​How soon do solar panels pay for themselves?

Well that depends….
As with most things in life this is dependent on your specific situation.  Factors like,

• Location
• Size of the system
• Tax incentives
• Net metering
• Etc.

You also have to consider whether or not the system will be professionally installed or will you do most of it yourself.  If you install it yourself you can reduce the costs by half according to some estimates. You can figure out your payback time frame fairly simply using the following formula.
  
Cost of System ÷ Cost of your electricity locally ÷ How many kilowatt hours you use per year = Years till payback.

So for an example let's look at this with some numbers instead

$10,000 ÷ 12 cents kWh ÷ 10,000 kWh/year= 8.33 years.

That is just taking into account what you would save by not writing that check to the local electric company.  If you also live in a state that does net metering that means you can get paid by that electric company. While they will typically only pay you at the same rate that they buy the electricity at any little bit of income can reduce how long the panels take to pay for themselves.   

To learn more about solar energy and other green living topics check out other articles on the Green Living Library.       

Sources:
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/64746.pdf
https://www.wholesalesolar.com/solar-information/return-on-solar-investment#simple-solar-payback
https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/7?agg=0,1&geo=g&endsec=vg&linechart=ELEC.PRICE.US-ALL.M~~ELEC.PRICE.US-COM.M~ELEC.PRICE.US-IND.M&columnchart=ELEC.PRICE.US-ALL.M~ELEC.PRICE.US-RES.M~ELEC.PRICE.US-COM.M~ELEC.PRICE.US-IND.M&map=ELEC.PRICE.US-ALL.M&freq=M&start=200101&end=201701&ctype=linechart&ltype=pin&rtype=s&maptype=0&rse=0&pin=

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