Missouri pays about 12.7¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity and receives about 4.8 kWh per square metre per day of sunlight — 41st and 21st respectively among the 50 states and DC tracked here. Those two numbers set the ceiling on what rooftop solar returns in Missouri, and they point in opposite directions.
Where Missouri sits against the rest of the country
Missouri is 2.1¢/kWh below the median residential rate across this dataset (14.8¢/kWh) and 0.2 kWh/m²/day above the median insolation (4.6 kWh/m²/day). Under this site's standard assumptions, that combination puts Missouri 42nd of 51 for modeled payback speed, at 15.4 years against a dataset median of 13.5 years.
What actually drives payback in Missouri
Missouri is sunlight-led: 21st for insolation but only 41st for electricity price. Swap Missouri's sunlight for the dataset median and payback moves to 15.9 years (0.6 years of swing). Swap its electricity rate instead and payback moves to 13.5 years (1.9 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 Missouri.
State incentives on record
Recorded for Missouri: Net metering retained; Ameren and Evergy rebates have varied year to year; property tax exemption for solar.
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 Missouri's sunlight level a 7 kW array produces roughly 9,566 kWh a year, worth about $1,215 in first-year bill savings at 12.7¢/kWh against an assumed $22,400 installed cost. A ten-year payback at this sunlight level would require a residential rate of about 21.0¢/kWh, which is 8.3¢ above what Missouri households pay today.
States with comparable economics
Missouri's closest analogues by modeled payback are West Virginia (15.3 years), Arkansas (15.2 years), Tennessee (15.5 years). They arrive there from different rate and sunlight combinations, so their incentive rows are the useful comparison.
- West Virginia — modeled payback 15.3 years
- Arkansas — modeled payback 15.2 years
- Tennessee — modeled payback 15.5 years