Kansas pays about 14.2¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity and receives about 5.0 kWh per square metre per day of sunlight — 32nd and 12th respectively among the 50 states and DC tracked here. Those two numbers set the ceiling on what rooftop solar returns in Kansas, and they point in opposite directions.
Where Kansas sits against the rest of the country
Kansas is 0.6¢/kWh below the median residential rate across this dataset (14.8¢/kWh) and 0.4 kWh/m²/day above the median insolation (4.6 kWh/m²/day). Under this site's standard assumptions, that combination puts Kansas 26th of 51 for modeled payback speed, at 13.5 years against a dataset median of 13.5 years.
What actually drives payback in Kansas
Kansas is sunlight-led: 12th for insolation but only 32nd for electricity price. Swap Kansas's sunlight for the dataset median and payback moves to 14.5 years (1.0 years of swing). Swap its electricity rate instead and payback moves to 13.0 years (0.5 years of swing). The sunlight swap is the larger of the two, so how much sun the roof gets is the input deciding the outcome in Kansas.
State incentives on record
Recorded for Kansas: Property tax exemption for renewable energy property; net metering retained but reduced compensation in some utilities under KCC orders.
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 Kansas's sunlight level a 7 kW array produces roughly 9,965 kWh a year, worth about $1,415 in first-year bill savings at 14.2¢/kWh against an assumed $22,400 installed cost. A ten-year payback at this sunlight level would require a residential rate of about 20.1¢/kWh, which is 5.9¢ above what Kansas households pay today.
States with comparable economics
Kansas's closest analogues by modeled payback are South Carolina (13.5 years), Illinois (13.5 years), Pennsylvania (13.4 years). They arrive there from different rate and sunlight combinations, so their incentive rows are the useful comparison.
- South Carolina — modeled payback 13.5 years
- Illinois — modeled payback 13.5 years
- Pennsylvania — modeled payback 13.4 years