Solar Cost in Salt Lake City, UT 2026: ~23.7-Yr Payback
In Salt Lake City, UT, an 8 kW system at $2.50/W produces about 1,486 kWh per kW and pays back in roughly 23.7 years at 12.52¢/kWh with the federal credit at $0.
· Source: EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A (July 2026 data) · next EIA update ~Oct 23
On this page: CalculatorTableHow we calculatedSources
Jump to calculator ↓The slider reprices the calculator above instantly, and the URL keeps your scenario — share it as-is.
- Salt Lake City production
- 1,486 kWh/kW/yr
- Utah average
- 1,430 kWh/kW/yr
- Electricity rate
- 13.1¢/kWh
- 8 kW installed cost
- ~$20,000
- 2026 federal credit
- $0
- Payback (utility math)
- 23.7 years
Why this number
A kilowatt of panels in Salt Lake City produces about 1,486 kWh a year — the only Utah city with its own modeled figure, so the useful comparison is against the statewide 1,430 kWh per kW band rather than another city. On an 8 kW system that is a payback of about 23.1 years at 13.12¢/kWh.
What sets Salt Lake City apart
Rocky Mountain Power (PacifiCorp UT) territory.
Your utility, officially
Utah’s average residential rate is 13.1¢/kWh, but the bill in Salt Lake City comes from Rocky Mountain Power (PacifiCorp UT) at 12.52¢ — 4.6% below the state figure. These are the residential figures Salt Lake City’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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Mountain Power (PacifiCorp UT) | 14354 | 12.52¢/kWh | 947,246 | 74489 customers / 535.633 MW |
How exports are treated matters as much as the headline price: Rocky Mountain Power (PacifiCorp UT) is modeled here under the state’s net billing rules, and that treatment is baked into every payback figure on this page.
Salt Lake City looks, at first glance, like an obvious solar town — and the rooftops agree. Rocky Mountain Power, the Utah arm of PacifiCorp, reported 74,489 residential net-metering customers and 535.633 MW to EIA for 2024, the largest residential net-metering fleet of any utility in our dataset — about one home in thirteen across its 947,246 residential customers, averaging roughly 7.2 kW per system. The sun cooperates too: a modeled 1,486 kWh per kW per year from an unshaded south-facing array, a genuinely strong resource.
So here is the uncomfortable part. Utah pairs that good sun with two numbers that stretch paybacks instead of shrinking them. First, power is cheap: Rocky Mountain Power’s 2024 EIA-861 residential average is 12.52¢/kWh, the lowest retail rate in this wave, and cheap grid power means every kilowatt-hour your panels displace saves you less. Second, exports earn far below even that modest retail rate. Utah runs net billing under Rocky Mountain Power’s Export Credit Rate — 4.855¢ in summer and 4.033¢ in winter, which we model at the 4.4¢ midpoint, reset each March 1 (the current figures took effect March 1, 2026). An exported kilowatt-hour is worth about a third of a purchased one. Run both effects together: a kilowatt-hour you self-consume saves 12.52¢, one you export earns 4.4¢, and there is no full-retail netting to blur the difference. That is why Salt Lake City can have better sun than Minneapolis and a longer payback anyway — the resource is strong, but each kilowatt-hour is worth little, and the exported ones are worth less still.
The design consequence is the same one every net-billing market teaches: self-consumption is the whole game. Size the system to your daytime load, not your annual bill; shift what you can — water heating, laundry, EV charging — under the production curve; treat a battery as a serious option rather than a luxury. Oversizing an array here mostly manufactures 4.4¢ exports.
On incentives, expect nothing beyond the price of the hardware. The federal §25D residential credit is $0 for cash and loan purchases in 2026 — it expired December 31, 2025 — with 30% available only through leases and PPAs under §48E, claimed by the system owner. Utah’s Renewable Energy Systems Tax Credit has phased to zero and is no longer available for residential systems. The one favorable figure is upfront cost: an EnergySage marketplace average of $2.50/W before incentives, below the national median. Cheap to build, cheap power to offset, low export credit — the math can still work, but only for households that use what they generate.
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 Salt Lake City, priced out
| Metric | Estimate for Salt Lake City | Utah statewide |
|---|---|---|
| Production, unshaded 20° south | 1,486 kWh per kW/yr | 1,430 kWh per kW/yr |
| 8 kW output after a 10% roof derate | ~10,699 kWh/yr | ~10,296 kWh/yr |
| Average residential rate | 13.1¢/kWh (EIA) | 13.1¢/kWh |
| Installed cost, 8 kW | ~$20,000 at $2.50/watt | ~$20,000 |
| 2026 federal credit | $0 | $0 |
| Export rule | Net billing — exports credited below retail | Net billing — exports credited below retail |
| Export credit modeled | 4.40¢/kWh | 4.40¢/kWh |
| Annual value of that output | ~$844 | ~$812 |
| Rough payback (your utility) | 23.7 years | 23.8 years (state-average model) |
| 25-year net position | $1,239 | — |
Only the first two rows differ. Everything financial — rate, tariff, price per watt — is inherited from Utah 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 Salt Lake City array would produce, with rates rising at 2.5% a year, comes to roughly $47,958.
Not sure solar is the right move yet? The should-I-go-solar screener asks the four questions that matter before you get a quote.
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.
Salt Lake City against the rest of Utah
Salt Lake City is the only Utah city with its own modeled figure, so there is no in-state comparison to draw yet. The statewide band on the Utah page is the wider context.
What Utah pays Salt Lake City for exported power
Utah does not credit exports at the retail rate, and that rule reaches Salt Lake City unchanged. The program is Rocky Mountain Power Export Credit Rate , in force since 2026-03-01, crediting surplus power at a published rate of 4.40¢/kWh against a retail rate of 13.1¢.
4.855c summer, 4.033c winter; modeled at the 4.4c midpoint. Resets each 1 March.
Because a typical home uses only about 40% of its generation as it is produced, most of what a Salt Lake City array makes is sold at that lower rate. That is why the payback above is 23.7 years and not the 14.8 years the same hardware would return under full-retail net metering. Raising self-consumption is the lever that closes the gap.
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 1,486 kWh per kW figure for Salt Lake City is a modeled location point, not an interpolation from the Utah 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 Utah’s residential average; EIA does not publish a Salt Lake City figure, so the state rate is used and labeled as such.
- Export rules: Rocky Mountain Power Export Credit Rate , from our Utah 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 Salt Lake City in 2026?
About $20,000 for a typical 8 kW system at $2.50 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 Utah 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 Salt Lake City?
Roughly 23.7 years on this model, using Salt Lake City’s own production figure of 1,486 kWh per kW and its own utility tariff (12.52¢/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 Salt Lake City better or worse for solar than the rest of Utah?
Against the state figure, Salt Lake City is the reference point: our Utah page uses 1,430 kWh per kW, which is this city. The value of this page is the comparison above, not a different headline number.
Is solar worth it in Salt Lake City in 2026?
At 13.12¢/kWh and 1,486 kWh per kW, an 8 kW system in Salt Lake City pays back in about 23.1 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 Utah
- Solar panel cost in Utah — The statewide picture: Utah’s rate, incentives, export rules and the 1,430 kWh per kW average this page corrects.
- Solar panel cost in Miami — 1,481 kWh per kW in Florida — the closest production match to Salt Lake City in our data.
- Solar panel cost in Corpus Christi — 1,479 kWh per kW in Texas — the closest production match to Salt Lake City in our data.
- Solar panel cost in Denver — 1,494 kWh per kW in Colorado — the closest production match to Salt Lake City in our data.
- All city solar figures — The 66 US cities with their own modeled production data, and the spreads between them.