Solar Panel Cost in Tacoma, WA 2026: ~24.1-Year Payback
In Tacoma, WA, an 8 kW system at $2.55/W produces about 1,046 kWh per kW and pays back in roughly 24.1 years at 10.81¢/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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- Tacoma production
- 1,046 kWh/kW/yr
- Washington average
- 1,045 kWh/kW/yr
- Electricity rate
- 14.7¢/kWh
- 8 kW installed cost
- ~$20,400
- 2026 federal credit
- $0
- Payback (utility math)
- 24.1 years
Why this number
A kilowatt of panels in Tacoma produces about 1,046 kWh a year, placing it 4 of 6 among the Washington cities modeled here. The state spans Yakima at 1,320 down to Everett at 999, a 32% span, and Tacoma sits inside it at a payback of about 18.5 years.
An 8 kW system in Tacoma, priced out
| Metric | Estimate for Tacoma | Washington statewide |
|---|---|---|
| Production, unshaded 20° south | 1,046 kWh per kW/yr | 1,045 kWh per kW/yr |
| 8 kW output after a 10% roof derate | ~7,531 kWh/yr | ~7,524 kWh/yr |
| Average residential rate | 14.7¢/kWh (EIA) | 14.7¢/kWh |
| Installed cost, 8 kW | ~$20,400 at $2.55/watt | ~$20,400 |
| 2026 federal credit | $0 | $0 |
| Export rule | Full-retail net metering | Full-retail net metering |
| Export credit modeled | retail (14.7¢/kWh) | retail (14.7¢/kWh) |
| Annual value of that output | ~$1,108 | ~$1,107 |
| Rough payback (your utility) | 24.1 years | 18.5 years (state-average model) |
| 25-year net position | $9,278 | — |
Only the first two rows differ. Everything financial — rate, tariff, price per watt — is inherited from Washington 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 Tacoma array would produce, with rates rising at 2.5% a year, comes to roughly $37,847.
Solar aside, the EV vs. gas cost calculator runs Tacoma’s 14.7¢/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.
Washington is not one solar market
Across the 6 Washington cities with their own modeled figures, production spans 32% — Everett at 999 kWh per kW to Yakima at 1,320. Every column except production is identical down this table: same 14.7¢/kWh retail rate, same export regime, same $2.55/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yakima | 1,320 | 9,504 kWh | $1,398 | 15.1 yrs |
| Spokane | 1,195 | 8,604 kWh | $1,266 | 16.5 yrs |
| Seattle | 1,086 | 7,819 kWh | $1,150 | 17.9 yrs |
| Tacoma (this page) | 1,046 | 7,531 kWh | $1,108 | 18.5 yrs |
| Bellingham | 1,022 | 7,358 kWh | $1,082 | 18.9 yrs |
| Everett | 999 | 7,193 kWh | $1,058 | 19.2 yrs |
| Washington state average | 1,045 | 7,524 kWh | $1,107 | 18.5 yrs |
Against the state figure, Tacoma runs 0.1% above Washington’s 1,045 kWh per kW — a payback 5.6 years longer than the statewide 18.5-year estimate on the same hardware at the same price.
What sets Tacoma apart
Marginally below Seattle and subject to the same Puget Sound cloud, so treat the two as interchangeable for planning.
Your utility, officially
Washington’s average residential rate is 14.7¢/kWh, but the bill in Tacoma comes from City of Tacoma - (WA) at 10.81¢ — 27% below the state figure. These are the residential figures Tacoma’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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Tacoma - (WA) | 18429 | 10.81¢/kWh | 180,357 | 2780 customers / 18.21 MW |
How exports are treated matters as much as the headline price: City of Tacoma is modeled here under full-retail net metering , and that treatment is baked into every payback figure on this page.
Tacoma Power’s 10.81¢/kWh — the 2024 EIA-861 average across its 180,357 residential customers — is the lowest residential price of any city utility on this site, and it is the single number that explains everything difficult about Tacoma solar. The payback model on this page uses Washington’s state-average rate; a Tacoma household’s actual per-kilowatt-hour savings run about a quarter lower, and payback stretches proportionally. When people say solar “doesn’t pencil” in Tacoma, this is what they mean. The sun is the same as Seattle’s; the avoided cost is not. Seattle City Light customers pay 14.09¢ — thirty percent more for power than their neighbors twenty-five miles south, across what amounts to a county line.
The utility itself is a division of Tacoma Public Utilities, owned by the city and answerable to its utility board rather than any state rate case. Its solar page (mytpu.org ) confirms it runs genuine net metering under RCW Chapter 80.60: exports feed a “Net Metering Bank” that offsets later bills, with surplus billing-cycle production stored as value rather than paid out. Two details on that page matter more than the summary. First, the bank resets every March 31, per the RCW — so credits left over from a productive year vanish at the end of winter, which is actually the least-bad month for a reset in a summer-heavy climate, but still an argument against oversizing. Second, the page currently carries a banner pointing to “changes to solar billing.” We are not going to characterize changes the utility describes on a linked notice we have not quoted; read that notice yourself before signing, because a billing change at 10.81¢ margins can move Tacoma’s marginal economics meaningfully in either direction.
The 2024 federal filing shows 2,780 residential net-metered customers — about one Tacoma household in sixty-five, with 18.21 MW installed. That is roughly half the adoption rate of Puget Sound Energy’s territory, and it tracks the arithmetic: the cheaper the power, the fewer the panels. If you install here anyway, the honest reasons are the durable ones — hedging future rate increases from a historically low base, outage resilience if paired with storage, and preference — not a fast payback. Tacoma’s public-power bargain is real; it simply pays you in low bills instead of solar returns.
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.
Tacoma against the rest of Washington
Same rate, same export rule, same installed price per watt — only the sunshine changes:
| City | kWh per kW | Payback |
|---|---|---|
| Yakima | 1,320 | 15.1 years |
| Spokane | 1,195 | 16.5 years |
| Seattle | 1,086 | 17.9 years |
| Tacoma | 1,046 | 18.5 years |
| Bellingham | 1,022 | 18.9 years |
| Everett | 999 | 19.2 years |
A 32% production span across one state is the reason a single statewide number is only ever a starting point.
What Washington pays Tacoma for exported power
Washington credits exported power at the retail rate under RCW 80.60 , so a kilowatt-hour a Tacoma 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 Washington did the same on typical terms, this system would take about 29.6 years instead of 24.1 — 5.5 years’ difference from a policy change, with no change to the hardware and none to Tacoma’s weather.
Full retail in statute, but several utilities have hit the 4% cap and moved to successor tariffs, so practice is mixed.
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 1,046 kWh per kW figure for Tacoma is a modeled location point, not an interpolation from the Washington 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 Washington’s residential average; EIA does not publish a Tacoma figure, so the state rate is used and labeled as such.
- Export rules: RCW 80.60 , from our Washington 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 Tacoma in 2026?
About $20,400 for a typical 8 kW system at $2.55 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 Washington 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 Tacoma?
Roughly 24.1 years on this model, using Tacoma’s own production figure of 1,046 kWh per kW and its own utility tariff (10.81¢/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 Tacoma better or worse for solar than the rest of Washington?
Against the state figure, Tacoma runs 0.1% above Washington’s 1,045 kWh per kW — a payback 5.6 years longer than the statewide 18.5-year estimate on the same hardware at the same price.
Is solar worth it in Tacoma in 2026?
At 14.71¢/kWh and 1,046 kWh per kW, an 8 kW system in Tacoma pays back in about 18.5 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 Washington
- Solar panel cost in Washington — The statewide picture: Washington’s rate, incentives, export rules and the 1,045 kWh per kW average this page corrects.
- Solar panel cost in Yakima — 1,320 kWh per kW and a 15.1-year payback — better than Tacoma on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Spokane — 1,195 kWh per kW and a 16.5-year payback — better than Tacoma on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Seattle — 1,086 kWh per kW and a 17.9-year payback — better than Tacoma on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Bellingham — 1,022 kWh per kW and a 18.9-year payback — worse than Tacoma on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Everett — 999 kWh per kW and a 19.2-year payback — worse than Tacoma on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Portland — 1,083 kWh per kW in Oregon — the closest production match to Tacoma in our data.
- Solar panel cost in Syracuse — 1,114 kWh per kW in New York — the closest production match to Tacoma in our data.
- All city solar figures — The 66 US cities with their own modeled production data, and the spreads between them.