Free solar payback calculator
Estimate the payback period for a rooftop solar system at one US address from ten years of local sunshine and your state's electricity prices.
companies of all sizes
10x
faster research, enrichment, and outreach
1 API
one tool for any web data job
24/7
runs while you sleep, every day
How do you calculate solar payback?
Estimate the system's yearly output from local sunshine, multiply by your electricity price to get yearly savings, and divide the system cost by those savings. This tool runs that math for a US address using ten years of sunshine data and state prices.
Fill in the prompt
Edit the details in brackets with the address, system size, system cost and customer type, then pick the AI assistant to run it in.
Firecrawl Alexandria runs the lookups
Your assistant calls 6 tools in order, from NASA POWER, US Energy Information Administration, USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities, National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) and US Census Bureau, and cites the record behind every figure.
Get the answer
You get typical yearly kWh per kW, the yearly value at your state's price, best and worst case payback years with the arithmetic, and hazard notes. Anything a source couldn't find is marked, not guessed.
Who is the free solar payback calculator for?
Anyone who wants a payback estimate for a rooftop system at one US address.
Solar installers
Give a prospect a payback range before you book a site visit.
Commercial property owners
Check whether a rooftop system pays back on your building before you request quotes.
Energy consultants
Compare payback across sites with the same sourced method.
Where does the data come from?
From the sources below, called in order through Firecrawl Alexandria. Each row shows the call's price in credits and its track record across every agent. Empty means the call worked and found nothing.
NASA POWERList parametersPrice5 creditsMedian–Success–Empty–
US Energy Information AdministrationDataPrice5 creditsMedian1.3 sSuccess95.7%Empty0%
USFS Wildfire Risk to CommunitiesWildfire risk for geometryPrice5 creditsMedian–Success–Empty–
National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)Alerts historyPrice5 creditsMedian–Success–Empty–
US Census BureauDataPrice5 creditsMedian876 msSuccess97.2%Empty13.7%
What steps does the assistant follow?
The tool's written instructions: which data source to call at each step, what to pull from it and how to lay out the answer. Copy them into any assistant connected to Firecrawl with an API key to run the tool from your own chat.
Explore more free tools
Ready-made prompts for ChatGPT, Claude and other assistants, each backed by the data sources it names.
Frequently asked questions
- How is payback calculated?
- It estimates yearly kWh per kW from the site's monthly sunshine, multiplies by the state's average retail electricity price for your customer type, and divides the system cost by that yearly value. The arithmetic is shown.
- Does it include incentives or tax credits?
- No. It uses the system cost you give it, so subtract any incentives before you enter the cost.
- Which locations does it cover?
- US addresses. Electricity prices are state averages, so your utility's own rate may differ.
- Is this tool free?
- Yes. The prompt, the steps and the instructions are free to use. When your assistant runs the tool through Firecrawl Alexandria, each data call bills its listed price in credits, and every data source shows that price before it's called.
- Which AI assistants can run it?
- Any assistant connected to Firecrawl with an API key, including ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. Pick one in the prompt box and your request opens there with a link to this tool.
- Do I need to sign up?
- You need a Firecrawl account, with your assistant connected through its API key. Firecrawl Alexandria doesn't run in keyless mode. If your assistant isn't connected yet, the prompt tells it how to set that up. Some data providers ask an admin on your Firecrawl team to accept their terms before the first call.