Solar panels in Martin County, FL

• Martin County takes building permit applications online through its Accela Citizen Access portal, with digital plan review.
• The morning after Hurricane Milton in October 2024, about 16,700 of FPL's 100,760 Martin County customers (17%) were without power, according to the Public Service Commission.
• FPL's underground program had finished 25 projects serving about 700 Martin County customers by January 2026, with 302 more customers due before the next hurricane season, including in Palm City.
• FPL's 2025 report to the Public Service Commission lists 1,326 customer-owned solar systems on its lines in Martin County, 109 of them connected in 2025, by our count. See Florida solar by county.

Permits and zoning rules are set town by town. Highlights from each town's own rules:

• Hobe Sound: During Hurricane Milton on October 9, 2024, an EF2 tornado with peak winds of 120 mph tracked 5.7 miles through Hobe Sound, starting near Lost Lake and moving into The Preserve, where many concrete block homes lost roof tiles.
• Jensen Beach: Jensen Beach is unincorporated, so Martin County issues building permits, which are filed online through the county's Accela Citizen Access portal.
• Jupiter Island: Jupiter Island finished moving its power lines underground in 2007. After Hurricane Irma, the town manager said the town would still be dealing with downed poles and lines if its utilities were above ground. Buried lines cut local storm damage, but a battery is what keeps a home running when the wider grid goes down.
• North River Shores: North River Shores began in the mid-1950s as a deed-restricted neighborhood, and its restated covenants run with the land, so check them, along with Florida's solar-rights law, before you plan panels.
• Palm City: During Hurricane Milton on October 9, 2024, an EF0 tornado touched down at the SW Martin Highway and I-95 interchange in Palm City, damaging shingles, soffits and gutters in Rosser Reserve and peeling back part of a roof in Hidden Oaks.
• Port Salerno: A tornado spun up by Hurricane Milton on October 9, 2024, tore through Port Salerno neighborhoods near Rocky Pointe Cove and the Woodmill Pond complex, damaging homes and roofs, flipping cars and downing power lines, and closing U.S. 1 near Cove Road.
• Sewall's Point: The Town of Sewall's Point issues its own building permits, reviewing them against state, county and town zoning, floodplain and building rules, and takes applications through an online permitting system.
• Stuart: During Hurricane Milton on October 9, 2024, the National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado in Stuart, and an EF-2 tornado tracked 5.7 miles from Hobe Sound into Stuart.

Each town page has the full details and sources.

No. Under Florida law (s. 193.624), the value a solar system adds to a home isn't counted in its assessed value. If you're unsure whether anything needs to be filed, ask the Martin County Property Appraiser.

Solar equipment is also exempt from Florida sales tax, so it's already left out of the installed price.

FPL credits the solar you send to the grid as a kWh credit at the full retail rate. Unused credits roll forward for up to 12 months, and anything left at year-end is paid out at only a few cents per kWh, so systems are sized to cover a year of use. Solar can't take a bill below the monthly minimum ($30 at FPL).

See the full FPL solar guide.

Choosing a company? Check each installer's Florida license, compare at least two quotes and run them through our solar quote checker.