It’s more expensive to add solar panels to your home in Los Angeles than EnergySage, and other online marketplaces would have you believe, but it’s still worth it. Here is the real deal on solar costs in LA.
The per Watt cost of home solar in LA County is quite a bit higher than online quote marketplaces would have you believe. The good news, though, is that the average LA household can install a much smaller solar energy system to meet annual electricity needs. How does it all shake out? Most homeowners are looking at a cost of around $17,000 for a 4 kW system, or around $12,000 after the federal solar tax credit. And if your utility is SCE, you could save more than $100,000 on utility bills over the 25-year warranty of your solar panels!
Los Angeles has the most installed solar capacity of any city in the U.S., which isn’t surprising when you consider how much sunshine LA gets and how aware most homeowners are of the perils of climate change. No one here needs to add to the city’s air pollution by burning more fossil fuels, so if you’re able to generate clean energy on your rooftop, why not!?
Solar can still seem out of reach to many homeowners, though, but is it really that expensive?
How much does it cost to go solar in Los Angeles? Let’s find out.
The cost of home solar in Los Angeles
Online solar quote marketplaces typically give average costs for home solar in LA of around $2.84 per Watt. This works out to $14,200 for a 5 kW system. By our calculations, based on real-life data (not wishful thinking of online quotes), the actual cost of going solar in LA County in 2023 is likely to be closer to $4.33 per Watt. That works out to $21,634 for a 5 kW system, before federal incentives and other discounts.
We used the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory (LBNL) Tracking the Sun report for 2021 along with data on actual installations from California Distributed Generation Statistics to create our weighted Leaf Score prediction for the cost of solar in 2023 in LA County:
| Cost per Watt | Cost for 5 kW system | Cost for 7.7 kW system | Cost for 3.9 kW system | |
| Online quote marketplaces | $2.84 | $14,200 | $21,868 | $11,076 |
| Quotes factoring in average discrepancy | $4.52 | $22,590 | $34,788 | $17,620 |
| SCE mean average 2022 LA county | $4.31 | $21,555 | $33,194 | $16,813 |
| SCE mean average 2021 LA county | $3.91 | $19,532 | $30,079 | $15,235 |
| LBNL mean average 2021 | $4.59 | $22,937 | $35,323 | $17,891 |
| Weighted average and Leaf Score prediction for 2023 | $4.33 | $21,634 | $33,316 | $16,874 |
Note that we’ve included the cost of a 5 kW system – the model usually used by online quote marketplaces – and two other system sizes. These represent the average size of system actually installed by LA County homeowners in 2022 (7.7 kW) and the size of system the SunWatts calculator suggests most LA homeowners need (3.9 kW).
Note, too, that for homeowners who install solar storage batteries, incentives of up to $1,000 per kW of storage are available through California’s Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP). This could help shave thousands of dollars off your home solar installation.
What size solar array do I need in LA?
The average Los Angeles household uses around 545-kilowatt hours of electricity each month, or 6,540 kWh annually. To meet these needs in the sunny city of LA, most homeowners would only need to install a 3.9 kW rooftop array, according to the SunWatts calculator.
However, according to data from California Distributed Generation Statistics, the average size of a residential rooftop solar energy system installed in LA County in 2022 was quite a bit bigger. Home solar projects that interconnected to Southern California Edison (SCE) in 2022 averaged 7.7 kW. The average cost for these installations was $33,190.
Interestingly, if you break down the data further, homeowners in the city of Los Angeles tend to install much smaller arrays on average than the county as a whole.
Below, we can see data on actual installations interconnected with the utility Southern California Edison (SCE).
| Average system size kW DC | Average total cost | Cost per Watt DC | |
| 2022 SCE LA County | 7.70 | $33,190 | $4.31 |
| 2021 SCE LA County | 7.18 | $28,047 | $3.91 |
| 2022 SCE city of LA | 5.58 | $28,889 | $5.18 |
| 2021 SCE city of LA | 6.97 | $32,421 | $4.65 |
| LBNL 2021 city of LA and West LA | 7.04 | $32,276 | $4.59 |
The cost of going solar is also higher in the City of Los Angeles compared to the county as a whole. This may, however, be an example of where larger solar arrays are more cost efficient to install than smaller arrays.
The true cost of going solar in LA depends on the actual size of the array, however. Other factors that affect price include:
- The complexity of the installation
- The installer
- Which equipment you choose
- Whether you include battery storage
- Whether you’re installing an EV charger.
In general, though, a home solar installation in Los Angeles costs less than in most other places in the U.S. And because of the high cost of electricity here, homeowners stand to save a lot of money by going solar. This makes the solar payback period in LA much shorter than in almost anywhere else in America.
Check out our solar incentives in California page for more information.
How much can you save by going solar in Los Angeles?
Most homeowners in Los Angeles get their electricity from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). The average LA household uses just 545 kWh per month (or 6540 kWh a year), and electricity cost an average of 22.1 cents per kWh in 2022.
Households that use more electricity pay a higher rate overall, however, because LADWP has a tiered rate structure. For example, homeowners using around 819 kWh per month pay an average rate of about 22.9 cents per kWh.
What’s more, if you live just outside of the city of LA and get your electricity from Southern California Edison (SCE), you may be paying an average of 29.2 cents per kWh. This works out to just over $1,900 a year for electricity, assuming average use of 6,540 kWh. If this is the case for you, going solar at home could save you even more money and shorten that solar payback period considerably.
Assuming you’re paying the lower cost of 22.1 cents per kWh, though, installing a home solar array that meets all your energy needs would still save you around $1,445 in the first year alone. Add in the fact that electricity costs increase every year, with inflation much higher than historic averages in recent years, and you stand to save yet more on going solar at home in LA.
Using the average historic inflation rate of 2.4%, homeowners who go solar in 2023 might expect to save nearly $50,000 over the 25-year warranty period of most solar panels. Plug in a higher rate of inflation and your savings could amount to more than $81,000.
Solar savings in LA
| Solar savings (at 6,540 kWh/yr and 22.1 c/kWh) | 2.4% inflation (U.S. historic average) | 6.4% inflation (as of February 2023) |
| 5-year savings | $7,620 | $8,254 |
| 10-year savings | $16,199 | $19,509 |
| 15-year savings | $25,858 | $34,858 |
| 25-year savings | $49,458 | $81,061 |
This calculation of potential savings assumes a homeowner installs a solar energy system that offsets 100 percent of their energy draw from the grid. It also assumes that customers are using the average amount of electricity and paying just 22.1 c per kWh.
Your actual savings will depend on your current electricity tariff, changes to energy costs in the future, how much electricity you use, how well your array functions, and other factors.
Putting it all together – Your solar payback period in Los Angeles
Going solar at home in LA makes a lot of financial sense for most households. The average cost of an installation works out to close to $12,000 after the federal tax credit, and even at a low rate of inflation solar savings could rack up to more than $12,000 by 2029. Basically, your solar energy system could pay for itself in just six years, leaving you another 19 years of free electricity within the warranty of your panels and many more outside of the warranty.
If high inflation sticks around for the next few years, though, your solar payback period could be much faster.
Here are a few examples of how a solar payback period might look in LA.
Find a Solar Energy partner near you.
Small array, lower-cost electricity, average inflation (2.4%), no state or utility incentives
| 3.9 kW array | |
| Gross cost | 16,874 |
| State rebates and tax credits | / |
| Utility rebates and incentives | / |
| Subtotal | 16,874 |
| Federal tax credit of 30% | 5,062 |
| Net cost of solar | 11,812 |
| Cost of electricity (c/kWh) | 22.1 |
| Average electricity use (kWh/yr) | 6,540 |
| Eight-year savings | $12,582 |
Solar payback period = 7-8 years!
Small array, lower-cost electricity, average inflation (2.4%), plus incentives
| 3.9 kW array | |
| Gross cost | 16,874 |
| State rebates and tax credits | |
| Utility rebates and incentives ($150 per kW for 5 kW battery) | 750 |
| Subtotal | 16,124 |
| Federal tax credit of 30% | 4,837 |
| Net cost of solar | 11,287 |
| Cost of electricity (c/kWh) | 22.9 |
| Average electricity use (kWh/yr) | 6,540 |
| Seven-year savings | 10,876 |
Solar payback period = just over 7 years!
Small array, higher-cost electricity, average inflation (2.4%), plus incentives
| 3.9 kW array | |
| Gross cost | 16,874 |
| State rebates and tax credits | |
| Utility rebates and incentives ($150 per kW for 5 kW battery) | 750 |
| Subtotal | 16,124 |
| Federal tax credit of 30% | 4,837 |
| Net cost of solar | 11,287 |
| Cost of electricity (c/kWh) | 29.2 |
| Average electricity use (kWh/yr) | 6,540 |
| Six-year savings | 12,168 |
Solar payback period = 5-6 years!
Average size array, higher-cost electricity, average inflation (2.4%), plus incentives
| 7.7 kW array | |
| Gross cost | 33,316 |
| State rebates and tax credits | |
| Utility rebates and incentives ($850 per kW for 10 kW battery) | 8,500 |
| Subtotal | 24,816 |
| Federal tax credit of 30% | 7,445 |
| Net cost of solar | 17,371 |
| Cost of electricity (c/kWh) | 29.2 |
| Average electricity use (kWh/yr) | 6,540 |
| Eight-year savings | 16,624 |
Solar payback period = just over 8 years!
Average size array, higher-cost electricity, higher inflation (6.4%), plus incentives
| 7.7 kW array | |
| Gross cost | 33,316 |
| State rebates and tax credits | |
| Utility rebates and incentives ($850 per kW for 10 kW battery) | 8,500 |
| Subtotal | 24,816 |
| Federal tax credit of 30% | 7,445 |
| Net cost of solar | 17,371 |
| Cost of electricity (c/kWh) | 29.2 |
| Average electricity use (kWh/yr) | 6,540 |
| Seven-year savings | 16,226 |
Solar payback period = 7-8 years!
Small size array, higher-cost electricity, higher inflation (6.4%), plus incentives
| 3.9 kW array | |
| Gross cost | 16,874 |
| State rebates and tax credits | |
| Utility rebates and incentives ($150 per kW for 5 kW battery) | 750 |
| Subtotal | 16,124 |
| Federal tax credit of 30% | 4,837 |
| Net cost of solar | 11,287 |
| Cost of electricity (c/kWh) | 29.2 |
| Average electricity use (kWh/yr) | 6,540 |
| Five-year savings | 10,851 |
Solar payback period = just over 5 years!
Toggle the numbers however you like, chances are you’ll recoup the cost of home solar in LA in less than 8 years through savings on your utility bills.
Even if you install a big battery system, generous rebates help to reduce the upfront cost and keep your solar payback period short. In fact, homeowners who do install batteries may pay off their solar array faster by being able to reduce how much electricity they draw from the grid (and pay for!) overnight.
Final thoughts on the cost of going solar in Los Angeles
Going solar in LA is a wise choice for most homeowners. High electricity costs, plentiful sunshine, and a good incentive for battery storage makes for a very short solar payback period. This means LA homeowners could enjoy more than two decades of free electricity generated on their roof within the warranty of their panels. And even after the 25-year warranty is up, those panels can continue to produce free electricity for years to come.
Given that California is prone to blackouts and brownouts, going solar at home in LA is also a great way to keep the lights on during an outage. Make sure to talk to your installer about a backup battery system that safely kicks in when the grid is down.