Metro cost pages

Solar panel cost in San Diego, California: a worked planning example

For an 8 kW system priced at the NREL 2024 residential benchmark ($3.25 per watt), the San Diego planning example produces about 12,000 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.

Some of the highest residential electricity prices in the continental U.S. paired with strong sun. Even modest systems clear payback hurdles that would fail in cheaper-rate states.

The stated example

What drives the number in San Diego

As in the rest of California, exports are compensated well below retail. Self-consumption and load shifting decide the real savings rate.

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 San Diego 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. San Diego sits at 1,500 kWh per kW per year, which is 5% above it, ranking 3 of 10 for production in this set. Its example price of 38 cents per kWh is 138% above the middle price, ranking 1 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.