State solar profile · #41 of 51
Solar in Nebraska: slow payback despite sun
Nebraska's 16.4-yr modeled payback (#39 of 51) is on the slow side of the corpus; rates (11.5¢/kWh) and 1 programs decide whether sun (5 kWh/m²/day) still pays.
- 5
- kWh/m²/day irradiance
- 11.5¢
- avg electricity rate
- 16.4 yr
- payback (#39)
- 1
- incentive programs
NREL/EIA solar strip
Nameplate NE · Nebraska score #41/51
Nebraska | 23/100 | 16.4 yr payback | 138 MW
- NEM 23/100
- PHOTO #41/51
- BOOK 5 kWh
- VS-AVG 11.5c/kWh
- GW 16.4 yr
- IRR 138 MW
- STRIP 1 programs
- FORM860 near Mississippi
Stamps derive from this state's NREL irradiance, EIA Form 860 / Electric Power Monthly nameplate, and DSIRE incentive row (score, rank, sun, rate, payback, capacity, programs, peer), not a quote or site assessment. Modeled figures use a typical 6 kW system; your roof, shading, and utility tariff decide the real return. See our disclaimer. Verify with EIA Form 860 → · Read with methodology → · Net-metering guide → · Personalized estimate → · All state rows → · States ranked → · Payback vs U.S. avg (14.2 yr): 2.2 yr slower
Modeled 6 kW payback · Nebraska and nearest peers
Shorter bars = faster simple payback on the NREL/EIA model
- MN
Minnesota
16 years
- MT
Montana
16 years
- OH
Ohio
16 years
- NE
Nebraska
16 years
- IA
Iowa
17 years
- TN
Tennessee
17 years
What this shows Nebraska sits at 16.4 years among nearest payback peers (2.2 yr slower vs the 14.2-yr U.S. average).
Slow-band 25-year ROI · Nebraska
$16,500
system cost
$1,007/yr
modeled savings
16.4 yr
break-even
+$8,675
25-year net
Slow-band math: $16,500 in vs $1,007/yr out. Check net-metering (full) and program stack before treating the 25-year net as settled. Run a personalized estimate →
Installed solar capacity in Nebraska, 2016–2024
Total solar nameplate capacity in Nebraska reported to the EIA, utility-scale and reported distributed systems. The number of reporting facilities grew 10x (2 to 20) between 2016 and 2024, and the average site size grew from 3 MW to 7 MW per site, a shift toward larger utility-scale installations.
Nebraska: plenty of sun, a longer break-even
Irradiance 5 kWh/m²/day (at/above the 4.8 national mean) vs 16.4-yr payback (slow band vs 14.2-yr mean). Crosshairs mark those means.
Nebraska sits on the slow side of the national spread
Nebraska's 16.4-yr modeled break-even trails 76% of the 51 tracked states.
Nebraska vs all states by modeled payback
Modeled 6 kW simple payback, banded in 2-year steps.
16 Slower than most slower than 75% of 51 states
all tracked states, bucketed by value
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainSolarData model, NREL irradiance + EIA rates · 2024
Solar & grid details
- Net-metering policy
- full
- Renewable portfolio standard
- None
- Installed cost / watt
- $2.75/W
- Annual production (6 kW)
- 8,760 kWh
- Installed capacity (EIA 2024)
- 138 MW
Top incentive programs
1 tracked program for Nebraska residents
Partial program list. PlainSolarData's list for Nebraska is short or incomplete (1 tracked program). Other programs may exist; check DSIRE and your utility. The solar score's incentive component counts the programs tracked here, so this state's score may understate its incentives.
All Nebraska solar incentives (1)
Nebraska's fellow slower-payback states
Two non-geographic peer sets for Nebraska: composite score neighbors and payback-year neighbors (deduped so each row links a distinct comparison).
States near this composite solar score
Nearest nationwide matches on the NREL/EIA/DSIRE blend (23/100 here).
- Mississippi · score 23/100
- South Dakota · score 23/100
- Alabama · score 24/100
- Arkansas · score 24/100
Peers are nearest-neighbor matches on published composite scores and modeled 6 kW payback years; rankings above use the same fields but sort the full corpus.
Solar resource from NREL; electricity rates and installed capacity from the U.S. EIA; incentive programs from DSIRE. See our methodology.