US electricity & solar data, free to cite
Solar Pays Off publishes independent, source-backed rankings of electricity rates, solar payback and EV running costs for all 50 states and DC — built from public EIA and NREL data, not industry estimates. Journalists and writers are welcome to cite any figure below. Founder Brendan Faulds is available as a named source.
Key stats, 2026
Most expensive states for electricity
- Hawaii — 42¢/kWh
- California — 33¢/kWh
- Massachusetts — 30.4¢/kWh
- Rhode Island — 29¢/kWh
- Maine — 28.8¢/kWh
Cheapest states for electricity
- Idaho — 12.4¢/kWh
- North Dakota — 12.5¢/kWh
- Nebraska — 12.8¢/kWh
- Louisiana — 13¢/kWh
- Utah — 13.3¢/kWh
Full ranking of all 50 states + DC: electricity rates by state →
Where solar pays off fastest
- Massachusetts — pays back in about 7.4 yrs
- Hawaii — pays back in about 7.4 yrs
- Rhode Island — pays back in about 7.7 yrs
- Maine — pays back in about 7.8 yrs
- New York — pays back in about 8.4 yrs
With no federal tax credit (it ended for buyers on 31 Dec 2025). Full ranking: solar payback by state →
Where electricity prices rose fastest
- Illinois — up 43%
- District of Columbia — up 38%
- New York — up 38%
- Washington — up 33%
- Maryland — up 28%
Change across the ~3 years to 2026-05, EIA monthly residential price.
How to cite this data
All figures are free to use with attribution. Please credit and link to us:
Source: Solar Pays Off (solarpaysoff.com), based on U.S. EIA and NREL data.
A link to the specific page you drew a number from (e.g. the state's rate or payback page) is ideal. We can also provide custom cuts — payback, EV cost or rate history for a specific state or metro — on request.
Talk to the founder
Brendan Faulds, founder of Solar Pays Off, is available for comment, data requests and interviews on home energy costs, solar economics after the federal credit, and EV running costs. A software developer, he built the site’s payback engine and its data pipeline — which pulls from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, NREL and the IRS for the American pages, and from the Australian Energy Regulator’s Consumer Data Right and the Clean Energy Regulator for the Australian ones — and wrote the validator that refuses to publish a figure without a source, a date, a method and a licence. No lead forms, no solar-industry funding.
Our sources & method
Rates: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Electric Power Monthly. Sunshine/production: NREL. Incentives: IRS and the DSIRE database. The full model and assumptions are on our methodology page. We take no solar-industry funding and sell no leads, so the numbers aren't bent to sell anything — see about.