That $30,000 cost I posted is for outright purchase…without ANY tax benefits or rebates. In CT…which is where the OP says she lives.
Absolutely…with some companies, loans, tax incentives, rebates, etc…the costs will be lower.
AND if you consider the electricity bill savings over the duration of the contract…typically 20 years…they can be a huge savings.
As @ChoatieMom pointed out in her example.
We have a house that is just about perfectly situated for solar on our back half of our roof. BUT…our current electric bill is about $80 a month. When we run our AC in the summer…not all that often…it gets to $120 or so…for maybe two months.
We crunched the numbers on solar panel installation…and really…it would be at LEAST ten years before they “paid for themselves”…probably longer.
We don’t think we will be living in this house in five years…so…for us…it was a NO.