Distributed renewable generation (behind-the-meter solar PV, net metering)
The net-metering regime has been open since 2023 and the formal market is still tiny: across the whole province there are 38 connected user-generators and 936 kW, and the number has not moved since March 2026 while applications in progress have doubled. It is not empty —there are integrators with a brand in Plottier and in the capital, and the distribution cooperative itself installs—: it is stuck. And there is one number in the tariff sheet that decides what is worth selling: EPEN pays 104 pesos per kilowatt hour for surplus while the same shop buys at 425. The system that pays for itself is not the biggest one: it is the one consumed on site.
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Who really pays?
The buyer is neither single nor obvious, and at this early stage the State weighs more than the private customer. Watch the margin: the panel and the inverter go to a national importer — you invoice services. Three different doors:
Shops, industrial SMEs and farmers in Neuquén city, Plottier, Centenario and Cutral Có that consume during the day; a small system starts around USD 5,000. The sales argument is not selling surplus: it is stopping buying at 425 pesos per kilowatt hour.
EPEN has already installed in schools, public buildings, churches and a municipality —the María Auxiliadora parish and the Municipality of Centenario, EPET No. 2—, so this door has a named track record and is not a hypothesis. Add the Consejo Provincial de Educación. At this stage it may be the biggest pocket.
The 38 connected user-generators and the 22 applications in progress as of August 2026. ⚠️ No longer an unclaimed space: one local integrator sells periodic maintenance plans with remote monitoring.
When the window opens
Two monthly clocks, and you can go and check both: the connection register and the tariff sheet. And there is one that has already stopped: the national tax incentive of Ley 27.424 —the fund, the tax credit and the guarantee— has been repealed since 21 December 2023 and nothing has restored it.
The whole business hangs on what the kilowatt the customer stops buying costs. EPEN's retail price for shops went from 377.724 to 425.474 pesos/kWh between the July 2025 and August 2026 consumption sheets: +12.6% in nominal terms over thirteen months, well below any measure of inflation for the period.
See the evidence
EPEN pays 104.137 pesos/kWh for surplus and the same customer buys at 425.474: a gap of 4.1 times. And it is not a discretionary decision that can be corrected by asking: the Annex to Decreto 2325/2023 sets it by rule, «recognising as the Injection Tariff the purchase price of electricity by the Distributor».
See the evidence
The Capacity Reservation «shall be valid for one calendar year» and «shall lapse automatically» if the bidirectional meter is not requested within that year.
See the evidence
Panels and inverters are imported goods: the local integrator invoices services, not product. If that service becomes indistinguishable through competition, the business thins out and only the installation margin remains. estim
See the remaining risk
Even in the high case the market does not reach USD 1.2M a year. It does not scale without a tariff jump and long-term credit. estim
The opportunity in depth
The opportunity in depth
Size for self-consumption, not for injection. EPEN pays 104 pesos per kilowatt hour for surplus and the same shop buys at 425: the kilowatt the customer saves is worth four times the one they sell. The system that pays for itself is the one consumed on site — and it does not even require registering as a user-generator.
Unblock the application process, which is where demand piles up: applications in progress doubled between March and August 2026 while connections did not move. It is eight steps and three forms before EPEN, and the capacity reservation expires after a year and lapses automatically.
Energy-efficiency public works: this is the door with a real track record, not a hypothesis. EPEN has already installed distributed generation in schools, public buildings, churches and a municipality, with named projects. You get in as an approved supplier.
Maintenance of the installed stock —cleaning, monitoring, performance warranty—: recurring and sticky. ⚠️ No longer empty: at least one local integrator sells plans with remote monitoring.
When you get paid, and what blocks it
already in
split
Development, sales and installation in Neuquén city, Plottier, Centenario, San Patricio del Chañar, Cutral Có, Plaza Huincul, Zapala and Chos Malal, with interest-free instalments through two banks, and maintenance plans with remote monitoring. ⛔ It is the company that disproves the line «there is no local integrator with a brand» and also the claim that maintenance has «no incumbent». prob its own site, consulted 14-Sep-2026
Not just the distributor: its renewables arm carried out the city's first residential solar installation in October 2025 —16 panels with a 10 kW inverter and a smart meter— and the cooperative states it offers «turnkey projects and agreements with financial institutions».
See the evidence
One opened a street-front shop in Neuquén city in June 2024; the other has a dedicated Neuquén page. ⚠️ We found them through an open search, not through a register: there is no public register of qualified installers in the province. unconf as to the universe
It installs the meter and pays for surplus at a regulated tariff; it connected the first user-generator on its own network in August 2025. And it has been installing solar «for years» in schools, public buildings, churches and one municipality, with named projects —the María Auxiliadora parish and the Municipality of Centenario, EPET No. 2—. This is public demand with a track record, not commercial competition. verif official EPEN release, 18-Aug-2025
See the remaining player
Equipment comes from national chains and from incipient domestic manufacturing: the equipment margin leaves the province and the local integrator invoices services. estim
The jobs it createsThe other side is proportionally larger than the market itself: the business is small in dollars, but the trade it creates —the licensed solar installer— is formal employment and short, replicable training across the province, with two doors: the technician from the Colegio de Técnicos for the mounting and the licensed engineer to sign the design.the detail on jobs and trades
Equipment —panels and inverters— is captured by importers and national chains: that margin leaves the province. Connection and payment for surplus belong to EPEN and CALF, both regulated. Parks above 2 MW or selling into the grid are not part of this page. estim
Licensed engineering, installation, paperwork, maintenance and the local distribution margin on equipment: the service an integrator invoices. Against a mid market of ~USD 0.8M: ~USD 0.3-0.6M a year. estim
An integrator building a brand, financing and skill at handling the paperwork can take ~USD 0.15-0.3M a year within two or three years: small in dollars, high as a share of a tiny market. ⚠️ There are already four competitors, so the differentiator is not arriving first: it is solving the paperwork and sizing for self-consumption. thesis
calculate it
The number comes from multiplying the year’s activity by the unit price, and it is cross-checked against independent methods that give the same result.
The full calculation, step by step
Concentration Low and atomized, but not empty: there are at least four operators with a brand and a physical presence in the province and one of them is the capital's own distributor. Connection and payment for surplus are governed by EPEN and CALF, both regulated. Equipment is concentrated in national chains and importers. ⚠️ How many integrators there are cannot be stated: the province publishes no register of qualified installers.
The rule that moves it
Two levers pulling in different directions. A provincial rule opens the market —Ley 3297 on net metering, implemented by Decreto 2325/2023, which is where the 2 MW cap per supply point and the rule on what surplus is paid actually live—. And the national doctrine of normalizing tariffs should light it: the DNU 70 repealed federal support, but the same removal of subsidies raises the grid tariff and shortens the payback. ⚠️ It has not happened in Neuquén yet: the tariff for shops rose 12.6% in nominal terms over thirteen months.
See the full legal grounds
See the full legal grounds
Where the number comes from
~USD 0.37M/yr is the floor of the formal market; ~USD 0.8M adding self-consumption without injection, which appears in no register
See the calculation, the variables and how it was validated
The market is built from the annual flow of new capacity —what gets installed and invoiced each year—, not from the accumulated stock. The series now comes from the official register, not from the press.
The USD 0.37M floor captures only solar that injects into the grid under Ley 3297. The market an integrator actually invoices is wider, and the tariff sheet itself explains why: with surplus paid at 104 pesos and energy bought at 425, what pays is self-consumption, and a system sized for self-consumption without injection does not require registering as a user-generator — so it appears in no register. That is why the addressable figure rises to ~USD 0.8M as an explicit assumption. It does not include EPEN's tariff-efficiency programme, which is not solar generation and closed its application window in August 2025.
The number rests on a few variables. The formula shows how it moves when each one changes; and each variable carries its freshness seal — how often it is worth revisiting. estim
We closed two dead sources against their primary record and no figure had to be withdrawn for lack of backing: the EPEN release was alive at another address on its own site, and the national series belonged to the Secretaría de Energía, which publishes it month by month. With that we re-measured Neuquén's series across eight official reports —from 21 user-generators in December 2024 to 38 in August 2026—, and the page's flow assumption came out confirmed: 394 kW a year on average, against the 350 we had assumed. And one claim fell: the page said in five places that the province's first user-generator was connected in August 2025, and the official report already counted 21 connected eight months earlier. What the EPEN release proves is the first on its own network. The turnkey price of USD 900 per kilowatt peak is the link we could not reopen: its source now responds with a block.
Coverage: the public registry of Certified Neuquén Suppliers under Ley 3338, counted in full —1,029 companies, and none of them declares solar, photovoltaic, renewable or energy efficiency— and the Secretaría de Energía's national distributed generation register, where Neuquén appears with 38 user-generators and 936 kW · Sep 14, 2026 · not reviewed: that registry is the oil and gas chain's one, so an installer selling to shops and SMEs has no reason to be on it; and there is no public registry of qualified Neuquén installers: neither EPEN nor the Secretaría de Energía publishes that list
How to cite this figure: Despegue (2026). Distributed renewable generation (behind-the-meter solar PV, net metering) · Neuquén. despegueargentina.com/en/neuquen/generacion-distribuida-solar · terms of use
Neighbouring markets5 markets in the same group, from USD 1,5 to USD 1,050 M a year
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