Is Solar Worth It in New York? Four Myths That Keep Homeowners Paying Con Ed

“New York is too cloudy. Too expensive. Too complicated.” If you’ve wondered whether solar is worth it in New York, you’ve probably heard all three — and all three are wrong.

Ask a room full of New Yorkers is solar worth it in New York, and you’ll hear the same handful of objections every time. It’s too far north. The winters are too gray. The upfront cost is out of reach. You’ll still owe Con Edison money anyway, so why bother?

These ideas feel like common sense, which is exactly why they stick. But most of them are based on how solar worked fifteen years ago — or on how it works in states where electricity is cheap. New York in 2026 is a different story. Let’s take the four biggest myths one at a time and see what the numbers actually say.

Myth #1: “New York doesn’t get enough sun”

This is the objection we hear most, and it’s the easiest to put to rest. The New York metro area averages about 9 peak sun hours per day in summer and 5 in winter — more than enough for a properly sized rooftop system to offset 80–100% of a household’s annual electricity use.

The key word is annual. Solar in New York isn’t judged day by day; it’s judged across the whole year. Thanks to net metering, the extra electricity your panels produce on long June days is credited to your account at the full retail rate — 38¢ per kWh in Con Edison territory. Those banked credits then cover the shorter, grayer days of December and January. Sunny months subsidize cloudy ones, automatically.

So while it’s true that a panel in Phoenix produces more raw electricity than a panel in White Plains, that’s not the question. The question is whether your system can cover your usage over twelve months — and in New York, a properly sized system can reach 100% annual offset.

Myth #2: “Solar costs too much upfront”

A decade ago, going solar usually meant writing a five-figure check. That version of solar is gone. Today, most State Solar customers go solar with $0 out of pocket — the system is financed with nothing down, and the monthly payment is typically lower than the Con Edison bill it replaces, starting from the first month.

New York also stacks some of the most generous incentives in the country on top of that:

• NY-Sun (NYSERDA) rebate — a per-watt rebate your installer applies automatically, so the price you’re quoted already reflects it.
• NY State tax credit — 25% of the system cost, up to $5,000, as a direct credit against your state taxes (not just a deduction).
• 15-year property tax exemption — the value solar adds to your home is exempt from your property tax assessment for 15 years.
• NYC Property Tax Abatement — if you’re in the five boroughs and own your system, 30% of the installed cost comes back as property tax credits over four years. On a $30,000 system, that’s $9,000.

The “too expensive” myth has it exactly backwards: for most homeowners, the expensive option is doing nothing and continuing to pay Con Ed’s rates.

Myth #3: “The savings are too small to matter”

This one might be true in Louisiana, where electricity is cheap. It is emphatically not true here. Westchester and NYC households pay an average of 38¢ per kWh — nearly triple the national average of about 14¢. The more your utility charges, the more every kilowatt-hour your roof produces is worth. New York isn’t a marginal solar market; it’s one of the best in the country precisely because Con Ed rates are so high.

A household paying $300 a month typically lands at $150–$180 after solar — a 40–50% reduction. And that gap widens every year, because Con Edison has raised rates roughly 8% per year on average. At that pace, today’s $300 bill becomes about $444 a month within five years. Your solar payment, meanwhile, stays flat.

Myth #4: “You still pay Con Ed for every cloudy day”

Some homeowners picture a system where Con Ed bills them full price every time the weather turns. In reality, once you go solar, the only remaining Con Edison charge is a basic service fee of about $20 a month to stay connected to the grid. Cloudy stretches are covered by the net metering credits your system banked during sunnier weeks — not by surprise charges.

Here’s how the four myths stack up against the facts:

So — is solar worth it in New York?

For most homeowners in Con Edison territory, yes — and the reason is refreshingly unsentimental. It has nothing to do with loving the environment (though that’s a nice bonus) and everything to do with arithmetic: you’re currently buying electricity at 38¢ per kWh from a utility that raises prices about 8% a year, and your roof can produce that same electricity for less, at a fixed cost, with the state paying part of the tab.

The honest caveats: solar makes the most sense if your roof gets reasonable sun exposure and you plan to stay in your home for a while. A shaded roof or an imminent move changes the math. That’s why the right first step isn’t a commitment — it’s a calculation based on your actual bill and your actual roof.