14 Best Solar Companies in Brainerd, MN (Mar 2023 Review)

The Cost and Benefits of Solar in Brainerd

The cost of putting up solar panels has dropped significantly over the past several years, but it's still a large investment for most homeowners. Some key things that determine the cost and possible savings include:

• Your energy bills: This will influence how much money you might save. In Brainerd, the average resident can save about $1,200 a year on their electricity bills.
• Incentives: The federal solar investment tax credit currently lets you decrease your taxes by 30% of the project cost. Your state may also have incentives and rebates that you can use. In addition, you can save about $16,000 over 20 years on your utility bills, not including incentives.
• How much energy your home consumes: Households that need a lot of electricity each month may require more solar panels and, as a result, be more expensive, but will also benefit more over time.
• Choice of solar panels: The kind of solar panels you are interested in getting will affect your total cost. High-efficiency monocrystalline panels are more expensive upfront but can also save you more money over the lifetime of your system. If you don't need to maximize efficiency, you can go with a higher number of more affordable panels.

Thanks to solar panels now being cheaper than ever as well as local and federal solar incentives, they are a solid investment for the majority of homeowners.

Solar Incentives in Brainerd

To increase the number of homes and businesses that use solar power, federal, state and local governments — and even some utility companies — offer incentives to help make going solar more economical and accessible. In addition to the federal solar investment tax credit, there are also some local programs, which in the majority of cases, stack with the federal incentive, so you can save even more. For more information about incentives for homeowners in Brainerd, visit our our article on solar incentives.

Environmental Impact of Switching to Solar in Brainerd

Many want to do their part to help save the environment, which for many is the main reason for installing a solar system. Something many homeowners might be asking themselves is how much can they really help protect the environment by going solar anyway? If your household uses lots of energy, you can have an even greater impact on the planet by switching to solar energy. Once you go solar, your carbon emissions can be cut by about 90 pounds every year. If you want to do what you can for the environment, you'll most likely understand that there are many benefits of adopting solar power other than just saving money on electricity. You can also help preserve the environment, which some would argue is more valuable.