Can a solar power system pay for itself

Some states, like Louisiana and Nebraska, have very affordable energy prices, around 7.5 cents per kWh, and it'll likely take far longer to spend $16,000 on your energy bill to pay off your solar panels. As we said earlier, many websites and solar companies have solar return on investment calculator tools to help you understand things.

Again, this varies based on the cost of panels, incentives, energy prices in your region, and how much electricity you use throughout the year. According to most sites and calculators, the average U.S. homeowner can expect to pay off their solar panel system and get a return on their investment within 6-12 years.

Savings from self-consumption are greatest if you have a time of use electricity pricing plan and use stored energy from your solar during the more expensive peak periods. If you have a feed-in tariff, it also decreases the amount you are paid for solar exports, but this is generally much smaller than the increased saving.

Of course, how long it takes depends on how much money you spend on solar to start. The average price to outfit a home with solar in the U.S. is around $16,000. Some spend more, while others pay far less. What is the Federal Solar Tax Credit?

Solar can reduce your electricity bill through: You can save the most money by self-consuming, or using, the electricity generated by your solar system. You can think of a solar panel as being a bit like a tap with water flowing out of it. The power output (measured in watts or kilowatts) is how fast electricity flows out of the panel.

However, for most solar systems, the amount of electricity curtailed is small, so the savings from reducing curtailment are modest. The payback period is the amount of time it will take for your electricity savings to match the cost of the system. For a rooftop solar system, this is typically much less than the lifetime of the system.