North Dakota pays about 11.4¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity and receives about 4.6 kWh per square metre per day of sunlight — 50th and 26th respectively among the 50 states and DC tracked here. Those two numbers set the ceiling on what rooftop solar returns in North Dakota, and they point in the same direction.
Where North Dakota sits against the rest of the country
North Dakota is 3.4¢/kWh below the median residential rate across this dataset (14.8¢/kWh) and level with the median insolation (4.6 kWh/m²/day). Under this site's standard assumptions, that combination puts North Dakota 49th of 51 for modeled payback speed, at 17.4 years against a dataset median of 13.5 years.
What actually drives payback in North Dakota
North Dakota ranks in the lower half on both inputs — 50th for electricity price and 26th for sunlight. Swap North Dakota's sunlight for the dataset median and payback moves to 17.4 years (0.0 years of swing). Swap its electricity rate instead and payback moves to 14.0 years (3.4 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 Dakota.
State incentives on record
Recorded for North Dakota: Property tax exemption for 5 years; net metering up to 100 kW; no statewide 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 North Dakota's sunlight level a 7 kW array produces roughly 9,167 kWh a year, worth about $1,045 in first-year bill savings at 11.4¢/kWh against an assumed $22,400 installed cost. A ten-year payback at this sunlight level would require a residential rate of about 21.9¢/kWh, which is 10.5¢ above what North Dakota households pay today.
States with comparable economics
North Dakota's closest analogues by modeled payback are Oregon (17.4 years), Montana (16.6 years), Idaho (16.6 years). They arrive there from different rate and sunlight combinations, so their incentive rows are the useful comparison.