Metro cost pages

Solar panel cost in Los Angeles, California: a worked planning example

For an 8 kW system priced at the NREL 2024 residential benchmark ($3.25 per watt), the Los Angeles planning example produces about 11,600 kWh in year one and pays back in roughly 12.0 years on the stated bill. Your roof and tariff will move both numbers; the method below shows how.

High retail electricity prices do the heavy lifting in the math even with middling production. Export compensation is much lower than retail under the current billing structure, so sizing to daytime usage matters more than maximizing roof coverage.

The stated example

What drives the number in Los Angeles

California's net billing structure pays far less for exports than the retail rate. A payback estimate that assumes one-for-one retail credit will overstate savings.

Two local facts do most of the work in this example. The production factor decides how much energy the same 8 kW array makes here, and the electricity price decides what each kilowatt-hour is worth when it offsets your bill. Where those two point in opposite directions, such as strong sun with cheap power or modest sun with expensive power, the payback is decided by whichever force is larger. That is why this page holds system size, benchmark price, and the $180 example bill constant across every metro: the comparison isolates sun and rates instead of hiding them inside different installer assumptions.

How Los Angeles compares in this set

Across the ten metros published on this site, the middle production factor is 1,425 kWh per kW per year and the middle example electricity price is 16 cents per kWh. Los Angeles sits at 1,450 kWh per kW per year, which is 2% above it, ranking 4 of 10 for production in this set. Its example price of 31 cents per kWh is 94% above the middle price, ranking 2 of 10 on price. Read together, those two ranks explain this metro's payback better than either number alone, and they tell you which question to press locally: production claims or tariff value.

What to do with this example

1. Replace the $180 example bill with twelve months of your own bills. Usage sets the sensible system size; the metro factor only prices the sunlight. Our sizing guide walks through that arithmetic.
2. Confirm the export rule with your utility before valuing any surplus. If exported energy is paid below retail, savings fall toward the self-consumed share of production, and the payback above lengthens. Our net metering guide shows the size of that effect.
3. Price at least three real quotes against the same $3.25 per watt benchmark line in the estimator. A quote owes you equipment, roof work, and warranty reasons for every step above that line.
4. Settle the roof question in the same conversation. Shade, orientation, and roof age change production and cost more than installer brand does, and a tired roof should be priced with the solar, not after it. See the roof type notes and the California state page for the rules to verify.