The National Renewable Energy Laboratory offers a guide to tell how much your property’s value will go up.

This rule of thumb varies depending on a number of factors, including:

• The location of your home. Installations in active solar markets like New Jersey typically yield higher returns than comparable installations in less developed markets.
• The size of your installation. Property value increases are directly proportional to the number (and quality) of solar PV panels installed.
• The value of your home. Larger houses usually receive higher nominal boosts in property value. However, this increase often represents a smaller percentage of the total home value.

The exact numbers vary from property to property and installation to installation, but recent research shows an average increase in resale value being $5,911 for each 1 kilowatt (kW) of solar installed. In a state like California, for example, a small 3.1-kilowatt (kW) system can add an average of $18,324 to the value of a medium-sized home.

The property value advantages of solar energy only increase as you scale up. Installing 5kW of solar panels adds an average of $29,555 to the retail value of a medium-sized home.

It’s important to note that these statistics only apply to today’s housing prices and utility rates. As electricity prices go up (as they most certainly will), the advantages of solar energy rise proportionally as well.

In addition, installing solar panels not only helps you fetch a higher asking price, but it can also help your home sell 20% faster as properties without solar installations. For homeowners who want to reduce exposure, paperwork, and wait times, this can be a huge advantage – especially in today’s sluggish housing market.