What solar costs in California
The middle half of California households who put solar on the roof paid between $3.29 and $5.88 a watt, on 159,263 reported installations. There is no longer a federal credit to take off that.
The numbers
High electricity prices make solar pay faster, so a red figure in the third box is good news for a solar buyer and bad news every other month of the year.
Holding a quote above $34,880? Installers in California price the same system very differently. Two more bids is the cheapest way to find out where yours sits.
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What the roof makes month by month in Los Angeles
A 1.7 to 1 swing, which is unusually flat. Output here is steadier month to month than almost anywhere else in the country, so monthly bills stay more predictable.
Figures are for an 8 kW array at 20 degrees facing south, modelled from NSRDB radiation data at Los Angeles.
What different sizes cost in California
| Size | Panels | Price | Output | Year one saving | Payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 kW | 10 | $17,440 | 6,408 kWh | $1,508 | 10.5 years |
| 5 kW | 13 | $21,800 | 8,010 kWh | $1,885 | 10.5 years |
| 6 kW | 15 | $26,160 | 9,612 kWh | $2,261 | 10.5 years |
| 7 kW | 18 | $30,520 | 11,214 kWh | $2,638 | 10.5 years |
| 8 kWtypical | 20 | $34,880 | 12,816 kWh | $3,015 | 10.5 years |
| 10 kW | 25 | $43,600 | 16,020 kWh | $3,769 | 10.5 years |
| 12 kW | 30 | $52,320 | 19,224 kWh | $4,523 | 10.5 years |
| 15 kW | 38 | $65,400 | 24,030 kWh | $5,654 | 10.5 years |
| 20 kW | 50 | $87,200 | 32,040 kWh | $7,538 | 10.5 years |
Payback is the same at every size because this table holds the price per watt flat at the California median of $4.36: price and output both grow in step with the system, so their ratio does not change. Real quotes are not quite linear. Permitting, design and connection cost roughly the same on any roof, so a small system usually costs more per watt and a large one less, and pays back correspondingly later or sooner than shown.
The price is what California households actually paid on host-owned systems installed in 2024-2025, as reported to state programmes and compiled by Berkeley Lab, gross of any incentive. Quote marketplaces publish the prices installers offer on their own platforms, which is a different measure from prices paid on contracts that closed, so the two need not match.
Not everything you make is worth retail here
California moved to NEM 3.0 in April 2023. Exported power earns an avoided-cost rate well below retail, so a system that sends most of its output to the grid is worth materially less than the meter price suggests.
The figures on this page already carry that haircut: production is valued at 70% of the retail rate rather than all of it. A household that uses most of its own output as it is generated, which usually means a battery, an electric car or someone home during the day, does better than this.
13 programmes in California
The 30% federal credit ended for installations completed after 31 December 2025. These state, utility and local programmes are unaffected by that, and are now the only thing that reduces the price.
| Programme | Type | Run by | Reach | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interconnection Standards | Interconnection | State | statewide | June 4, 2024 |
| Net Metering / Net Billing | Net Metering | State | statewide | February 27, 2026 |
| Partial Sales and Use Tax Exemption for Agricultural Solar Power Facilities | Sales Tax Incentive | State | statewide | September 4, 2026 |
| Property Tax Exclusion for Solar Energy Systems and Solar Plus Storage System | Property Tax Incentive | State | statewide | September 4, 2026 |
| Santa Clara County - Solar Access Easements | Solar/Wind Access Policy | Local | statewide | October 20, 2023 |
| California Solar Easement and the Solar Shade Control Act | Solar/Wind Access Policy | State | partial | October 22, 2023 |
| California Solar Rights Act | Solar/Wind Access Policy | State | partial | October 22, 2023 |
| City of Oakland - Solar Access Ordinance | Solar/Wind Access Policy | Local | partial | October 30, 2023 |
| City of Sacramento - Solar Access Regulations | Solar/Wind Access Policy | Local | partial | October 30, 2023 |
| City of Santa Cruz - Solar Access Ordinance | Solar/Wind Access Policy | Local | partial | October 24, 2023 |
| City of Sebastopol - Solar Access | Solar/Wind Access Policy | Local | partial | October 30, 2023 |
| LADWP - Net Metering | Net Metering | Utility | partial | March 4, 2026 |
| Marin County - Solar Easement and Access Laws | Solar/Wind Access Policy | Local | partial | October 22, 2023 |
Programme index from DSIRE, N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center, NC State University, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. “Partial” means it reaches only some utilities or counties. A listed programme can still be closed or out of budget, so check its own page before counting on it.
How California ranks
Closest on payback: New York (9.7 yrs), Rhode Island (9.7 yrs), District of Columbia (10.5 yrs), New Hampshire (10.5 yrs).
Solar in California, answered
How much do solar panels cost in California?
An 8 kW system in California, roughly 20 panels, costs about $34,880 before incentives. That is based on $4.36 per watt, the median California households actually paid across 159,263 installations reported to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for 2024-2025. The middle half of buyers paid between $3.29 and $5.88 per watt. There is no longer a federal tax credit to subtract from that figure.
Is there still a 30% solar tax credit in California?
No. The federal Residential Clean Energy Credit under Internal Revenue Code section 25D was terminated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for expenditures made after 31 December 2025, and it did not step down first. A California homeowner buying a system with cash or a loan today receives no federal tax credit. Under a lease or power purchase agreement the credit survives as section 48E but belongs to the company that owns the equipment, not to the household. California still has 13 state, utility or local programmes covering rooftop solar.
How long do solar panels take to pay for themselves in California?
About 10.5 years in California. An 8 kW system costs roughly $34,880 and saves about $3,015 in its first year at the state's average residential rate of 33.61 cents per kilowatt-hour (EIA, July 2026). That calculation includes no federal tax credit, because the residential credit ended after 31 December 2025.
How much electricity does a solar panel produce in California?
Each kilowatt of panels in California produces about 1,602 kilowatt-hours a year, modelled at Los Angeles facing south at a 20 degree tilt using NSRDB radiation data. An 8 kW system therefore makes roughly 12,816 kilowatt-hours a year. The national average is about 1,332 kilowatt-hours per kilowatt installed.
Is solar worth it in California?
It depends less on sunshine than on your electricity price. In California power costs 33.61 cents per kilowatt-hour (EIA, July 2026), which makes an 8 kW system pay for itself in about 10.5 years and clear roughly $61,544 over 25 years. Solar from your own roof works out at 11.6 cents per kilowatt-hour over its life, against 33.61 cents from the utility.
How many solar panels do I need in California?
A typical California installation is about 20 panels, which is 8 kW at the 400 watt module that is now standard and needs roughly 440 square feet of roof. To size it to your own use, divide your annual kilowatt-hours by 1,602, which is what each kilowatt of panels produces in California each year.
Do solar panels work in winter in California?
Yes, but output falls sharply. In Los Angeles a kilowatt of panels makes about 164 kilowatt-hours in Aug and about 95 in Dec, a swing of 1.7 to 1 across the year. A system sized to cover your annual consumption will therefore run a surplus in summer and leave you buying power in winter, so how your utility settles that difference matters as much as the size of the array.
Three competing quotes beat any amount of comparing panel brands
Sales cost and margin are over a third of an installed price in California, and they are the part that competition removes. A single quote from whoever reached you first is how people end up in the top quarter of what their neighbours paid.
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Prices and rules change. We will tell you when they do
Berkeley Lab publishes installed prices once a year, the EIA updates electricity rates every month, and Congress changed the tax treatment of all of this in 2025. One email when something on this site actually changes, and nothing else.
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