Study Finds Solar Panels Increase Home Value

Building Equity With Solar

All of the homeowners who have been installing residential solar panels over the last decade may find it was a more practical decision than they thought. The electricity generated has cost less than that coming from the local power company (especially when utility rebates and federal tax credits were accounted for) But if they choose to sell their homes, the price premium they will get for the solar system should let them recoup most if not all of their original capital investment.

That is the conclusion of three researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who looked at home sales — both homes with photovoltaic systems and homes without — in California over an eight-and-a-half-year period ending in mid-2009. The abstract of their study states, “the analysis finds strong evidence that California homes with PV systems have sold for a premium over comparable homes without PV systems.”

The premium ranged from $3.90 to $6.40 per watt of capacity, but tended most often to be about $5.50 per watt. This, the study said, “corresponds to a home sales price premium of approximately $17,000 for a relatively new 3,100-watt PV system (the average size of PV systems in the study).”
And the bottom line: “These average sales price premiums appear to be comparable to the investment that homeowners have made to install PV systems in California, which from 2001 through 2009 averaged approximately $5/watt.”

In the Central Valley of California, we experience higher utility bills due to the hot summers. At Nova West Solar, our average size system is over double the 3100 watt PV system. This would boost the resale value to over $35,000!

With current inflation taking off at a record rate, large utility increases are a very real possibility. Whether you purchase a system and receive rebates and tax credits, or choose the 120 mo "lease to own" program, locking in your electric costs is even more important in today's economic environment.