Nevada pays about 15.6¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity and receives about 6.4 kWh per square metre per day of sunlight — 19th and 2nd respectively among the 50 states and DC tracked here. Those two numbers set the ceiling on what rooftop solar returns in Nevada, and they point in the same direction.
Where Nevada sits against the rest of the country
Nevada is 0.8¢/kWh above the median residential rate across this dataset (14.8¢/kWh) and 1.8 kWh/m²/day above the median insolation (4.6 kWh/m²/day). Under this site's standard assumptions, that combination puts Nevada 7th of 51 for modeled payback speed, at 10.0 years against a dataset median of 13.5 years.
What actually drives payback in Nevada
Nevada ranks in the upper half on both inputs — 19th for electricity price and 2nd for sunlight. Swap Nevada's sunlight for the dataset median and payback moves to 13.4 years (3.3 years of swing). Swap its electricity rate instead and payback moves to 10.5 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 Nevada.
State incentives on record
Recorded for Nevada: Tiered net metering compensation under SB 405 (75%-95% of retail depending on tier); property tax abatement; NV Energy Solar Generations rebates in past program years.
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 Nevada's sunlight level a 7 kW array produces roughly 12,755 kWh a year, worth about $1,990 in first-year bill savings at 15.6¢/kWh against an assumed $22,400 installed cost. A ten-year payback at this sunlight level would require a residential rate of about 15.7¢/kWh, which is 0.1¢ above what Nevada households pay today.
States with comparable economics
Nevada's closest analogues by modeled payback are New Hampshire (10.1 years), New York (10.2 years), Arizona (10.4 years). They arrive there from different rate and sunlight combinations, so their incentive rows are the useful comparison.
- New Hampshire — modeled payback 10.1 years
- New York — modeled payback 10.2 years
- Arizona — modeled payback 10.4 years