North Carolina pays about 13.4¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity and receives about 4.9 kWh per square metre per day of sunlight — 36th and 14th respectively among the 50 states and DC tracked here. Those two numbers set the ceiling on what rooftop solar returns in North Carolina, and they point in opposite directions.
Where North Carolina sits against the rest of the country
North Carolina is 1.4¢/kWh below the median residential rate across this dataset (14.8¢/kWh) and 0.3 kWh/m²/day above the median insolation (4.6 kWh/m²/day). Under this site's standard assumptions, that combination puts North Carolina 33rd of 51 for modeled payback speed, at 14.4 years against a dataset median of 13.5 years.
What actually drives payback in North Carolina
North Carolina is sunlight-led: 14th for insolation but only 36th for electricity price. Swap North Carolina's sunlight for the dataset median and payback moves to 15.2 years (0.8 years of swing). Swap its electricity rate instead and payback moves to 13.3 years (1.2 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 North Carolina.
State incentives on record
Recorded for North Carolina: Duke Energy net billing (replacing legacy net metering for new customers); 80% property tax exclusion for residential; no income tax credit since 2015 sunset.
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 North Carolina's sunlight level a 7 kW array produces roughly 9,765 kWh a year, worth about $1,309 in first-year bill savings at 13.4¢/kWh against an assumed $22,400 installed cost. A ten-year payback at this sunlight level would require a residential rate of about 20.5¢/kWh, which is 7.1¢ above what North Carolina households pay today.
States with comparable economics
North Carolina's closest analogues by modeled payback are Mississippi (14.4 years), Oklahoma (14.6 years), Ohio (14.6 years). They arrive there from different rate and sunlight combinations, so their incentive rows are the useful comparison.
- Mississippi — modeled payback 14.4 years
- Oklahoma — modeled payback 14.6 years
- Ohio — modeled payback 14.6 years