Utah pays about 11.8¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity and receives about 5.3 kWh per square metre per day of sunlight — 48th and 9th respectively among the 50 states and DC tracked here. Those two numbers set the ceiling on what rooftop solar returns in Utah, and they point in opposite directions.
Where Utah sits against the rest of the country
Utah is 3.0¢/kWh below the median residential rate across this dataset (14.8¢/kWh) and 0.7 kWh/m²/day above the median insolation (4.6 kWh/m²/day). Under this site's standard assumptions, that combination puts Utah 38th of 51 for modeled payback speed, at 15.0 years against a dataset median of 13.5 years.
What actually drives payback in Utah
Utah is sunlight-led: 9th for insolation but only 48th for electricity price. Swap Utah's sunlight for the dataset median and payback moves to 16.9 years (1.9 years of swing). Swap its electricity rate instead and payback moves to 12.4 years (2.6 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 Utah.
State incentives on record
Recorded for Utah: Renewable Energy Systems Tax Credit (residential 25% up to $400 — sunset 2024 for new installs); net billing under Rocky Mountain Power Schedule 137.
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 Utah's sunlight level a 7 kW array produces roughly 10,562 kWh a year, worth about $1,246 in first-year bill savings at 11.8¢/kWh against an assumed $22,400 installed cost. A ten-year payback at this sunlight level would require a residential rate of about 19.0¢/kWh, which is 7.2¢ above what Utah households pay today.
States with comparable economics
Utah's closest analogues by modeled payback are Wyoming (15.1 years), Iowa (14.9 years), Arkansas (15.2 years). They arrive there from different rate and sunlight combinations, so their incentive rows are the useful comparison.