A solar permit is the moment a specific Florida home committed to a specific project, weeks after the sale and weeks to months before the install. This page publishes what Scout Data’s permit database shows for the state: 36,102 residential solar permits in 2025 and 66,136 over the 24 months from September 2024 through August 2026, on 63,296 distinct homes. The national picture is on the U.S. solar permit statistics page; the methodology is at the bottom.
- 2025 permits
- 36,102
- Homes with solar
- 7.73%
- Median declared value
- $26,730
- Battery attach, 2025
- 9.5%
Residential solar permits in Florida by year
Permits filed each year since 2015, and the number of distinct homes behind them. A single project can carry more than one permit, so homes run below permits.
| Year | Residential solar permits | Homes |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7,824 | 7,575 |
| 2016 | 8,706 | 8,295 |
| 2017 | 9,668 | 9,277 |
| 2018 | 14,894 | 14,261 |
| 2019 | 23,311 | 22,496 |
| 2020 | 29,118 | 27,710 |
| 2021 | 41,024 | 39,291 |
| 2022 | 59,725 | 57,268 |
| 2023 | 60,538 | 58,034 |
| 2024 | 43,723 | 42,049 |
| 2025 | 36,102 | 34,813 |
| 2026 (through August) | 17,883 | 17,200 |
Florida’s tracked permitting peaked in 2023 at 60,538 permits. 2025 came in at 36,102, down 40% from 2023. The 2026 row covers January through August only and should not be read against a full year. Early years understate activity more than recent ones, because jurisdiction coverage has grown over time; every figure is a floor on true activity.
Where the permits are: Florida’s busiest counties
The ten counties with the most residential solar permits from September 2024 through August 2026. Hillsborough County alone is about 12% of the state’s total.
| County | Permits, 24 months | Homes |
|---|---|---|
| Hillsborough County | 7,961 | 7,837 |
| Orange County | 5,391 | 5,144 |
| Pinellas County | 5,270 | 5,077 |
| Polk County | 4,732 | 4,650 |
| Lee County | 4,515 | 4,412 |
| Broward County | 4,209 | 3,515 |
| Miami-Dade County | 3,046 | 2,822 |
| Pasco County | 2,671 | 2,606 |
| Osceola County | 2,582 | 2,360 |
| Brevard County | 2,522 | 2,495 |
How many Florida homes already have solar
Permits measure flow. Aerial imagery measures the stock. Of 5,459,915 single-family roofs in Florida that have been classified from the air, 422,055 carry panels: 7.73%, which ranks 10th among states (the full ranking is on homes with solar by state). Read the other way, about 5,037,860 single-family homes in the state have no panels yet, which is the addressable market a solar sales team is actually working. 4,507,926 of the state’s 5,702,017 single-family homes are owner-occupied.
Batteries on Florida solar permits
Of 36,102 residential solar permits filed in Florida in 2025, 3,423 record energy storage as part of the job, an attach rate of 9.5%. This is a floor: a permit whose description never mentions storage counts as having none, so the number mixes real adoption with how much detail the state’s permit offices write down. The national curve, and why it broke upward in 2024, is on solar battery attachment rates.
The bankruptcy overhang in Florida
42,526 Florida homes hold a residential solar permit filed under the name of an installer on the Scout Data bankrupt installer list, on or before that company’s petition or closure date. Each is a homeowner with a system, or a half-finished project, and no company behind it, which is the population the orphaned solar systems opportunity and the bankrupt-installer datasets are built on.
Other states
The same statistics for California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, New York, Oregon and Nevada. More states are added each week; the index is at solar permits by state, and the national totals are on the U.S. solar permit statistics page.
Methodology
- Source. Scout Data’s production permit database, 120M+ building permits across 2,456 U.S. counties, joined to property records on 160M+ properties and to an aerial roof classification of single-family homes.
- What is counted. Residential permits whose own text names a solar, photovoltaic or PV installation, one row per permit at its latest status. Commercial, agricultural and utility-scale projects are excluded, and so are permits with no usable issue date. This is the same cohort as the battery attachment page; the national statistics page was derived earlier under a slightly wider deduplication rule, so its annual totals run a few percent above the sum of the state pages.
- Windows. The year table uses the permit issue year, with 2026 covering January through August. County rankings, home counts and declared values cover September 2024 through August 2026.
- Valuations. Median declared valuation on permits carrying a non-zero value, computed exactly rather than sampled, and shown only where at least 200 permits carry one. Jurisdictions differ in what value they require; treat the median as conservative.
- Rooftop solar. The denominator is single-family homes whose roof has an aerial classification, not all homes, because an unclassified roof would otherwise read as no solar. The share is published only where at least 60% of the state’s single-family roofs are classified.
- Batteries. A 2025 permit counts as recording storage when its text says so. Jurisdiction form boilerplate that mentions batteries as an instruction to applicants, rather than as installed equipment, is excluded. Rates are floors and are shown only for states with at least 1,000 permits in the year.
- Bankrupt installers. Homes with a permit whose installer name starts with a company name, or alias, on the bankrupt installer list, filed on or before that company’s petition or closure date where one is known. This is narrower than the permit-level rule on the national bankruptcy page, whose totals are therefore larger.
- Coverage. Not every jurisdiction publishes permits and Scout Data does not ingest every one that does. All counts are floors on true activity. States with fewer than 1,000 permits in the trailing 24 months do not get a page.
Derived September 16, 2026. If you spot something that looks wrong, tell us; we would rather correct a number than defend it.
Frequently asked questions
How many residential solar permits were issued in Florida in 2025?
36,102 residential solar permits were issued in Florida in 2025, on 34,813 homes, which ranks 2nd among U.S. states in Scout Data's permit database. That compares with 43,723 in 2024 and 60,538 in 2023.
Which Florida county has the most solar permits?
Hillsborough County, with 7,961 residential solar permits from September 2024 through August 2026, about 12% of the state's total for the period.
What share of Florida homes have solar panels?
7.73% of Florida's single-family homes have solar panels visible in aerial imagery: 422,055 of 5,459,915 evaluated roofs, 10th among states. That leaves about 5,037,860 single-family homes in the state without panels.
How much does a residential solar project cost in Florida?
The median declared valuation on Florida residential solar permits issued from September 2024 through August 2026 is $26,730, across 47,526 permits that carried a value. Declared valuations understate contract prices in many jurisdictions, so treat this as a floor rather than a market price.
Can I cite these statistics?
Yes, cite freely with a link to this page. All figures were derived on September 16, 2026 from Scout Data's permit and property databases; the methodology section explains what is and is not counted.