Solar Panels in San Diego, CA: 2026 Cost, San Diego Gas & Electric Net Metering & Savings

San Diego and the bill

SDG&E serves San Diego. It is not SCE and not LADWP. Time-of-use rates are common. The hour you export matters. San Diego has a strong solar resource and high rates, which is the combination that makes people skip the tariff. Do not skip it. New systems are in the net billing world, and SDG&E time-of-use periods can make midday exports the least valuable kilowatt-hours. A west-leaning array or a battery is a response to that, not a decoration. Coastal overcast is real in some neighborhoods and less so inland toward East County. The 2025 EIA residential average for California was 31.35 cents per kWh. That statewide figure is what our calculator uses. It is not the San Diego Gas & Electric tariff. A rounded solar resource for this metro is about 5.7 peak sun hours a day.

Export credits and any SREC or REC

San Diego Gas & Electric serves San Diego. For a new interconnection at PG&E, Southern California Edison, or SDG&E, the net billing tariff replaced classic full-retail net metering. Exports are compensated on an avoided-cost basis that varies by hour, which is why a battery shows up in so many California proposals. Community choice aggregators sit on top of delivery and do not erase the delivery utility's interconnection rules. This page does not quote an export cent. Self-consumption is worth more, on that tariff, than a chart that prices every kilowatt-hour at retail.

Roofs, climate, permits, and HOAs

Tile roofs are common. Tile labor and flashing details move the price. One-story ranch houses inland often have simpler layouts than hillside homes closer to the coast. A San Diego permit comes from the local building department, not from San Diego Gas & Electric. An HOA can add its own review. This page does not quote a CA permit fee or an approval, because both depend on the address. Ask for the SDG&E tariff name and a hourly export assumption. Compare two cash prices. Our EIA-based estimate is a ceiling check, not an SDG&E bill model.

Estimated cost range

Estimated cost range for San Diego, labeled as an estimate and not a local quote: Berkeley Lab's August 2026 update put 2025 host-owned residential systems at about $3.60 per watt before incentives, about $3.00 per watt in the cash subset, and about $4.50 per watt in the loan subset. The median size in that set was 7.7 kW. San Diego is about 5.7 peak sun hours a day, against about 5.5 statewide. The federal residential credit under 26 U.S.C. § 25D ended for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025. The IRS treats that expenditure as made when the original installation is completed.

• Cash

  $3.00/W

  $23,100

  Subset classified as cash

• Middle published case

  $3.60/W

  $27,720

  All host-owned systems

• Loan

  $4.50/W

  $34,650

  Financed subset, before interest

Before incentives. A loan price here excludes interest. The federal residential credit under section 25D ended for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025. Berkeley Lab, U.S. Distributed Solar and Storage, August 2026 data update.