Kansas has some of the best sun in the middle of the country, so the panels are not the problem. The bill rules are. With Evergy or Liberty, a typical owned system sized to your monthly use pays back in about 14 years in our example. If every exported kWh earns only the utility’s avoided cost, as at many co-ops, the same system takes about 21.
Typical payback, exports netted in the monthAbout 14 years
Netted or at avoided costAbout 14 to 21 years
Typical owned 7.22 kW Kansas system at $20,721 cash (EcoGen Solar Cost Index, September 2026), Evergy or Liberty, 15.09¢ EIA price. Our assumptions: 60% of the solar power used at home, 40% sent to the grid, $200 a year in owner costs. See the math.
- Utility type: Evergy and Liberty net each month. Co-ops and city utilities follow a different law.
- System size: match a year of your bills. Month-end extras earn a wholesale price.
- Rate plan: time-of-use plans net within each time period, not across the month.
2026 rules: home systems finished after December 31, 2025 get no federal homeowner credit (IRS). Since January 1, 2026, a new net metered system may be at most 50% bigger than its export limit, and on July 1, 2026 the net metering limit rose to 4% of each utility’s peak demand.
How we checked this guide
Rules come from the Kansas Statutes, the co-op price from Midwest Energy, and prices from the U.S. EIA. Assumed numbers are labelled.
The writer and checker shown above are EcoGen staff. EcoGen is paid when homeowners request quotes, which is explained beside the quote form. Read our editorial standards.
Great sun, ordinary payback: where the gap comes from
Kansas is one of the stronger places to put panels on a roof: each kW makes about 1,567 kWh a year, at $2.87 per watt. The money side is middling, and not because of the weather. Kansas pays no cash for solar; it gives you a bill rule that rewards a system sized to your own use. So the answer turns on who bills you and how big a system you buy. Read each row across.
Who bills you
Worth a closer look
Evergy or Liberty, so exports cancel your use each billing month.
Pause and check
A co-op or city utility whose export terms you have not seen.
Check next: your utility’s name and the export rule the quote assumed.
Size against your use
Worth a closer look
Year-one output close to a year of your own kWh.
Pause and check
A quote well above your use; surplus earns a wholesale price.
Check next: your last 12 months of kWh next to the quote’s year-one output.
Rate plan
Worth a closer look
A standard plan, netted across the month.
Pause and check
A time-of-use plan, joined after July 1, 2024, that the quote never modeled.
Check next: how the quote nets your power on the plan you will actually use.
Price
Worth a closer look
A cash price near the Index’s $20,721 for 7.22 kW ($2.87 per watt).
Pause and check
A loan dealer fee, which adds years.
Check next: cash and financed prices side by side, with APR and fees.
Time in home and roof
Worth a closer look
An unshaded roof with years of life, and a plan to stay well past payback.
Pause and check
A roof that needs work soon, or a likely move before payback.
Check next: the roof’s age, a shade report and your likely moving date.
One Kansas roof, two prices for the power you send out
A kWh (kilowatt-hour) is the unit on your power bill. An export credit is what you get for each kWh your panels send to the grid. Simple payback is the years your savings take to cover what you paid: net cost divided by yearly savings. Here is the typical Kansas system on Evergy or Liberty, exports netted within each month.
- Cash price
- $20,721
- Confirmed incentives
- $0
- Year-one production
- 11,314 kWh
- Used at home / exported
- 60% / 40%
- Average price (EIA, 12 months)
- $0.1509/kWh
- Export credit
- $0.1509/kWh
- Owner-cost allowance
- $200/yr
- Used-at-home value
11,314 × 60% × $0.1509$1,024/yr - Export value
11,314 × 40% × $0.1509$683/yr - Yearly savings after owner costs
$1,024 + $683 − $200$1,507/yr - Simple cash payback
$20,721 ÷ $1,507about 13.7 years
Inputs: the EcoGen Solar Cost Index typical Kansas system (7.22 kW, $20,721 cash, September 2026; 1,567 kWh per kW a year, so about 11,314 kWh in year one). No rebate or credit; Kansas has none. Exports are valued at the full price because monthly netting lets them cancel power you buy in the same month: the best case. The 15.09¢ EIA average includes fixed charges, so the rate you avoid is likely a little lower. Our assumptions: 60% of the solar power used at home, 40% sent to the grid, $200 a year in owner costs. The cost page’s about 12.1 years counts no owner costs.
Now say every exported kWh is bought at avoided cost instead, as a co-op or city utility pays, and as the surplus of an oversized system earns. We use Midwest Energy’s 2025 average, 3.205 cents per kWh.
| Scenario | Export credit | Export value | Yearly savings | Simple payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netted within the month | $0.1509/kWh | $683 | $1,507 | about 13.7 years |
| Bought at avoided cost | $0.03205/kWh | $145 | $969 | about 21.4 years |
Both rows assume flat prices, which is cautious. Kansas homes paid 15.21¢ per kWh from January to July 2026, about 6% more than the 14.32¢ of a year earlier (EIA). Rising prices shorten payback, but one year is not a trend.
Run your own Kansas numbers
The tool starts with exports netted within the month. Enter your own quote, then press Calculate. For a co-op, lower the export credit to its buy-back price. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Example result
about 13.7 years
simple cash payback
- Used-at-home value
- $1,024/yr
- Export value
- $683/yr
- Owner costs
- −$200/yr
- Yearly savings
- $1,507/yr
- Net cost
- $20,721
Starts with exports netted within the month. For an oversized system, try an export credit in between. Flat first-year values; rates, panel wear and repairs will change the result.
How monthly netting works on a Kansas bill
Under Kansas net metering law, Evergy and Liberty compare what you took from the grid with what you sent to it over the whole billing month. Say you took 900 kWh from the grid in a month and sent 300 kWh out. You are billed for 600 kWh. Noon output on Tuesday can cancel evening use on Friday.
Used at home: 6,788 kWh. Each one replaces power you would have bought, so it saves the full variable rate ($0.1509 here).
Sent to the grid: 4,526 kWh. These earn whatever your utility pays for exports ($0.1509 here). Here that matches the price you pay, but check your utility’s rule.
The catch comes at month-end. Any extra is credited at no less than 100% of the utility’s monthly system average cost of energy: a wholesale-level figure that changes monthly. Nothing carries over as kWh. A system sized to your use sends little to that price.
Size is where Kansas homes slip. The typical installed system makes about 11,314 kWh a year; the average Kansas home uses about 10,510 kWh. That leaves about 800 kWh that can only earn the month-end price, plus more in mild spring months. So the first case is the best case. The law caps size too: for the average home, 10 kW of export capacity with Evergy or Liberty. That is a ceiling, not a target.
On a time-of-use rate (systems from July 1, 2024), netting happens within each time period instead. Homes connected before July 1, 2014 keep kWh carry-over until January 1, 2030.
Get quotes sized to your own bills
Bring a year of kWh and ask each installer what will be left at month-end.
Solar providers that serve your area may contact you, and they pay EcoGen for the introduction. How we make money.
Co-ops, city utilities and the capacity limit
Co-ops and city utilities follow the parallel generation law. They need not net your power monthly; they must buy what you send out at no less than 100% of their avoided cost, what that power would have cost them. Midwest Energy averaged 2.300 cents per kWh in 2024 and 3.205 cents per kWh in 2025. Their size limit is tighter too: 5 kW for the average home. On a co-op, the second case is your starting point, and a smaller system makes more sense.
The net metering limit worries buyers for no good reason. It rose to 4% of peak demand on July 1, 2026 and rises to 5% on July 1, 2027. The room is growing. Still, ask your utility whether there is room on your circuit.
The one tax break, and its time limit
Under K.S.A. 79-201 Eleventh, the system’s added value is exempt from property tax for 10 years after the year it is installed. It is not automatic: file with your county appraiser, the Board of Tax Appeals decides, and you claim it again by March 1 each year. Panels outlast it, so it covers the early years only. For loans, see our solar financing guide.
Six things to get in writing before you sign
Kansas law already requires a written seller disclosure. Use it, and ask for the rest.
- Utility and export rule. Evergy, Liberty, a co-op or a city utility, and the credit the quote assumed for exports.
- Size from your bills. Year-one kWh next to your last 12 months of use, and the size the state formula allows.
- Month-end surplus and rate plan. The kWh a year the quote expects left over, the price it gave them, and the rate plan it modeled.
- Disclosure statement. Kansas law requires one, signed at least one calendar day after the contract, with promised output and a remedy if it falls short in the first one year.
- Property tax filing. Who files for the 10 years exemption, and the March 1 yearly claim.
- Cash and financed prices. Both totals side by side, with any dealer fee shown.
Compare Kansas solar quotes
Ask each installer to size from your bills. Enter your ZIP code to request quotes from solar providers that serve your area.
How EcoGen is paid
EcoGen America does not sell or install solar. When you request quotes, we pass your request to solar providers serving your area, and they pay us for the introduction. Providers can include installers, solar marketplaces and lead exchanges, and more than one may contact you. You never pay us.
More Kansas solar guides
- Kansas solar incentives: the size rule, bill credits and the property tax break
- What solar costs in Kansas
- Free solar panels in Kansas: why $0 down means a loan
- Are solar panels worth it? The national guide and payback calculator
All 51 state guides
Kansas solar questions, answered
Are solar panels worth it in Kansas?
They can be for a home on Evergy or Liberty with a system sized to its use. In our example a typical owned system pays back in about 14 years, and about 21 when every export earns avoided cost. Kansas sun is strong; with no rebate or credit, your utility, size and price decide the rest.
What does Kansas pay for excess solar power?
With Evergy or Liberty, exports first cancel power you buy in the same billing month. Whatever is left at month-end is credited at no less than 100% of the utility’s monthly system average cost of energy, a wholesale-level price, not the price you pay. Co-ops follow a different law; Midwest Energy averaged 3.205 cents per kWh in 2025.
Do Kansas co-ops have to offer net metering?
No. The net metering law covers investor-owned utilities only. Co-ops and city utilities must offer parallel generation instead: they buy the power you send out at no less than 100% of their avoided cost. That is why the second case on this page uses a co-op price for every export.
Is there a cap on solar in Kansas?
Yes, but it is growing. Since July 1, 2026, Evergy and Liberty must offer net metering first come, first served until solar reaches 4% of peak demand. On July 1, 2027 that rises to 5%. A seller who says the window is closing has it backwards, though asking your utility about room on your circuit is fair.
Does a time-of-use rate change Kansas solar?
Yes. If your system started on or after July 1, 2024 and you take an optional time-of-use rate, power is netted within each time period, not across the whole billing month. Noon output can no longer cancel evening use, so more of it earns the lower credit. Ask how the quote nets your power first.
Do solar panels raise property taxes in Kansas?
Not if you get the exemption. K.S.A. 79-201 Eleventh exempts the system for 10 years after the year it is installed, then it ends. You file a request with your county appraiser, the state Board of Tax Appeals decides, and you claim it again by March 1 each year.
Sources, method and corrections
The example uses the EcoGen Solar Cost Index typical Kansas system (September 2026) and the EIA average price. Exports earn the full price in the first case (monthly netting) and Midwest Energy’s 2025 average buy-back price in the second. Our assumptions, not measured values: 60% of the solar power used at home and 40% sent to the grid, and $200 a year in owner costs. Simple payback uses flat first-year values with no rate rises. The calculator runs in your browser and sends nothing.
Spotted an error? Tell us through our corrections and feedback process.
- Kansas Statutes 66-1266: net metering credits (checked September 30, 2026)
- Kansas Statutes 66-1267: system size formula
- Kansas Statutes 66-1265: net metering capacity limits
- Kansas Statutes 66-1,184: parallel generation (co-ops and city utilities)
- Midwest Energy: renewable interconnection (average buy-back price, 2025)
- Kansas Statutes 79-201 Eleventh: property tax exemption
- Kansas Statutes 79-210: yearly exemption claim
- Kansas Statutes 50-6,147: solar seller disclosures
- U.S. EIA: average residential electricity price by state (12-month and year-to-date averages; checked October 5, 2026)
- IRS: Residential Clean Energy Credit (not available for property placed in service after December 31, 2025)
- EcoGen Solar Cost Index, September 2026: what solar costs in Kansas
