Solar Panel Cost in Pennsylvania: $2.58/W, 10.2-Year Payback

Solar in Pennsylvania costs about $20,640 for 8 kW at $2.58/W and pays back in roughly 10.2 years at 21.7¢/kWh with the federal credit at $0.

Updated September 2026 · Source: EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A (July 2026 data) · next EIA update ~Oct 23

By SolarCostData Data Desk · Reviewed September 2026 · Corrections log

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Why this number

Solar panels in Pennsylvania cost about $2.58 per watt — $20,640 for a typical 8 kW system — and pay back in roughly 10.2 years at the state’s 21.7¢/kWh average rate, with the 2026 federal credit at $0. Full-retail net metering is assumed; confirm with your utility.

Everything below uses Pennsylvania’s real average residential electricity rate (21.7¢/kWh, EIA) and a production band of about 1,270 kWh per kW per year. Both are stated openly because they are the two inputs that decide the answer. These are estimates for sanity-checking a quote, not a quote.

Run it with your own numbers

Why Pennsylvania’s payback lands where it does

Pennsylvania’s rate jumped about eleven percent to 21.7 cents per kilowatt-hour this July from 19.51 cents in July 2025, pushing the state to rank 13 nationally. A solid yield of 1,270 kilowatt-hours per installed kilowatt combines with that rising rate to produce a fairly fast 10.2-year payback. The statewide figure hides a real spread, though: FirstEnergy’s Pennsylvania Electric Company, the largest utility with over 1.8 million residential customers, bills just 15.5 cents on average — over six cents below the state figure — while PPL Electric Utilities runs cheaper still at 12.3 cents, both suggesting other, pricier suppliers in Pennsylvania’s competitive retail market are pulling the statewide average up. Full retail net metering credits exports at whichever supplier’s rate applies, so a Pennsylvania homeowner’s real payback depends heavily on which utility and supplier combination serves their home.

Electric utilities in Pennsylvania

The state average hides real spreads between utilities. The largest residential utilities EIA-861 lists for Pennsylvania, with each one’s own average bundled residential price (2024 — revenue ÷ sales, the audited annual figure, not this month’s tariff):

Your utility decides Pennsylvania’s real number — the ZIP lookup finds it in three clicks; the 2024 annual utility averages above sit apart from the June-2026 monthly 21.7¢ state figure.

Pennsylvania’s rate, the last 24 months

July 2025 → July 2026: 19.51¢ → 21.72¢. The rate tracker has every month against the US average.

An 8 kW system in Pennsylvania, priced out

The $2.58/W used above comes from EnergySage marketplace quotes (August 2026). Those are quotes in a competitive online market, not signed contract prices.

Read that table with one caveat: $2.58/W is Pennsylvania’s market average, and it is the input most likely to differ for you. A quote $0.50 per watt above or below the $2.58 used here moves the payback by roughly a year and a half in either direction.

How much sun Pennsylvania actually gets

A kilowatt of panels in Pennsylvania produces about 1,270 kWh a year on an unshaded, south-facing roof at a 20-degree pitch. Sites that swap Pennsylvania’s 1,270 kWh for a single national average are how Arizona and Washington end up with identical paybacks despite a 1.6x real difference in output.

That figure is a five-point cluster around Pennsylvania’s largest metro area, which keeps it representative of where most people actually live rather than of the state’s best site.

City-level figures for Pennsylvania

We have separately modeled production for 2 Pennsylvania cities, and they are 11% apart — Pittsburgh at 1,186 kWh per kW against Philadelphia at 1,320. Installed cost held at $2.58/W; paybacks use each city’s own utility tariff and export treatment where we have official EIA-861 data, which is why some differ sharply from this page’s state-average model.

• Philadelphia — 1,320 kWh per kW, payback about 14.0 years (on its own utility’s tariff)
• Pittsburgh — 1,186 kWh per kW, payback about 10.9 years (on its own utility’s tariff)

Those are real PVGIS-NSRDB location points, not the state figure scaled by guesswork. All Pennsylvania and other city figures .

Two adjustments matter before you apply this to your own roof:

• Shading and orientation. The 1,270 kWh figure assumes an unobstructed south-facing array. A real Pennsylvania roof — its own azimuth and pitch, a tree or a chimney — typically produces 10-25% less; this page models 90% of the ideal, so the 9,144 kWh/year above is already derated from 10,160. A genuinely unshaded south roof can adjust upward in the calculator.
• Year-to-year weather moves output by roughly ±5% either way.

How Pennsylvania compares with the other 49

Pennsylvania ranks 13th of 50 on electricity price and 12th on annual output value per kW installed — close enough that its rate is a fair proxy for its solar case, which is not true everywhere. Its immediate neighbors on price are Michigan (23.1¢) just above and Maryland (21.4¢) just below.

Maryland is Pennsylvania’s closest comparable-rate analogue — 21.4¢/kWh, roughly 1,280 kWh per kW, and a payback within about a year of this one (10.4 vs 10.2 years). If you find Pennsylvania quotes hard to sanity-check, Maryland numbers are broadly transferable.

The export question worth asking your Pennsylvania utility

Pennsylvania credits exported power at the retail rate — full net metering — under 52 Pa. Code, so a kilowatt-hour you send 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 Pennsylvania did the same on typical terms, this system would take about 17.0 years to pay back instead of 10.2 — 6.8 years’ difference from a policy change, with no change to the hardware. The households best placed for that day are the ones already storing their surplus, which is why what a home battery actually costs is worth knowing even while full retail holds.

One limit worth knowing: this reflects investor-owned, state-regulated utilities; Pennsylvania’s municipal utilities and co-ops are exempt in most cases and set their own terms.

SRECs and what else Pennsylvania still offers

The 30% federal credit ended for systems completed after December 31, 2025, so it is $0 here as everywhere. What remains is state, utility and local — and it varies far more than the federal rule ever did.

Pennsylvania has no state credit or rebate; only a low-value SREC market.

If that list looks thin, it is — the solar incentives hub shows which states still put real money on the table, and where Pennsylvania sits among them.

Is solar worth it in Pennsylvania at 21.7¢/kWh?

Pennsylvania is workable but unspectacular. At 21.7¢/kWh the rate does the lifting while 1,270 kWh per kW adds little, so your quoted price and your export terms decide the outcome rather than the geography.

Two numbers put that in context. At Pennsylvania’s rate, the electricity an 8 kW system would produce is worth about $1,986 a year, so the system costs roughly 10.4 years of that output to buy outright — a simple division, before costs. The headline 10.2-year figure above is the full model: it additionally counts 2.5%/yr rate inflation, $150/yr of running costs and one inverter replacement, which is why the two differ slightly. And doing nothing is not free: 25 years of that same electricity, with rates rising at 2.5% a year, comes to about $67,837.

For a 15-year payback in Pennsylvania — given its sunshine rather than a national average — the electricity rate would need to be about 15.5¢/kWh. Pennsylvania is at 21.7¢, which is comfortably above that line.

Sources and method

• Electricity rate: U.S. Energy Information Administration, average price by state — EIA Table 5.6.A, July 2026 data (released Sep 2026). Rate shown is Pennsylvania’s residential average.
• Production: PVGIS v5.2 with the PVGIS-NSRDB radiation database, 1,270 kWh/kW for a five-point cluster around Pennsylvania’s largest metro, then the 90% real-roof factor; the assumptions, the ERA5 cross-check and the attribution are on the methodology page .
• Incentives: DSIRE — Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, NC Clean Energy Technology Center. Verify current amounts and fund status before relying on them.
• Federal credit status: IRS, Residential Clean Energy Credit . See our 2026 energy tax credit guide .
• Payback model: shared with the solar savings calculator — 2.5%/yr utility inflation, 0.5%/yr degradation, federal credit $0.

Pennsylvania’s rate (21.7¢, EIA Table 5.6.A, July 2026 data (released Sep 2026)), export regime, production factor, installed cost and programs were last verified on 25 September 2026; Pennsylvania’s export credit resets on its tariff cycle and incentive budgets run out mid-year, so confirm current terms before acting. Not tax or financial advice.

Frequently asked questions

How we calculated this

Worked for Pennsylvania: 8 kW × 1,000 × $2.58/W = $20,640 gross (federal credit $0, so net before state incentives); 9,144 kWh a year × the blended kWh value at 21.7¢ retail ≈ $1,986 year-1 saving; payback ≈ $20,640 ÷ $1,986 = 10.2 years with 2.5%/yr rate growth, 0.5%/yr degradation and one inverter replacement in the 25-year model.

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.

States with a comparable tariff picture

• Why is my electric bill so high? — Splits a bill jump into weather, rate and usage — with Pennsylvania’s own EIA rate history built in.
• Heat pump crossover temperature — Cold-zone question: the outdoor temperature where gas beats a NEEP-listed heat pump at Pennsylvania’s rates.
• Electricity rate tracker — Pennsylvania’s last 24 months of EIA rates, charted against the US average.
• Find your rate by ZIP — Pennsylvania averages hide utility gaps — look yours up from EIA-861 in three clicks.
• Net metering by state (2026 table) — Every state’s export regime with program, date and source — the rule behind Pennsylvania’s payback.
• Solar panel cost in Maryland — Same export regime at 21.4¢/kWh and a 10.4-year payback — the closest tariff comparison to Pennsylvania.
• Solar panel cost in Delaware — Same export regime at 18.5¢/kWh and a 11.7-year payback — the closest tariff comparison to Pennsylvania.
• Solar panel cost in New Jersey — Same export regime at 25.2¢/kWh and a 9.2-year payback — the closest tariff comparison to Pennsylvania.