New Hampshire pays about 23.6¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity and receives about 4.2 kWh per square metre per day of sunlight — 8th and 41st respectively among the 50 states and DC tracked here. Those two numbers set the ceiling on what rooftop solar returns in New Hampshire, and they point in opposite directions.
Where New Hampshire sits against the rest of the country
New Hampshire is 8.8¢/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 New Hampshire 8th of 51 for modeled payback speed, at 10.1 years against a dataset median of 13.5 years.
What actually drives payback in New Hampshire
New Hampshire is rate-led: upper half of the dataset for electricity price (8th), lower half for sunlight (41st). Swap New Hampshire's sunlight for the dataset median and payback moves to 9.3 years (0.8 years of swing). Swap its electricity rate instead and payback moves to 15.1 years (5.0 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 New Hampshire.
State incentives on record
Recorded for New Hampshire: Residential renewable energy rebate from PUC RGGI funds; net metering retained at avoided cost plus retail kWh credit blend.
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 New Hampshire's sunlight level a 7 kW array produces roughly 8,370 kWh a year, worth about $1,975 in first-year bill savings at 23.6¢/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 0.4¢ above what New Hampshire households pay today.
States with comparable economics
New Hampshire's closest analogues by modeled payback are Nevada (10.0 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.