Solar Cost in Jacksonville, FL 2026: ~14.3–23.1-Yr Payback
In Jacksonville, FL, an 8 kW system at $2.13/W produces about 1,416 kWh per kW and pays back in roughly 14.3–23.1 years at 12.43¢/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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- Jacksonville production
- 1,416 kWh/kW/yr
- Florida average
- 1,475 kWh/kW/yr
- Electricity rate
- 15.0¢/kWh
- 8 kW installed cost
- ~$17,040
- 2026 federal credit
- $0
- Payback (utility math)
- 14.3–23.1 years
Why this number
A kilowatt of panels in Jacksonville produces about 1,416 kWh a year, the lowest of the 4 Florida cities modeled here — behind Tampa at 1,498, Miami at 1,481, Orlando at 1,458. That is a payback of roughly 11.0 years against 10.4 years in Tampa, with the same electricity rate, the same export rule and the same installed price. The difference is entirely the sky.
What sets Jacksonville apart
The weakest of Florida’s major metros, far enough north to lose some of the peninsula’s advantage.
Your utility, officially
Florida’s average residential rate is 15.0¢/kWh, but the bill in Jacksonville comes from JEA at 12.43¢ — 17% below the state figure. These are the residential figures Jacksonville’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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JEA | 9617 | 12.43¢/kWh | 470,564 | not reported |
One thing we could not verify with JEA is its export rule, which is why the payback above is a range: ask the utility directly whether you get full-retail net metering or a lower export credit , because that one answer picks your end of the range.
JEA is the reason Jacksonville needs its own solar page. It is a municipal utility — owned by the City of Jacksonville, governed by an appointed board, its surpluses contributing to the city budget rather than to shareholders — and with 470,564 residential customers it is one of the largest municipal electric utilities in the country. Its 2024 EIA-861 average of 12.43¢/kWh is the lowest of the four Florida utilities we track, undercutting Florida Power & Light by more than a cent and Duke Energy Florida by over four.
Cheap power is great news for your bill and mixed news for your solar spreadsheet. Every kilowatt-hour your panels replace saves 12.43¢ in JEA territory versus 16.63¢ in Duke territory around Orlando — a 25% haircut on the value of identical production, before you get to Jacksonville’s production figure at all. This is the honest reason paybacks run longer here than the Florida average, and no installer quote changes it.
The bigger caveat is regulatory. Florida’s full-retail net-metering rule (FAC Rule 25-6.065), the one our state page describes, applies to investor-owned utilities under the Public Service Commission. JEA, as a municipal, is exempt. It sets its own terms for customer-owned generation, its board can revise them without a state docket, and reporting over the years has described JEA crediting new solar customers below the retail rate rather than at it. We could not reach JEA’s site to verify the current policy from here, so treat the export side as unknown until you confirm it: get the current distributed-generation or solar credit terms, in writing, from jea.com or JEA directly before you model anything. If the credit is genuinely below retail, the standard advice inverts — size the system to what you consume during daylight rather than to your total annual usage, because self-consumed energy is worth 12.43¢ while exported energy may be worth much less.
One data note: JEA reported no residential net-metering totals in the 2024 EIA file we use, so unlike FPL (108,585 solar homes) or Duke (94,005), there is no official count of how many Jacksonville roofs have panels. For a city of nearly half a million electric customers sitting at Florida’s lower-production end (1,416 kWh per kW), the combination of the state’s cheapest power and its own export rulebook makes Jacksonville the Florida market where you should read the fine print twice.
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.
Jacksonville against the rest of Florida
Across the 4 Florida cities with their own modeled figures, production spans 5.8% — Jacksonville at 1,416 kWh per kW to Tampa at 1,498. Every column except production is identical down this table: same 15.0¢/kWh retail rate, same export regime, same $2.13/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampa | 1,498 | 10,786 kWh | $1,621 | 10.4 yrs |
| Miami | 1,481 | 10,663 kWh | $1,603 | 10.6 yrs |
| Orlando | 1,458 | 10,498 kWh | $1,578 | 10.7 yrs |
| Jacksonville (this page) | 1,416 | 10,195 kWh | $1,532 | 11.0 yrs |
| Florida state average | 1,475 | 10,620 kWh | $1,596 | 10.6 yrs |
Against the state figure, Jacksonville runs 4.0% below Florida’s 1,475 kWh per kW — a payback 3.7 years longer than the statewide 10.6-year estimate on the same hardware at the same price.
An 8 kW system in Jacksonville, priced out
| Metric | Estimate for Jacksonville | Florida statewide |
|---|---|---|
| Production, unshaded 20° south | 1,416 kWh per kW/yr | 1,475 kWh per kW/yr |
| 8 kW output after a 10% roof derate | ~10,195 kWh/yr | ~10,620 kWh/yr |
| Average residential rate | 15.0¢/kWh (EIA) | 15.0¢/kWh |
| Installed cost, 8 kW | ~$17,040 at $2.13/watt | ~$17,040 |
| 2026 federal credit | $0 | $0 |
| Export rule | Full-retail net metering | Full-retail net metering |
| Export credit modeled | retail (15.0¢/kWh) | retail (15.0¢/kWh) |
| Annual value of that output | ~$1,532 | ~$1,596 |
| Rough payback (your utility) | 14.3–23.1 years | 10.6 years (state-average model) |
| 25-year net position | $26,213 | — |
Only the first two rows differ. Everything financial — rate, tariff, price per watt — is inherited from Florida 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 Jacksonville array would produce, with rates rising at 2.5% a year, comes to roughly $52,330.
Electricity isn’t only for panels — the heat pump vs. furnace cost calculator compares heating costs at Jacksonville’s own 15.0¢/kWh rate.
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.
Jacksonville against the rest of Florida
Same rate, same export rule, same installed price per watt — only the sunshine changes:
| City | kWh per kW | Payback |
|---|---|---|
| Tampa | 1,498 | 10.4 years |
| Miami | 1,481 | 10.6 years |
| Orlando | 1,458 | 10.7 years |
| Jacksonville | 1,416 | 11.0 years |
A 5.8% production span across one state is the reason a single statewide number is only ever a starting point.
What Florida pays Jacksonville for exported power
Florida credits exported power at the retail rate under FAC Rule 25-6.065 , in force since 2008, so a kilowatt-hour a Jacksonville 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 Florida did the same on typical terms, this system would take about 19.5 years instead of 14.3–23.1 — 5.2 years’ difference from a policy change, with no change to the hardware and none to Jacksonville’s weather.
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 1,416 kWh per kW figure for Jacksonville is a modeled location point, not an interpolation from the Florida 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 Florida’s residential average; EIA does not publish a Jacksonville figure, so the state rate is used and labeled as such.
- Export rules: FAC Rule 25-6.065 , from our Florida 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 Jacksonville in 2026?
About $17,040 for a typical 8 kW system at $2.13 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 Florida 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 Jacksonville?
Roughly 14.3–23.1 years on this model, using Jacksonville’s own production figure of 1,416 kWh per kW and its own utility tariff (12.43¢/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 Jacksonville better or worse for solar than the rest of Florida?
Against the state figure, Jacksonville runs 4.0% below Florida’s 1,475 kWh per kW — a payback 3.7 years longer than the statewide 10.6-year estimate on the same hardware at the same price.
Is solar worth it in Jacksonville in 2026?
At 15.03¢/kWh and 1,416 kWh per kW, an 8 kW system in Jacksonville pays back in about 11.0 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 Florida
- Solar panel cost in Florida — The statewide picture: Florida’s rate, incentives, export rules and the 1,475 kWh per kW average this page corrects.
- Solar panel cost in Tampa — 1,498 kWh per kW and a 10.4-year payback — better than Jacksonville on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Miami — 1,481 kWh per kW and a 10.6-year payback — better than Jacksonville on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Orlando — 1,458 kWh per kW and a 10.7-year payback — better than Jacksonville on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Bend — 1,418 kWh per kW in Oregon — the closest production match to Jacksonville in our data.
- Solar panel cost in Savannah — 1,420 kWh per kW in Georgia — the closest production match to Jacksonville in our data.
- All city solar figures — The 66 US cities with their own modeled production data, and the spreads between them.