Is solar worth it in Georgia?
Short answer for a typical Georgia home: a reasonable payback if you'll stay put — roughly 10.9 years to break even after the 30% credit. Run your own bill through the calculator below.
Georgia gets good sunshine — about 4.7 peak sun hours a day — and residential electricity runs around $0.14/kWh. For a typical $150-a-month power bill, that points to roughly a 9.4-kW system costing about $19,674 after the 30% federal tax credit, paying for itself in about 10.9 years and netting on the order of $41,691 over 25 years. Your own numbers will differ — the calculator above uses your real bill.
Georgia gets good sun, but low electricity rates and limited net metering mean savings per kWh are modest — payback runs a bit longer here than in high-rate states. The federal credit still does most of the heavy lifting.
What changes the math in Georgia
- Your electricity rate — the more you pay per kWh, the more each solar kWh saves you. Georgia sits at about $0.14.
- Sun hours — more sun means a smaller, cheaper system covers the same usage. Georgia averages ~4.7 hours.
- Net metering / buyback — how your utility credits power you export swings the payback; check your specific utility's current terms.
- Install cost — quotes vary by installer and roof; the calculator defaults to a typical $/watt you can override.