MySolarCheck

Solar Panel Cost & Installation Data in California

Observed Records
1,921,220
Reported Capacity
17,997 MW
Observed Avg Cost
$4.46/W

Median: $4.25/W

Dataset Rank
#1

98% residential

31.97¢
Residential Rate (EIA 2024)
5.8h
Peak Sun Hours/Day
7.7 yrs
Est. Payback Period
$5,471
Est. Annual Savings

Environmental & Community Impact

CO₂ Offset/Year
20,119,880 tons
CO₂ Offset/System/Year
11.3 tons
Installations per 10K Residents
488.2
State Population
39,356,104
Est. Annual Production/System
17,114 kWh

Estimates use average system size, a 5.8h/day state solar-resource proxy and a 14% system-loss assumption. Payback excludes financing and incentives. Context sources: NREL, EIA and EPA eGRID (0.709 metric tons CO₂/MWh).

System Overview

Avg System Size
9.4 kW
Battery Adoption
4.8%
Third-Party Owned
31.0%

Cost Trend ($/W)

Avg Cost per Watt

200020042008201220162023

Installation Growth (Last 5 Years)

Installer Names in the Source Records

InstallerObserved Records
Sunrun250,132
Tesla Energy243,827
Sunpower113,696
Self42,593
Rec Commercial33,252
Semper Solaris32,276
Bright Ops32,019
Freedom Forever28,717
Verengo26,115
Petersendean24,395

Panel Brands in the Source Records

BrandObserved Records
Qcells North America287,352
SunPower261,926
LG Electronics Inc.142,010
REC Solar129,296
CSI Solar Co., Ltd.106,002
LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd.96,067
SolarWorld82,378
Trina Solar76,930
Jinko Solar Co., Ltd68,747
Kyocera Solar50,716

County Records - California

CountyObserved RecordsReported Capacity
San Diego282,6602,103.9 MW
Los Angeles195,3311,954 MW
Riverside181,0031,646 MW
San Bernardino121,2391,212.5 MW
Orange116,9941,013.9 MW
Santa Clara83,256690.3 MW
Kern77,995942.3 MW
Fresno77,737956.1 MW
Contra Costa73,043572.9 MW
Alameda70,340516.1 MW
San Joaquin50,792478.2 MW
Ventura39,297353.5 MW
Placer37,655301.1 MW
Tulare35,672630.4 MW
Solano33,146243 MW

California Solar Incentives

State-program snapshot

Is Solar Worth It in California?

Modeled homeowner analysis

Primary dataset: LBNL Tracking the Sun 2024 release. Counts represent records in the source release, not a complete statewide census.