Home Value

How solar increases your home value

A multi-institutional research team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkley Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, universities, and appraisers found that home buyers consistently have been willing to pay more for homes with host-owned solar photo-voltaic (PV) energy systems —averaging about $4 per watt of PV installed—across various states, housing and PV markets, and home types. This equates to a premium increase of home value of about $15,000 for a typical PV system.

How much does solar power increase property values?

The solar premium is how much more your home will be worth with a solar panel system as opposed to without one. Here’s an example: if your home has a 3.6 kilowatt (kW) solar system (the national average) on its roof, this means you have 3,600 watts of solar power (1kW = 1,000W). LBL says that each watt of solar you have will add approximately $4 to your home’s value.  This means that, thanks to your 3.6kW solar system, your home should sell for about ($4 x 3,600W =) $16,000 more.  

What is surprising about these figures is that they are very close to what you would pay for a brand new solar system today. Our own analysis of prices for 6kW solar systems in California reveals that some of the more expensive systems cost just over $4/W. And bear in mind that these prices are what you would pay before you take into account the generous 30% Federal tax incentive that is available until the end of 2016.