Is solar worth it in Michigan?

Michigan can be worth a bid and still be a poor buy. The 2025 EIA residential average was 20.03 cents per kWh, which helps, and the sun resource is about 3.8 peak sun hours statewide in our table, which hurts. You need more watts to offset the same usage than you would in a brighter state, and the price has to fit.

The tariff is not full retail for most new projects

New DTE and Consumers Energy projects are generally on a distributed generation tariff that meters inflow and outflow separately. The outflow credit is often below the full retail price. A chart that credits every exported kilowatt-hour at the full retail rate is the wrong default. Detroit is DTE. Grand Rapids is Consumers Energy. Lansing is often the municipal utility. Those are three documents.

Snow

Snow cover pauses production until it sheds. A steep south roof clears faster than a flat one. Lake-effect snow is heavier around Grand Rapids than in some Detroit neighborhoods. The annual total is still mostly the brighter months. See snow and cloudy winters.

A plain test

Cash price, a winter-aware production model, and the outflow rate on your tariff. Our estimate only illustrates a share of the bill at the state average. It will not match a DTE outflow credit. If the proposal only works by ignoring that credit, it does not work. There is no Michigan version of Illinois Shines to paper over the gap.