Alaska pays about 24.2¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity and receives about 3.0 kWh per square metre per day of sunlight — 7th and 51st respectively among the 50 states and DC tracked here. Those two numbers set the ceiling on what rooftop solar returns in Alaska, and they point in opposite directions.
Where Alaska sits against the rest of the country
Alaska is 9.4¢/kWh above the median residential rate across this dataset (14.8¢/kWh) and 1.6 kWh/m²/day below the median insolation (4.6 kWh/m²/day). Under this site's standard assumptions, that combination puts Alaska 21st of 51 for modeled payback speed, at 13.3 years against a dataset median of 13.5 years.
What actually drives payback in Alaska
Alaska is rate-led: upper half of the dataset for electricity price (7th), lower half for sunlight (51st). Swap Alaska's sunlight for the dataset median and payback moves to 9.1 years (4.1 years of swing). Swap its electricity rate instead and payback moves to 19.9 years (6.6 years of swing). The rate swap is the larger of the two, so what a kilowatt-hour costs is the input deciding the outcome in Alaska.
State incentives on record
Recorded for Alaska: Alaska Energy Authority renewable energy fund (project-scale); residential solar limited by low insolation and high latitude.
No federal credit is applied above (Section 25D expired 31 December 2025), and export terms often matter more than the headline rate (net metering guide).
The modeled system, in numbers
At Alaska's sunlight level a 7 kW array produces roughly 5,979 kWh a year, worth about $1,447 in first-year bill savings at 24.2¢/kWh against an assumed $22,400 installed cost. A ten-year payback at this sunlight level would require a residential rate of about 33.5¢/kWh, which is 9.3¢ above what Alaska households pay today.
States with comparable economics
Alaska's closest analogues by modeled payback are Georgia (13.3 years), Wisconsin (13.4 years), Delaware (13.1 years). They arrive there from different rate and sunlight combinations, so their incentive rows are the useful comparison.