What solar costs to install, now that the credit has ended

Written from primary sources by our editorial team. A credentialed reviewer hasn't signed off yet, so this page isn't in search results. It's information, not professional advice.

→Not sure where to start? Take the Solar Check.About 2 minutes. Rough answers are fine.

Solar is priced per watt of capacity, which is the number to insist on. A 7 kW system quoted at $3.00 per watt is $21,000 — and in 2026 that is the whole number, because the federal residential credit no longer reduces it.

Dollars per watt

Divide the total by the system size in watts. That single step makes two quotes comparable, and it is the number a monthly-payment presentation is designed to move you past. Labour is a meaningful share of it and varies by market — our estimator adjusts that share using state wages for solar photovoltaic installers and electricians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What moves it

Equipment tier. Value panels with a string inverter, mainstream panels with microinverters or optimisers, or premium high-efficiency panels. The gap is real but smaller than the sales framing suggests.

Roof complexity. Multiple planes, steep pitch, or tile all add labour.

Main panel upgrade. Common in older houses and often discovered late. Ask whether yours has been assessed.

Battery. Genuinely useful for outage resilience and sometimes for rate arbitrage, and expensive. Price it as its own line so you can evaluate the array on its own merits.

The line that is now zero

Every payback model written before this year subtracted 30% from the system price. That subtraction no longer exists for a cash or loan purchase — the IRS states the Residential Clean Energy Credit "is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025". If a quote in front of you still shows it, the quote is wrong, and the payback it implies is wrong by roughly a third. That is covered in what happened to the federal solar credit.

Bottom line

Get dollars per watt, price the battery separately, check the roof age, and treat any quote that still assumes a federal credit as out of date. Then run the economics yourself — see are solar panels worth it now.

Common questions

How is solar priced?

Usually in dollars per watt of system capacity, so a 7 kW system at $3.00 per watt is $21,000 before any incentive. Quotes that only show a monthly payment are hiding this number.

What moves the price per watt?

Equipment tier, roof complexity, whether a main panel upgrade is needed, and whether a battery is included. Battery storage is a separate decision and should be priced separately.

Does the federal credit still reduce the price?

No. The Residential Clean Energy Credit is not available for property placed in service after 31 December 2025, so a 2026 purchase receives nothing from it.

Should I re-roof first?

If the roof is over about fifteen years old, price it now. Removing and refitting an array later costs thousands and is entirely avoidable.

Sources

1. IRS: Residential Clean Energy Credit — not available for property placed in service after 31 December 2025
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
3. BLS OEWS: Solar Photovoltaic Installers (SOC 47-2231)
4. U.S. Department of Energy: Homeowner's guide to going solar
5. U.S. Energy Information Administration: average retail price of electricity by state

By SolarRealCost Editorial Team. First published September 18, 2026. Advertiser disclosure