Massachusetts solar leads

Solar resource in Boston

The PVWatts calculator, first built by NREL and now run by the National Laboratory of the Rockies, models how much sunlight reaches a panel over a typical year. For Boston, the largest Massachusetts city in the Census Bureau’s July 1, 2025 estimates, it returns 4.56 kWh per square meter per day (checked October 9, 2026).

Method: the calculator’s version 8 defaults, meaning a fixed open-rack array facing due south at a 20-degree tilt, placed at Boston’s point in the Census gazetteer and run on the National Solar Radiation Database typical-year weather. A roof with a different pitch, direction or shade will see a different number, so the figure works as a common benchmark between states rather than a promise for a particular house.

How Massachusetts net metering is set up

The Department of Public Utilities explains the rules in its net metering guide, which cites General Laws chapter 164, sections 138 and 139, and the regulation 220 CMR 18.00 (checked October 9, 2026). Customers of the regulated electric companies may net meter. Any generating technology qualifies up to 60 kW; a solar facility may be up to 2 MW if privately owned and up to 10 MW if it is a public facility. Massachusetts treats on-site and virtual net metering the same way.

Facilities are sorted into three classes by size: Class I up to 60 kW, Class II above 60 kW and up to 1 MW, and Class III above 1 MW. Each electric company has a cap on how much net metering it must accept, but some systems are exempt from the caps, including Class I renewable facilities with a nameplate rating of 25 kW or less. Most home systems fall in that group, which is why a home installer rarely has to ask whether a cap is full.

When a customer produces more than it uses in a billing period, the excess becomes a net metering credit, shown on the bill as a dollar amount. The guide says these credits roll over and never expire, except for cap exempt facilities serving on-site load, whose credits are cashed out or carried over each March at a lower avoided cost rate. Solar facilities that came after the 2016 Solar Energy Act can earn market net metering credits instead of standard ones, and the DPU points customers to 220 CMR 18.04 and their electric company’s tariff for the exact formula.

The SMART solar program

The state’s solar incentive is the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target program, run by the Department of Energy Resources under 225 CMR 28.00. Its SMART 3.0 program page says DOER filed final revised regulations on September 11, 2026, that Program Year 2026 has 600 MW AC of capacity subject to the cap, and that a draft report proposes 300 MW AC for Program Year 2027 (all checked October 9, 2026). Small systems of 25 kW AC or less receive a flat incentive rate per kWh, which DOER sets each year from the previous year’s average net metering credit value.

This page gives no rate or dollar figure; the current values are on the DOER page and change each program year. Applications for a program year are accepted from January 1 through December 31 of that year.

Massachusetts counties ranked by owner-occupied detached homes

Each row gives a county’s owner-occupied single-family detached homes, its owner-occupied homes of every type and the detached share. Source: ACS 5-year 2020-2024, table B25032 by county. These are housing counts; they do not describe where solar requests originate.

Suffolk County, which contains Boston, is the outlier: only 33.3% of its owner-occupied homes are detached in the 2020-2024 county data, against 89.3% on Cape Cod in Barnstable County and 85.1% in Plymouth County.

Filters Massachusetts solar buyers use

A handful of lead fields do most of the work in a solar campaign. For Massachusetts they line up with the facts on this page:

• Homeowner status: in a state where many households live in apartments and condominiums, owner status separates people who can sign for a roof system from those who cannot.
• Project type: the general kind of solar work requested, for example a new system or an addition; the options are fixed when the solar form is finalized.
• Timeframe: whether the homeowner is ready to move ahead or still gathering information.
• ZIP code: the area an installer’s crews can reach, with the county table above as a guide to where detached homes are.

The filters for Massachusetts solar leads are agreed with each buyer during onboarding. Exclusive or shared routing for solar leads is agreed with each buyer during onboarding. See the fields on the sample solar lead.

Request Massachusetts solar leads

Email us the Massachusetts ZIP codes you cover, your daily volume or caps and how you take delivery. ReturnReturnA buyer's request for credit on a lead that fails agreed standards, such as a disconnected number, a duplicate or a lead outside the filters. Glossary terms are agreed on the onboarding call, before you go live.