Michigan pays about 18.8¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity and receives about 4.2 kWh per square metre per day of sunlight — 11th and 41st respectively among the 50 states and DC tracked here. Those two numbers set the ceiling on what rooftop solar returns in Michigan, and they point in opposite directions.
Where Michigan sits against the rest of the country
Michigan is 4.0¢/kWh above the median residential rate across this dataset (14.8¢/kWh) and 0.4 kWh/m²/day below the median insolation (4.6 kWh/m²/day). Under this site's standard assumptions, that combination puts Michigan 17th of 51 for modeled payback speed, at 12.3 years against a dataset median of 13.5 years.
What actually drives payback in Michigan
Michigan is rate-led: upper half of the dataset for electricity price (11th), lower half for sunlight (41st). Swap Michigan's sunlight for the dataset median and payback moves to 11.4 years (0.9 years of swing). Swap its electricity rate instead and payback moves to 15.1 years (2.8 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 Michigan.
State incentives on record
Recorded for Michigan: Distributed Generation tariff (replaced full net metering for most IOUs); 1% inflow/outflow split tariff at DTE and Consumers; no state income tax credit.
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 Michigan's sunlight level a 7 kW array produces roughly 8,370 kWh a year, worth about $1,574 in first-year bill savings at 18.8¢/kWh against an assumed $22,400 installed cost. A ten-year payback at this sunlight level would require a residential rate of about 24.0¢/kWh, which is 5.2¢ above what Michigan households pay today.
States with comparable economics
Michigan's closest analogues by modeled payback are Texas (12.3 years), Maryland (12.4 years), Florida (12.1 years). They arrive there from different rate and sunlight combinations, so their incentive rows are the useful comparison.