Is Rooftop Solar for Everyone? Here’s How Homeowners Can Calculate Cost Savings

Installing solar panels can help homeowners reduce their carbon footprints and tap into stored energy during blackouts, and with the newly passed Inflation Reduction Act, it can also amount to major cost savings, CNBC reports. The new law will extend tax credits that had been previously set to expire by 2024 through 2035, and it also allocates a 30 percent credit for batteries that can store newly-produced power for necessary use.

With the help of tax credits, rooftop solar systems can pay for themselves in as little as five years, but offsetting electricity costs depends on a variety of factors, from location and house size to the specifications of the solar system installed.

Nationally, the cost for solar in 2022 ranges from $16,870 to $23,170, after the tax credit, for a 10-kilowatt system, the size for which quotes are sought most often on EnergySage, a Boston-based quote-comparison site for solar panels and batteries. Most households can use a system of six or seven kilowatts, EnergySage spokesman Nick Liberati said. A 10-12 kilowatt battery costs about $13,000 more, he added.

Offsetting those costs are electricity savings and state tax breaks that recover the cost of the system in as little as 4.5 years, according to the bids. Contractors claimed that power savings and state incentives could save as much as another $27,625 over 20 years, on top of the capital cost.

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