers with referenceable Tracy jobs, so ask for addresses, not testimonials. For sellers: the easy adopters are gone. The remaining 70 percent will be won on sharper math, and increasingly on storage paired with that 3 to 8 pm export window.

What the state still puts on the table in 2026

The federal 25D homeowner credit is gone; P.L. 119-21 cut it off for anything spent after calendar year 2025, per the CRS note, and California offers no state solar income tax credit. What remains: qualifying systems stay out of the property assessment under the BOE's new construction exclusion for active solar through fiscal 2025 to 2026, with a January 1, 2027 sunset, which is material on Tracy home values. SGIP funds storage, and its 280 million dollar equity tranche for residential solar plus storage opened to lower income households statewide on June 2, 2025. Income qualified households should also note Ava's richer bonus tier, 3.6 cents per kWh for 2026 interconnections, and DAC-SASH for income qualified PG&E billing customers in eligible tracts.

Vetting bidders in a market with no excuses

Because Tracy's fee, credits and platform are all published, a bidder's command of them is a free competence test. Three questions: what is the permit fee for my system size (answer: 450 dollars plus 15 per kW above 15 kW), which rate plan will PG&E require (E-Elec), and what bonus credit applies to a 2026 interconnection (0.9 cents, fixed nine years, or 3.6 income qualified). Anyone who stumbles on all three is selling somewhere they have not done homework.

Zuha Solar & Electric Inc

Tracy, CA

5.0(18 Google reviews)

North Valley Solar Power

Tracy, CA

4.9(18 Google reviews)

Read the graded profile

Tesla Energy - Central Valley California

Tracy, CA

3.5(12 Google reviews)

Eco Equity Company LLC

Tracy, CA

3.7(3 Google reviews)

TopOfTheLine SolarPanels Tracy

Tracy, CA

0.0(0 Google reviews)

CalPacific Power

Tracy, CA

5.0(16 Google reviews)

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

Test drive the numbers before the sales calls

The estimator uses the California average rate and our Tracy production run. It cannot layer in the hourly export values, the peak window bonus or your interconnection year credit, all of which move the real answer. Use it to bracket system size and financing pressure, then demand the Ava specific math in writing.

Monthly electric bill

$161

Production factor (kWh per kW per year)

1,662

The top slider setting is our downtown Tracy PVGIS run. The bottom is 85 percent of that annual figure, a discount for imperfect roofs rather than a measurement.

Cash price per watt

$2.46

Cash quotes in Tracy cluster near $2.46 per watt, against a $3.50 national 2024 median (LBNL). Use your quote.

Assumptions you can change

Utility rate escalation, % per year

2.5%

Loan APR

Loan term, years

Quoted PPA rate, cents per kWh

24c

Use the rate on your actual lease or PPA quote. There is no published statewide average we trust enough to hardcode.

PPA annual escalator

Estimated system: 3.5 kWAnnual usage: 5,811 kWhState credit: $0

Cash purchase

$8,610 after state credit

Year 1 benefit: $161/mo
Payback: 5 years
20 year net position: $38,335

Tracy homes get PG&E delivery with Ava Community Energy generation by default. Export credits follow the Solar Billing Plan and lock for nine years from interconnection, with Ava paying its own bonuses on top.

Solar loan

$115/mo 15 yr payment

Year 1 net: $46/mo
Upfront: $0
20 year net position: $26,220

Loan pricing here includes the state's documented loan-over-cash spread. Tracy's permit cost is a known quantity, 450 dollars plus 15 dollars per kW above 15 kW, so any vague permitting line item in a finance quote deserves a question.

Lease / PPA

$0 down you buy the power

Year 1 net: $45/mo
Upfront: $0
20 year net position: $14,688

A lease or PPA provider may claim the federal 48E business credit, as the CRS note describes. That belongs to the provider, not to you, and Ava's export bonus credits key to your interconnection year regardless of who owns the panels.

Estimates, not quotes. This tool uses the California average retail rate, our downtown Tracy PVGIS run and California market cost inputs. It cannot simulate hourly export credits, Ava's peak window bonus or your roof's shading. We are a solar installer and we also partner with other solar companies. See our disclosures.

We are a solar installer and we also partner with other solar companies.

Tracy FAQ

Who actually supplies my electricity in Tracy?

Ava Community Energy supplies generation for most Tracy homes while PG&E delivers power and issues the bill. Tracy joined Ava by council vote on August 20, 2019, with service from 2021. Ava's Tracy page.

How long do my export credit terms last?

Solar Billing Plan export values lock for nine years from interconnection, and Ava's Energy Export Bonus Credit for your interconnection year is fixed for the same nine years. Plan details.

What is the 3 to 8 pm export bonus worth?

2.5 cents per kWh for non CARE customers, paid on top of the hourly export values, which are themselves highest in that window. CARE and FERA customers earn an extra 1 cent on all exports instead. Ava bonus terms.

What will the city charge for my solar permit?

450 dollars flat for residential PV up to 15 kW, plus 15 dollars per kW above 15 kW, per Fee No. 26 of the FY 2026 to 2027 master fee schedule. It is listed as state mandated and exempt from inflation adjustments. Fee schedule PDF.

Does Tracy use SolarAPP+ for instant permits?

No. The CEC tracker lists Tracy as a Custom Platform city; submittals are electronic only through the Building Safety Division with eTRAKiT payments, and plan check takes real time. CEC tracker.

I interconnected before April 2023. Should I change plans?

Be careful. Legacy Ava NEM keeps retail rate export credits with an April true up and payout of surplus over 100 dollars at the Net Surplus Compensation rate. Moving to the Solar Billing Plan is generally a one way decision, so model it first. Legacy NEM terms.

Source ledger

Reviewed August 27, 2026. Every figure above appears in one of these documents.

Get a Tracy estimate that names its assumptions

Send the bill, the roof age and whether a battery is in scope. We will anchor the numbers to Ava's published credits, not to hope.

What does your monthly electric bill look like?

Tracy average is $167 per month (EIA, 2024).