Solar Panel Cost in Bend, OR 2026: ~14.4-Year Payback
In Bend, OR, an 8 kW system at $2.47/W produces about 1,418 kWh per kW and pays back in roughly 14.4 years at 14.02¢/kWh with the federal credit at $0.
· Source: EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A (July 2026 data) · next EIA update ~Oct 23
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- Bend production
- 1,418 kWh/kW/yr
- Oregon average
- 1,075 kWh/kW/yr
- Electricity rate
- 16.0¢/kWh
- 8 kW installed cost
- ~$19,760
- 2026 federal credit
- $0
- Payback (utility math)
- 14.4 years
Why this number
A kilowatt of panels in Bend produces about 1,418 kWh a year, the highest of the 4 Oregon cities modeled here — ahead of Medford at 1,316, Eugene at 1,156, Portland at 1,083. On an 8 kW system that is a payback of about 11.8 years, against 16.3 years in Portland, on identical hardware at the same 15.97¢/kWh.
Oregon is not one solar market
Across the 4 Oregon cities with their own modeled figures, production spans 31% — Portland at 1,083 kWh per kW to Bend at 1,418. Every column except production is identical down this table: same 16.0¢/kWh retail rate, same export regime, same $2.47/W installed cost. The payback differences are caused by weather and nothing else.
| Location | kWh per kW per year | 8 kW output | Annual value | Payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bend (this page) | 1,418 | 10,210 kWh | $1,630 | 11.8 yrs |
| Medford | 1,316 | 9,475 kWh | $1,513 | 12.7 yrs |
| Eugene | 1,156 | 8,323 kWh | $1,329 | 15.4 yrs |
| Portland | 1,083 | 7,798 kWh | $1,245 | 16.3 yrs |
| Oregon state average | 1,075 | 7,740 kWh | $1,236 | 16.4 yrs |
Against the state figure, Bend runs 32% above Oregon’s 1,075 kWh per kW — a payback 2.0 years shorter than the statewide 16.4-year estimate on the same hardware at the same price.
What sets Bend apart
The other side of the Cascades, and the difference is dramatic: Bend produces about a third more than Portland, in the same state.
Your utility, officially
Oregon’s average residential rate is 16.0¢/kWh, but the bill in Bend comes from PacifiCorp (Pacific Power, OR) at 14.02¢ — 12% below the state figure. These are the residential figures Bend’s utility reported to the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Form EIA-861 for 2024 — computed as revenue ÷ sales from the official file, not estimated:
| Utility | EIA ID | Residential avg price | Residential customers | Net-metering (residential, self-reported) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PacifiCorp (Pacific Power, OR) | 14354 | 14.02¢/kWh | 547,235 | not reported |
How exports are treated matters as much as the headline price: PacifiCorp (Pacific Power, OR) is modeled here under the state’s full-retail net metering rules, and that treatment is baked into every payback figure on this page.
Bend is served by Pacific Power — PacifiCorp’s Oregon operation, an investor-owned utility with 547,235 residential customers across the state — at a 2024 EIA-861 average of 14.02¢/kWh, about 23% below the 18.19¢ Portland General Electric charges in Portland. And Bend has, by a wide margin, the best sun in Oregon: 1,418 kWh per kW of unshaded south-facing capacity on the dry side of the Cascades, roughly 31% above Portland’s 1,083, 8% above Medford’s 1,316, and 23% above Eugene’s 1,156. Central Oregon’s high desert is a different climate from the Willamette Valley entirely, and the PVGIS data shows it plainly.
Now the part the sunshine brochures skip. Because Oregon’s net-metering rule, OAR 860-039-0055, credits exports at the full retail rate — and Pacific Power, as a state-regulated utility, is bound by it — the dollar value of a kilowatt of capacity is yield times retail price. Run it: Bend’s 1,418 kWh at 14.02¢ comes to about $199 a year per installed kilowatt. Portland’s 1,083 kWh at PGE’s 18.19¢ comes to about $197. A third more sunshine, and the annual dollar return is essentially identical, because Portland’s expensive utility does for its homeowners what Bend’s climate does for its own. The honest conclusion is not that Bend solar is mediocre — it is that under full-retail netting, gloomy-but-expensive and sunny-but-cheap converge, and both towns beat Eugene, where cheap municipal power and an unverified export rule drag the case down.
Full-retail crediting itself is the asset to appreciate here. An exported kilowatt-hour offsets a purchased one at par, so you need no battery, no time-of-use gymnastics, and no anxiety about midday surplus. Two caveats belong in the record: the treatment of year-end credit balances under Oregon’s rule was not confirmed in our source review, so ask Pacific Power how unused credits settle each spring; and Pacific Power reported no residential net-metering counts to EIA for 2024, so we cannot show you how many of your neighbors are already connected.
The incentive picture is thin and should be priced as such. The federal §25D residential credit is $0 for 2026 cash and loan purchases — it expired December 31, 2025 — and Oregon’s Solar + Storage Rebate is exhausted, its $1.1 million budget reserved the day it opened in June 2026 and now closed to applications. What Oregon still offers: no sales tax on anything, a property-tax exemption for net-metered systems, and the cheapest install quotes in our dataset’s neighborhood at an EnergySage average of $2.47/W. Cheap hardware, strong sun, fair export rules, no subsidy to wait for: Bend’s case is unglamorous and solid.
Source: EIA Form EIA-861, 2024 final release , accessed 2026-09-02. Average price is total residential revenue divided by total residential sales for the year — your own rate depends on your tariff and usage tier.
An 8 kW system in Bend, priced out
| Metric | Estimate for Bend | Oregon statewide |
|---|---|---|
| Production, unshaded 20° south | 1,418 kWh per kW/yr | 1,075 kWh per kW/yr |
| 8 kW output after a 10% roof derate | ~10,210 kWh/yr | ~7,740 kWh/yr |
| Average residential rate | 16.0¢/kWh (EIA) | 16.0¢/kWh |
| Installed cost, 8 kW | ~$19,760 at $2.47/watt | ~$19,760 |
| 2026 federal credit | $0 | $0 |
| Export rule | Full-retail net metering | Full-retail net metering |
| Export credit modeled | retail (16.0¢/kWh) | retail (16.0¢/kWh) |
| Annual value of that output | ~$1,630 | ~$1,236 |
| Rough payback (your utility) | 14.4 years | 16.4 years (state-average model) |
| 25-year net position | $26,631 | — |
Only the first two rows differ. Everything financial — rate, tariff, price per watt — is inherited from Oregon without change, which is the point: a city page that quietly used a different electricity rate from its state page would be guessing, not measuring.
Doing nothing is not free either. Twenty-five years of the electricity an 8 kW Bend array would produce, with rates rising at 2.5% a year, comes to roughly $55,677.
Solar aside, the EV vs. gas cost calculator runs Bend’s 16.0¢/kWh rate against what a gas car costs to fill instead.
Run it with your own bill
Shared methodology · identical on every city page
- Production figures are unshaded, south-facing, 20° PVGIS values. A real roof — its own pitch, orientation, a tree or a chimney — typically produces 10–25% less; every payback here already carries a 10% real-roof derate.
- Paybacks include $150/yr of running costs and one $2,000 inverter replacement in year 14, which is why they run longer than paybacks quoted elsewhere.
- State export rules cover investor-owned, state-regulated utilities. Municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives are exempt in most states and set their own terms.
- Installed cost is the state-level EnergySage market figure, not a city quote; a swing of 50¢/W moves payback by roughly a year and a half either way. Get three quotes before trusting any payback — including ours.
Bend against the rest of Oregon
Same rate, same export rule, same installed price per watt — only the sunshine changes:
| City | kWh per kW | Payback |
|---|---|---|
| Bend | 1,418 | 11.8 years |
| Medford | 1,316 | 12.7 years |
| Eugene | 1,156 | 15.4 years |
| Portland | 1,083 | 16.3 years |
A 31% production span across one state is the reason a single statewide number is only ever a starting point.
What Oregon pays Bend for exported power
Oregon credits exported power at the retail rate under OAR 860-039-0055 , so a kilowatt-hour a Bend array sends to the grid is worth the same as one you buy. That is the best case for solar economics and it is why the payback above is what it is.
It is also the assumption most likely to change. Twenty-two states have already moved to net billing. If Oregon did the same on typical terms, this system would take about 20.7 years instead of 14.4 — 6.3 years’ difference from a policy change, with no change to the hardware and none to Bend’s weather.
The treatment of year-end credit balances was not confirmed.
Sources and method
- Production: modeled with PVGIS v5.2 PVcalc (European Commission JRC) using the PVGIS-NSRDB radiation database — the same NREL satellite dataset PVWatts draws on for the Americas. Assumptions: 4 kWp, standard c-Si, 14% system loss, roof mounting, 20-degree tilt, due south, horizon shading on. The 1,418 kWh per kW figure for Bend is a modeled location point, not an interpolation from the Oregon average. PVGIS is free to use with JRC attribution requested; the underlying NSRDB is public domain (NREL/DOE).
- Real-roof derate: a separate 10% deduction for azimuth, pitch and shading, applied in the shared model rather than folded into the production data — so you can adjust it if your roof is genuinely unobstructed.
- Electricity rate: U.S. Energy Information Administration, average price by state . This is Oregon’s residential average; EIA does not publish a Bend figure, so the state rate is used and labeled as such.
- Export rules: OAR 860-039-0055 , from our Oregon state page and the shared export-rules dataset behind it.
- State average rate: EIA Table 5.6.A, July 2026 data (released Sep 2026), used for every state-average comparison on this page.
- Payback model: shared with the solar savings calculator and the state pages — 2.5%/yr utility inflation, 0.5%/yr degradation, $150/yr running costs, one $2,000 inverter replacement in year 14, federal credit $0. The rest of the toolset — battery, sizing, financing — is under all calculators .
- Incentives: DSIRE . City and utility programs change more often than state ones — check yours directly.
Electricity rate, export regime, production figure and installed cost on this page were last verified on 30 August 2026. Export credits reset on annual tariff cycles and incentive budgets run out mid-year, so treat every figure as a snapshot at that date and confirm current terms before acting. Nothing here is tax or financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
How much do solar panels cost in Bend in 2026?
About $19,760 for a typical 8 kW system at $2.47 per watt, before any incentive. With the federal credit at $0 in 2026 that is close to your net cost. Note that the price per watt is a Oregon market average — there is no reliable city-level cost data, so treat it as a starting point and get three quotes.
What is the solar payback in Bend?
Roughly 14.4 years on this model, using Bend’s own production figure of 1,418 kWh per kW and its own utility tariff (14.02¢/kWh) with each utility’s real export treatment. That includes $150 a year of running costs and one inverter replacement, which many published paybacks leave out.
Is Bend better or worse for solar than the rest of Oregon?
Against the state figure, Bend runs 32% above Oregon’s 1,075 kWh per kW — a payback 2.0 years shorter than the statewide 16.4-year estimate on the same hardware at the same price.
Is solar worth it in Bend in 2026?
At 15.97¢/kWh and 1,418 kWh per kW, an 8 kW system in Bend pays back in about 11.8 years on this model. Treat that as a starting point for reading real quotes rather than as a quote: your roof’s orientation, its shading and the price you are actually offered will move it more than your city does.
How we calculated this
Year-1 saving = production (kW × the city’s modeled kWh per kW) × the blended kWh value (retail rate for self-use, the state export rule for exports). Payback = net cost ÷ year-1 saving, with the federal credit at $0 for 2026 purchases and cost per watt from the state’s installed-price band. Production is modeled from PVGIS/NSRDB irradiance for the city.Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) electricity rates · DSIRE incentive records · public IRS/OBBBA guidance. Figures are modeled estimates, not quotes or tax advice. See our methodology.
Compare with the rest of Oregon
- Solar panel cost in Oregon — The statewide picture: Oregon’s rate, incentives, export rules and the 1,075 kWh per kW average this page corrects.
- Solar panel cost in Medford — 1,316 kWh per kW and a 12.7-year payback — worse than Bend on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Eugene — 1,156 kWh per kW and a 15.4-year payback — worse than Bend on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Portland — 1,083 kWh per kW and a 16.3-year payback — worse than Bend on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Jacksonville — 1,416 kWh per kW in Florida — the closest production match to Bend in our data.
- Solar panel cost in Savannah — 1,420 kWh per kW in Georgia — the closest production match to Bend in our data.
- All city solar figures — The 66 US cities with their own modeled production data, and the spreads between them.