Garland solar runs on GP&L's rules, nobody else's

First question: which Garland are you in?

Roughly 15 percent of the city sits outside GP&L territory. Those addresses were TXU turf before deregulation and are now served by competitive retail providers, per the city profile. The City knows this cuts both ways, which is why the permit application requires the utility provider's name on the coversheet, per the permit page.

So before you compare quotes, pull a recent bill. If it says Garland Power & Light, everything on this page applies to you. If it names a retail electric provider, you are in the deregulated minority and your export economics depend on whichever buyback plan you sign, which is a different analysis entirely. An installer who never asks which side of that line you live on has not done Garland before.

The 10 kW cap and the 8.19 cent line decide your design

Here is the netting mechanic, straight from GP&L's solar requirements. After your permit closes, Building Inspections forwards the solar documents to GP&L, which installs a bi-directional meter. Its two readings net out on the monthly bill, so every kWh you consume behind the meter within the month offsets at the full retail rate. Whatever exceeds your consumption gets paid at $0.0819 per kWh.

Run that spread and the sizing rule writes itself. Self consumed solar is worth the whole bundled rate. Exported solar is worth 8.19 cents. And the system can never exceed 10 kW AC anyway, a cap enforced twice, once at the city permit desk and again at interconnection. Oversizing has weak economics here even before the cap stops you. Size near your trailing annual consumption and let August air conditioning eat the production.

One quiet advantage of the municipal setup deserves a sentence. Deregulated buyback plans get repriced or discontinued at contract renewal. GP&L publishes one set of rules for everyone, and its rate comparison page even benchmarks itself against Oncor area retail offers sourced from powertochoose.org, per the rates page. You are trading upside for stability. In a 25 year asset, stability is not a small thing.

A $175 permit that arrives on a USB drive

The City of Garland Building Inspection Department at 800 Main Street handles the permit, phone 972-205-2300, per the department page. Solar takes an electrical permit at a flat $175, broken out as $140 plus a $35 processing fee, per the fee listing. Do not let anyone bill you the $88 electrical repair fee or a valuation based charge; solar has its own line.

The process has real texture. Your installer must be registered with the City as an Electrical Contractor and submit a Subcontractors Permit. Plans must be engineered by a Texas licensed engineer, electrical when the roof needs no structural work, structural when it does. Everything gets submitted as PDFs on a USB drive along with a paper copy of the Subcontractor Permit Application. Reviews and inspections then run through the installer's third party solar inspection provider, which hands Building Inspections a Letter of Compliance to close the permit, per GP&L's requirements page.

Three logistics notes worth stealing. Garland still enforces the 2015 International Codes and the 2014 National Electrical Code, effective September 19, 2016, per the building permit page, so crews used to newer NEC cycles should confirm rapid shutdown details with the plans examiners. The inspection request line runs 24 hours with a before midnight cutoff for next business day service. And the Building Inspections office closes from 8 to 10 a.m. on the first and third Wednesdays of each month for staff training, which is exactly the kind of detail that costs a project a day when nobody checked. There is even a perk: GP&L customers holding a permit can pick up a new meter base free at the City Warehouse, 1720 Commerce Street.

What incentives survive in 2026

Start with what is gone. P.L. 119-21 repealed the federal Section 25D homeowner credit for expenditures made after December 31, 2025, and the IRS confirmed that installations completed after that date cannot claim it, per the Congressional Research Service. A Garland quote showing a 30 percent federal credit in 2026 is stale paper.

What remains is quieter but real. Texas Tax Code Section 11.27 exempts the appraised value added by a solar device installed primarily for on-site production from property taxation, and since 2021 the exemption also covers devices owned by someone other than the property owner. Texas has no state income tax, so there is no state credit to miss. GP&L's EnergySaver program pays bill credits for efficiency work, high SEER air conditioning, ENERGY STAR window units, and whole house weatherization, first come first served until funds run out or September 30, 2026, with applications due within 30 days of installation. It does not cover solar PV. No GP&L page we reviewed offers a solar rebate, so the honest pitch is retail offset against 13.475 cent average power, the property tax shield, and a cheap permit.

Test the math yourself

The calculator below runs GP&L's 2024 average rate against our Garland production model. It treats every kWh as equally valuable, which flatters exports a little since GP&L pays 8.19 cents for those, so read its output as a ceiling for an oversized system and a fair estimate for one sized to your usage.

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

Receipts

Every figure above traces to these documents, reviewed August 30, 2026.

• GP&L solar installation requirements, residential rates and utility profile
• EnergySaver program and free energy audits
• City of Garland solar permit and fee page, Building Inspection department and adopted codes
• Texas Utilities Code 40.052 and Tax Code Section 11.27
• CRS IN12611 on the federal credit, EIA Table 6, city profile and PVGIS