Electric cooperative
Solar with Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative
Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative members pay 11.6¢ per kWh and no demand charge; a typical home's solar pays back in about 18 years.
See the numbers for your address
At a glance
Residential schedule effective October 31, 2023; checked November 1, 2026. Sources.
What this means for solar
- Power you use on site saves the full retail rate; power you export is credited at about 8.50¢ per kWh, well below retail, and credits offset energy charges only.
- Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative has no residential demand charge, so every kWh solar offsets saves the full energy rate.
- Systems up to 25 kW AC qualify for net metering; above that, capacity would run without export credit.
- Net-metered accounts pay $28 a month more in fixed charges.
A typical home: 1100 kWh a month, electric heat
Best-case figures with the range shown; Florida's tax exemptions included. Production reference: Panama City. Your roof, usage and heating change every number, which is what the estimate is for.
Full schedule and net-metering rules
- Fixed charge
- $35 per month; minimum bill $35
- Energy
- 11.59¢ all kWh
- Net metering
- Two options for <=25 kW: NMR-2 'without kW charge' - member billed on RS NMR-2 ($63.00 facility charge vs $35, $0.11587/kWh) and exports credited at $0.085/kWh ('as of October 31, 2023', adjustable annually); or NMR-1 'with kW charge' - RS NMR-1 ($35.00, $0.11587/kWh) plus a Fixed Cost Recovery Charge of $3.49 per kW AC installed, exports credited at $0.03072/kWh (as of 1/1/2021). Dollar credits roll forward; unused credit reverts when service ends. >25 kW must contract with PowerSouth. The estimate uses NMR-2.
- Notes
- Rate excludes the Cost of Power Sold Adjustment (+/- 0.1 mil per 0.1 mil vs 88.6-mill base, 12-month averaged); current value not published. gcec.com blocks automated fetching; read in-browser.
- Effective
- October 31, 2023; checked November 1, 2026
Questions members ask
- Does Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative pay for excess solar power?
- Power you use on site saves the full retail rate; power you export is credited at about 8.50¢ per kWh, well below retail, and credits offset energy charges only.
- How big a solar system can I net-meter with Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative?
- Systems up to 25 kW AC qualify for net metering. Net-metered accounts pay $28 a month more in fixed charges.
- Does Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative have a demand charge?
- Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative has no residential demand charge, so every kWh solar offsets saves the full energy rate.
- What would solar cost and save for a typical Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative home?
- For a electrically heated home using about 1100 kWh a month, a net-zero system is about 8.4 kW, costs roughly $18,507 to $22,620 installed, saves $853 to $974 in the first year, and pays back in 16.1 to 21.1 years at 2.7% a year rate growth. Your address gives a real figure in about a minute.
- What federal incentives apply in 2026?
- Florida exempts solar equipment from sales tax and keeps the value it adds off your property-tax bill, and both are already in these figures. Business-owned systems, including rental property, qualify for the 30% federal investment credit (Section 48E) and bonus depreciation when placed in service by the end of 2027; tax-exempt owners receive the 30% as cash. Not tax advice.
- Where do these numbers come from?
- The rate figures are read from Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative's own published schedule and net-metering policy (linked under Sources), last checked November 1, 2026. The worked example runs the same engine as the estimator, using a production reference for Panama City and Florida installed-cost data. If you spot an error, email us and we will correct it.
Service area
Other Florida co-ops: Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative (WREC), Clay Electric Cooperative, SECO Energy (Sumter Electric Cooperative), Peace River Electric Cooperative (PRECO), Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC), Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC). All 34 utilities.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the documents below. We print the schedule’s effective date and the date we last read it; when a utility publishes nothing, we say so instead of guessing quietly.
- Residential rate schedule: fixed charge, energy rateEffective October 31, 2023 · Checked November 1, 2026 · Read from the primary source
- Net-metering / distributed-generation policyChecked November 1, 2026 · Read from the primary source
- Service territory on the mapChecked November 1, 2026 · Read from the primary source
- Worked example: production, installed cost, savings and paybackChecked November 1, 2026 · Read from the primary source
Spot an error or a rate change? Email mtsolarestimate@gmail.com. How the estimate itself is built: methodology.
Your address, your numbers
Roof, usage and heating change everything above. The estimate takes about a minute and asks for no contact details.