Solar & Battery Backup in Central Washington

Central Washington is genuinely good solar country — considerably better than the west side of the state, and most people here don't realize by how much. Ellensburg sits east of the Cascades in the Columbia Basin rain shadow. Modeled long-term data puts annual photovoltaic yield here at roughly 1,537 kWh per kW installed, against about 1,257 kWh per kW in Seattle — about 22% more production from the identical array. For a rough sense of scale, an 8 kW system in Ellensburg models at around 12,300 kWh per year, versus about 10,060 kWh for the same system in Seattle. Those are modeled figures, not guarantees; your roof pitch, orientation and shading all move the number, which is why we do a site-specific analysis rather than quoting from a table. The seasonality is dramatic and you should plan around it. Ellensburg production ranges from roughly 50 kWh per kW in December to about 183 kWh per kW in July — nearly a 4:1 summer-to-winter swing. Solar here is an excellent annual energy producer and a poor January energy producer. That distinction matters a great deal when you're deciding whether you want solar, a battery, or both.

The federal residential solar tax credit is gone. Section 25D was terminated for expenditures made after December 31, 2025. There is no 30% federal tax credit available to a homeowner installing solar in 2026. Eligibility turned on when installation was completed, not when you paid — so a system paid for in 2025 but commissioned in 2026 doesn't qualify either. We're stating this plainly because a lot of solar marketing hasn't caught up, and you deserve to build your numbers on facts rather than on a credit that no longer exists. Washington's sales tax exemption is active and it's substantial. Solar systems capable of generating up to 100 kW AC are 100% exempt from state sales and use tax — and critically, the exemption covers installation labor and services, not just equipment. It's taken at the point of sale; there's no refund application to chase. This runs through December 31, 2029. There's a detail worth knowing: the labor portion of that exemption is only available when the installer meets the state's labor standards — proper registration, industrial insurance, Employment Security, excise tax registration, and a clean wage-and-hour record for the preceding two years. Not every installer qualifies. We do. Batteries may qualify under the same exemption when installed as part of a qualifying solar system, but the statute doesn't name them explicitly and the guidance is less than settled. We'd rather tell you to confirm it with the Department of Revenue than promise you a savings that might not materialize. There is no Washington state rebate for residential battery storage. A bill that would have created one was introduced in January 2026 and died in committee. If someone tells you a state battery rebate is available, they're describing a proposal, not a law. Commercial is a different picture. The federal commercial credit still exists, but with a hard deadline: a project under 1.5 MW that did not begin construction by July 4, 2026 must be placed in service by December 31, 2027 to qualify. If you're a business considering solar, that timeline is real and it's short. Incentive information current as of August 2026. Tax matters — consult your tax professional.

This is the single most misunderstood part of going solar in Kittitas County, because we have three electric utilities here and they do not treat exported power the same way. City of Ellensburg, inside city limits: the municipal utility nets monthly and banks excess kWh as credits within the program year. At the March 31 annual true-up, unused credits are purchased by the City at its average wholesale cost of power. That's below retail rate, but it's more than state law requires — the statutory default is that leftover credits simply go to the utility. Ellensburg pays something. Kittitas County PUD No. 1, much of the unincorporated county: the PUD accepts distributed generation interconnections, but it has passed the state threshold that triggers a change in compensation and uses an export rate that is not retail. Don't assume 1:1. We'll help you get current terms directly from the PUD before you commit to a system size. Puget Sound Energy, parts of the county: still offering net metering under Schedule 150 at retail rate, and customers who enroll now are typically grandfathered. PSE has said it will give notice before closing the schedule to new applicants. If you're a PSE customer considering solar, the grandfathering window is a genuine reason not to wait indefinitely. Statewide, net metered systems are capped at 100 kW, and the underlying statute runs to June 30, 2029.

Since there's currently no federal credit and no state rebate for residential storage, the honest case for a battery is what it actually does: it keeps your house running when the power is out. That's not a small thing here. Winter storms, wind events and ice take down lines across Kittitas County, and outages at Snoqualmie Pass and in the upper county can run long. If you're on a well, no power means no water. If you heat electrically, no power means no heat, in January, at elevation. A properly sized battery with an automatic transfer setup carries your critical loads — well pump, furnace controls, refrigeration, lighting, communications — through an outage without you doing anything. What a battery is not, in this climate, is a way to run your house on stored sunshine through December. Look again at that 4:1 seasonal swing. In winter, a battery is an outage bridge, not an energy source. Anyone selling you otherwise is selling you a Seattle brochure. If uninterrupted whole-property power through a multi-day outage is the goal, a standby generator is often the better tool, and the two technologies work well together. Is solar still worth it without the federal credit? That depends entirely on your utility's export terms, your consumption pattern and your roof. It's a real question now in a way it wasn't two years ago, and we'll run your actual numbers rather than talk you into it. Call 509.264.5678 for a site assessment.