How to compare solar quotes in Las Vegas in 2026

Put both quotes on the same four numbers: the gross price, the size in kW, the first year production in kWh, and, if either is financed, the financed price next to the cash price. Then divide. Price per watt tells you what the hardware costs, kWh per kW tells you how hard each quote is leaning on its own production estimate, and the gap between the cash and financed prices tells you what the loan costs before interest.

None of that needs a spreadsheet. It needs both quotes to show the same lines, and in Nevada most of those lines are required by law in the contract anyway. If you are still deciding whether solar pays in Las Vegas at all, settle that first.

Gross price, net price, and what was subtracted

The gross price is the total. A net price is the total with something taken off, usually an incentive or a tax credit, and it is the number a quote most wants you to remember.

For a system you buy in 2026, the federal household credit is not there to subtract. The IRS page for the Residential Clean Energy Credit states that the credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31 2025. A 2026 cash or loan purchase quote that shows 30 percent coming back to you on your own return is a question to ask in writing before anything else on the page. If an offer in 2026 still talks about 30 percent, ask in writing who claims it, because for a system you buy for your own home it is not you. It is recommended that you consult with an independent tax professional about your own return. What the federal solar tax credit is worth in 2026 covers the rest, and your own return belongs with an independent tax professional.

Nevada already makes the subtraction visible. NRS 598.9813 requires a purchase cover page to show the total cost and the estimated value of any incentives included in calculating it. So compare the two quotes on gross, and treat anything subtracted as a separate claim you can check.

We pull the permits and file the NV Energy interconnection on every home solar system we install in Las Vegas.

kW is the size, kWh is what you actually buy

These get blurred at kitchen tables, and the difference matters.

• kW (kilowatts) is the size of the system: how much power the panels can make at one moment in full sun. It is what price per watt is built on.
• kWh (kilowatt hours) is energy: what the system makes over time. Your NV Energy bill is in kWh, and a quote's first year production estimate is in kWh.

One more wrinkle on size. Panels are rated in DC watts and inverters in AC watts, and the two numbers differ on the same system. Ask each company which one its kW figure is, and compare DC to DC.

Price per watt, and what a published range looks like

Divide the gross price by the size in watts. A 7,000 watt system at $24,850 is $3.55 per watt. It is the only number that compares two systems of different sizes.

The most careful public data set on installed prices is Berkeley Lab's Tracking the Sun. Its 2024 edition, published in August 2024, found that the middle band of U.S. residential systems installed in 2023, the 20th to the 80th percentile, ran from $3.2 to $5.5 per watt, in 2023 dollars, before incentives. Three things about that figure matter when you hold a quote against it:

• It is national, not Las Vegas. Our cost page carries a Las Vegas marketplace figure, which measures quotes rather than installed systems, and comes out lower.
• It covers host owned systems only. Leases and power purchase agreements are excluded, because their prices are not comparable.
• It likely includes dealer fees on loan financed systems, which the lab says add 5 to 50 percent to the reported price of those systems.

Size moves the number too. The same edition found median prices roughly $1.0 per watt lower for the largest residential systems than for the smallest, because permits, sales and design cost about the same on a small job as a big one. Compare quotes of similar size, or the smaller one loses for a reason that has nothing to do with who is selling it.

Price per watt with the battery in it

Price per watt only compares like with like: the same equipment and the same terms. A home battery is part of the equipment, so two quotes compare per watt only when both include the same storage, or neither does, and both are priced the same way, cash against cash or the same financing.

Do it the same way on both: take the gross price with the battery included, divide by the panel size in watts, and write down which battery and how many. If one quote leaves the battery out, ask that company for its price with the same battery added, in writing. If one quote bundles a battery you did not ask for, ask for the price without it, so you can see what the battery adds.

An illustration with round numbers, not anybody's quote: 10 kW of panels at $23,800 with no battery is $2.38 per watt, and 10 kW with a battery at $34,700 is $3.47 per watt. The second is not dearer solar. It is solar plus a battery, and only a price for the same battery on the first quote tells you which is the better deal.

Every solar price Simmons Solar Electric writes includes a Tesla Powerwall: one with 12 to 49 panels, two from 50 panels. When you hold our quote against another, ask the other company to put the same battery in theirs.

kWh per kW: the check on the production estimate

The production estimate comes from the company that wants the job. Raise it and every savings figure on the page improves without a cent coming off the price.

So divide each quote's first year estimate by its size in kW. Two quotes for the same roof should land near each other. If one claims much more per kW than the other, ask in writing which orientation, tilt and shading it assumed, and hold the answer against the PVWatts calculator from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which you can run for your own address.

Then set the estimate against your own year of usage. How to pull your last 12 months of NV Energy usage shows where it lives, and how many solar panels a Las Vegas house needs works a system size back from it. A quote sized well past your use is selling you exports, and net metering in Nevada explains why an exported kilowatt hour is worth less to you than one you use.

In Nevada the estimate is also a contract term. NRS 598.9814 requires a purchase agreement to state the first year production and the annual degradation, and subsection 22 sets out what the company has to do if the system has not met that figure a year after permission to operate: take the actions needed to make it meet the number, including adding or repairing equipment, or give you written notice and then do so if it misses again. A number in the agreement carries that duty. A number on a slide carries nothing.

Cash price, financed price, and the dealer fee in between

A solar loan often costs more than its interest rate suggests, because of a fee the lender charges the installer and builds into the amount you borrow.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reported in August 2024 that these hidden fees typically range from 10 to 30 percent of the cash price but can exceed 50 percent. Its own example: a $30,000 project with a $9,000 fee becomes a $39,000 loan. The same report describes solar loans that re-amortize to a higher payment at the 19th month unless a large prepayment is made, frequently 30 percent of the principal, sized to a tax credit refund. With the household credit gone, ask whether any loan you are offered still assumes that prepayment.

Nevada gives you the two numbers you need. If you are financing, or have given the company financial information to get approved, NRS 598.9814 subsection 21 requires the agreement to state both the cash price and the financed price. Put them side by side:

That table is our illustration, not anybody's quote. Quote B looks cheaper per watt until you divide the amount you would actually borrow, and the difference is the fee, before a single month of interest. Solar loan dealer fees explained shows how to turn a financed quote back into a rate on the cash price, and whether to borrow at all in 2026 runs the loan against cash.

The equipment lines, and why "tier one" is not one

A quote that says "premium panels" and "a top inverter" has told you nothing you can compare. NRS 598.9814 subsection 12 requires a purchase agreement to name:

• the make and model of every inverter;
• the make, model and power class of the solar modules;
• the manufacturer of the racking.

Ask for those lines at the quote stage, so you are comparing the same kinds of things. Then ask about warranties component by component, because Nevada's floors in NRS 598.9821 are specific: the installation and the roof penetrations not earlier than 10 years, and on a purchase, collectors and storage units not less than 10 years and inverters not less than 7. Ask whose paper each warranty is, the manufacturer's or the installer's, because the installer's is only as good as the installer. Your homeowners policy is a separate layer again, and what it covers once panels are on the roof is worth a call to your agent before you sign.

What a written Nevada solar contract has to show

You do not have to invent a checklist. NRS 598.9813 and 598.9814 already wrote it, and anything a company will not put in writing at the quote stage is something it will have to put in the agreement later. For a purchase, the agreement has to carry:

1. The size, the first year production estimate and the annual degradation.
2. The total cost, and a payment schedule with the due dates.
3. A deposit of no more than $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is less, and nothing more until the utility gives permission to connect.
4. A copy of every warranty, each initialed by you, and whether it transfers to a later owner. That line matters when you sell a house with solar or buy one that already has it.
5. The equipment make and model lines above.
6. The cash price and the financed price, if financed.
7. Any performance guarantee, and the basis for any savings estimate you were shown.
8. On the cover page: what the company paid for the lead that brought it to you, whether it keeps a physical office in Nevada, and whether the person presenting the agreement is its employee.
9. The right to cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing, or the tenth if you are 60 or older, and the email address to cancel to.

And whenever an agreement mentions the utility's prices, NRS 598.9819 requires it to say that actual utility rates may go up or down and actual savings may vary. Your rights when you sign a solar contract in Nevada goes through all of it.

Look up the license and the monetary limit

Ask every company for its Nevada contractor license number and its legal name before you talk price. The State Contractors Board tells homeowners to do exactly that, and to check that the license reads Active on its search. Check two more lines while you are there: the classification covers the work, and the monetary limit is at least your contract price.

The limit matters on solar because solar contracts are large. NRS 624.220 has the Board set a limit on what each licensee may contract for on one job, and Nevada's solar law adds a consequence of its own. Under NRS 598.982148, if the company that signs a power purchase agreement with you is not properly licensed, or is acting outside the monetary limit of its license, when you sign, the agreement is voidable by you for 3 years after the date you signed it. Checking a Nevada contractor's license walks through the search one screen at a time.

Online, on the phone or at the door

However a company found you, the questions are the same, and so are the answers you should get in writing.

• Whose license is the work under? The company on the contract should hold the Nevada license itself. The Board lists it as a red flag when a salesperson says they "hire" or "work with" a local licensed contractor to do the installation. That applies just as much to a company you found online: search the exact name printed on the contract, not the name on the website.
• Who answers later? Ask who you call if a roof penetration leaks in year eight. A Nevada purchase cover page has to say whether the company keeps a physical office in Nevada.
• Is the price on paper? Get the full written price before you sign anything, wherever you met. If you finance, the agreement has to show the cash price and the financed price side by side.

We knock on doors, answer the phone and reply to forms. However we met you, our license number is checkable and the price is in writing before you sign.

If one quote is a lease or a power purchase agreement

A monthly payment is not a price, so compare total cost over the term. A Nevada lease has to state the total payments due under it, and a power purchase agreement has to state the rate of any increase and the date of the first one. At a 2.9 percent yearly increase, the payment in year 25 is about double the payment in year one; how a solar escalator compounds does that arithmetic in full, and prepaid, lease, loan or cash explains who owns what under each.

Make both quotes answer the same questions

1. Give both companies the same 12 months of your own usage.
2. Ask both for a system in the same size band, with the size stated in DC watts.
3. Ask both for gross price, first year kWh, and the assumed orientation, tilt and shading, on one page.
4. Ask both for the equipment lines, the warranty years by component, the deposit and the payment schedule.
5. If either is financed, ask for the cash price and the financed price in writing.
6. Ask both when the on-site survey Nevada requires will happen, and what happens to the price if it finds something. The survey must come before installation (NRS 598.982145), and a written price can come before it, from satellite imagery and a year of your bills. If the survey happens after you sign and turns up anything that raises the price or changes the equipment, you get three business days from the results to cancel. This right does not apply when the only change is a swap to equipment of equal or better quality, at no extra cost to you, that lowers the estimated first-year production by no more than 5 percent (NRS 598.982145).

Then take your time, and bring the longer list of questions to ask before you sign. Nobody who deserves the job needs an answer tonight, and if a parent or a neighbour signed something in a hurry at the door, what to do when a parent signed a solar contract has the cancellation clock.

Simmons Solar Electric is Simmons Electric LLC, NSCB license 0032580A, C-2 Electrical, monetary limit $125,000. Check that on the State Contractors Board's own license search before you read our quote, and do the same for every other company on your table. Checking a Nevada contractor's license shows each step of the search.

We recheck this page quarterly. Last checked 2026-10-13. If a number here has moved, tell us and we will fix it the same week.