Is there an SREC market in New York State?

No. New York does not operate a retail Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) market the way New Jersey or Pennsylvania do. NY homeowners generate RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates) alongside their solar electricity, but those RECs are typically bundled with the energy and are not automatically tradeable on a separate spot market. National brokerage platforms such as SRECTrade and Flett Exchange do allow NY homeowners to register and sell their RECs independently, but NY REC prices are typically $15–$40 per MWh — a minor income stream compared to the state's primary incentive programs.

How are NY RECs priced, and is it worth selling them separately?

NY RECs trade in the $15–$40 per MWh range on voluntary markets, which works out to roughly $1.50–$4.00 for every 100 kWh your system produces. A 7 kW system on Long Island generating about 8,500 kWh per year would yield one 8.5 MWh REC bundle annually — worth $128–$340 at those prices. That's real money over a 25-year system life, but it's secondary to the bill credits and the New York State tax credit that form the core of your financial case. Registration on SRECTrade takes roughly 30 minutes and there's no upfront cost, so it's worth doing.

What is VDER, and does it apply to my Long Island home?

VDER (Value of Distributed Energy Resources) credits exports through a multi-component "Value Stack" instead of a one-for-one kilowatt-hour offset. On Long Island it does not apply to a typical home. LIPA's tariff credits a residential (Mass Market) system's exports to the next bill at the same per-kWh rate other customers in the same service class pay, and applies Value Stack crediting to Large Onsite (commercial) projects (LIPA Tariff for Electric Service, Leaf No. 34F-1, effective June 1, 2024). For a system connected since 2018 there is no annual cash payout, so credit you never use has no cash value, which is why right-sizing to your actual load matters.

Can a NY homeowner sell their RECs independently?

Yes, with some paperwork. You must register your system with NYSERDA's NY-RETS (Renewable Energy Tracking System) and then list your RECs through a broker such as SRECTrade or Flett Exchange. Your installer can provide the system documentation needed for registration. Note that once you sell a REC, you've transferred the environmental attribute — you can no longer claim your electricity is "renewable" for personal or marketing purposes. Most Long Island homeowners find the administrative overhead barely worth the $128–$340 per year, but for systems above 10 kW it becomes more compelling.

What is the total incentive stack for a 7 kW system on Long Island?

Smaller than it was. Starting from an installed cost of $28,000 for a 7 kW system bought in 2026: the 30% federal residential credit ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025, so it takes off $0 (in 2025 it took off $8,400). The NY State tax credit covers 25% of the system cost, capped at $5,000, which removes $5,000. Net cost is approximately $23,000. The NYSERDA NY-Sun block for standard-income homes in PSEG-LI territory is exhausted; income-qualified pathways remain, so confirm availability with your installer. Confirm the tax side with your tax professional.

Incentives

SRECs Explained for NY Solar Homeowners: What Long Island Gets Instead

Huntington Solar Co Published June 25, 2026 Updated October 7, 2026

New York does not have a traditional SREC market — if you’ve been reading New Jersey or Pennsylvania solar guides, that information doesn’t apply here. What Long Island homeowners actually earn is a different set of incentives: bill credits for the power they export through PSEG-LI, a New York State tax credit worth up to $5,000, and an optional REC sale on national voluntary markets. The 30% federal residential credit that used to sit on top ended for systems bought after December 31, 2025.

Why NY Doesn’t Have a Retail SREC Market

Solar Renewable Energy Credits exist wherever a state has a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that utilities can comply with by purchasing SRECs from generators. New Jersey built a strong compliance market because its RPS specifically carves out solar, creating sustained demand and prices that have historically ranged from $200 to over $400 per SREC.

New York’s Clean Energy Standard works differently. The state’s obligations are largely met through utility-scale procurement and existing hydro, wind, and large solar facilities. Residential rooftop systems do generate RECs under the NY-RETS tracking system, but those RECs don’t flow into a high-price compliance market. The state has instead channeled its residential solar support into direct rebate programs (NY-Sun) and a restructured export tariff (VDER) rather than a spot SREC market.

The practical result: don’t build your financial model around SREC income. Build it around the state tax credit and your export credits — and, only if you qualify for an income-based NY-Sun pathway, an upfront rebate.

The Tax Credits: What Ended and What Is Left

Until the end of 2025, two tax credits formed the backbone of Long Island solar economics. One of them is gone for systems you buy.

Federal residential credit (ended): The 30% federal residential clean energy credit (IRC Section 25D) ended for expenditures made after December 31, 2025. A homeowner who buys a system in 2026, with cash or a loan, does not get a federal credit. On a $28,000 residential system that credit was worth $8,400 in 2025; in 2026 it is $0. Leased and PPA systems are different: the company that owns the system, not the homeowner, may claim a separate commercial credit and can pass some of that saving through in its rate.

NY State Solar Energy System Equipment Credit (still in place): 25% of installed cost, capped at $5,000, claimed on Form IT-255. It’s a direct credit against NY income tax — not a deduction. Any unused amount carries forward up to five years. You hit the $5,000 cap at a system cost of $20,000, so nearly every full residential installation maximizes this credit.

On a $28,000 system bought in 2026, that is a $5,000 reduction — about 18% — where the two credits together used to take off $13,400. Confirm how either applies to your return with your tax professional.

For the full picture of what is left, see our Full incentives breakdown.

NYSERDA NY-Sun: Upfront Rebate (Check Current Availability)

NY-Sun is NYSERDA’s ongoing incentive program that pays a per-watt rebate to reduce the upfront installed cost before any tax credits are calculated. Rebate levels are tiered and decline as each territory’s MW block fills.

As of mid-2026, ConEd territory maintains an active rebate around $350 per kW (i.e., $2,450 on a 7 kW system). PSEG Long Island territory has exhausted its block for standard-income residential systems; income-qualified pathways remain and should be confirmed with your installer before signing a contract. NYSERDA publishes current block status at nyserda.ny.gov — your installer should check this at the time of proposal.

When NY-Sun funds are available, the rebate is paid to the installer and passed to the homeowner as a reduction in contract price, which also reduces the base on which your state tax credit is calculated. With the PSEG-LI block exhausted and the federal credit gone, the state credit and your bill savings carry the economics.

How Long Island Actually Credits Excess Solar

A Long Island home is not on VDER. Under LIPA’s tariff, power a residential system exports earns a credit on your next bill at the same per-kWh rate other customers in your service class pay, and the credit carries forward. Value Stack crediting applies to Large Onsite (commercial) projects, not homes (LIPA Tariff for Electric Service, Leaf No. 34F-1, effective June 1, 2024). For a system connected on or after January 1, 2018 there is no annual cash payout: credit still on the account at the 20th anniversary of the in-service date is removed (Leaf No. 34F-2).

For reference, the Value Stack that commercial projects and some other New York utilities use has several components:

Energy value: tied to wholesale market prices
Capacity value: compensates for peak-demand reduction
Environmental value: reflects carbon market pricing
Locational value: varies by circuit congestion

Practical implication: size your system to cover your actual annual load, not to maximize export. Export beyond what the house will use over time becomes credit with no cash value.

System Sizing: Why Right-Sizing Matters

Under net metering, every exported kilowatt-hour earns a retail-rate credit, but that credit is only worth something when it offsets electricity you would otherwise buy. For a system connected since 2018 there is no annual cash payout, so production beyond what the house uses over time earns nothing.

The right target is to cover approximately 95–100% of your annual consumption, not to maximize production. For a Long Island home using 10,000 kWh per year, that means a system in the 7–8 kW range depending on shading and roof orientation. Your installer should be sizing against your 12-month utility usage history — pull that from MyPSEG before any contractor visit.

Adding battery storage mainly buys outage coverage: it captures midday production and releases it in the evening, but under retail net metering an exported kilowatt-hour already earns a retail-rate credit, so the bill benefit is smaller than outage coverage. There is no federal credit on a battery you buy in 2026, so price it on what it saves and on outage coverage.

For the full step-by-step on how interconnection, sizing, and permit filings work on Long Island, see our install process — it covers the PSEG-LI interconnection application, the Town of Huntington or Town of Smithtown building permit sequence, and what NYSERDA documentation is required to close out a NY-Sun rebate.

Optional: Selling NY RECs on National Voluntary Markets

NY homeowners who want to monetize the environmental attribute of their solar generation can register with NY-RETS and list RECs through national brokers like SRECTrade or Flett Exchange. Current voluntary market pricing for NY RECs runs $15–$40 per megawatt-hour.

A 7 kW system producing approximately 8,500 kWh per year generates 8.5 MWh annually — worth roughly $128–$340 at those prices. Over a 25-year system life that’s $3,200–$8,500 in cumulative REC income, which is real but secondary to your state tax credit and bill savings.

One caveat: selling a REC transfers the “renewable” attribute. If you sell all your RECs, your electricity is technically no longer certified green for purposes of any third-party claim. Most homeowners keep them for simplicity; larger systems (10 kW+) are more likely to make the registration paperwork worthwhile.

Putting It Together: Net Cost for a 7 kW Long Island System

Item	Amount
Gross installed cost	$28,000
Federal credit (ended for 2026 purchases)	$0
NY State tax credit (25%, cap $5,000)	-$5,000
Net cost after the state credit	$23,000
NY-Sun rebate (income-qualified only)	$0 for most homes — confirm
Annual avoided retail electricity cost	$1,400–$2,000/yr

Simple payback on these figures — $23,000 net against $1,400–$2,000 a year (under net metering, exports are credited at the retail rate, so they are part of that avoided cost rather than a separate payment) — runs roughly 11–16 years, with a 25-year system life still leaving a decade or more of cost-free production. The same system bought in 2025 netted $14,600. This example uses a higher installed price ($4.00/W) than our 2026 Long Island cost guide, which works a $2.90/W system to about 8 years; your quote decides which is closer. Confirm the tax side with your tax professional.

For a detailed walkthrough of how these numbers apply to your specific roof, usage profile, and tax situation, review the Long Island example system builds or get a line-item proposal through our Residential solar installation page. The install process page also walks through the incentive paperwork chain — NY-RETS registration, utility interconnection with PSEG-LI, and NYSERDA rebate coordination — so nothing falls through after the panels go up.

Frequently asked

Is there an SREC market in New York State?: No. New York does not operate a retail Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) market the way New Jersey or Pennsylvania do. NY homeowners generate RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates) alongside their solar electricity, but those RECs are typically bundled with the energy and are not automatically tradeable on a separate spot market. National brokerage platforms such as SRECTrade and Flett Exchange do allow NY homeowners to register and sell their RECs independently, but NY REC prices are typically $15–$40 per MWh — a minor income stream compared to the state's primary incentive programs.
How are NY RECs priced, and is it worth selling them separately?: NY RECs trade in the $15–$40 per MWh range on voluntary markets, which works out to roughly $1.50–$4.00 for every 100 kWh your system produces. A 7 kW system on Long Island generating about 8,500 kWh per year would yield one 8.5 MWh REC bundle annually — worth $128–$340 at those prices. That's real money over a 25-year system life, but it's secondary to the bill credits and the New York State tax credit that form the core of your financial case. Registration on SRECTrade takes roughly 30 minutes and there's no upfront cost, so it's worth doing.
What is VDER, and does it apply to my Long Island home?: VDER (Value of Distributed Energy Resources) credits exports through a multi-component "Value Stack" instead of a one-for-one kilowatt-hour offset. On Long Island it does not apply to a typical home. LIPA's tariff credits a residential (Mass Market) system's exports to the next bill at the same per-kWh rate other customers in the same service class pay, and applies Value Stack crediting to Large Onsite (commercial) projects (LIPA Tariff for Electric Service, Leaf No. 34F-1, effective June 1, 2024). For a system connected since 2018 there is no annual cash payout, so credit you never use has no cash value, which is why right-sizing to your actual load matters.
Can a NY homeowner sell their RECs independently?: Yes, with some paperwork. You must register your system with NYSERDA's NY-RETS (Renewable Energy Tracking System) and then list your RECs through a broker such as SRECTrade or Flett Exchange. Your installer can provide the system documentation needed for registration. Note that once you sell a REC, you've transferred the environmental attribute — you can no longer claim your electricity is "renewable" for personal or marketing purposes. Most Long Island homeowners find the administrative overhead barely worth the $128–$340 per year, but for systems above 10 kW it becomes more compelling.
What is the total incentive stack for a 7 kW system on Long Island?: Smaller than it was. Starting from an installed cost of $28,000 for a 7 kW system bought in 2026: the 30% federal residential credit ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025, so it takes off $0 (in 2025 it took off $8,400). The NY State tax credit covers 25% of the system cost, capped at $5,000, which removes $5,000. Net cost is approximately $23,000. The NYSERDA NY-Sun block for standard-income homes in PSEG-LI territory is exhausted; income-qualified pathways remain, so confirm availability with your installer. Confirm the tax side with your tax professional.