​A newly released report shows Chandler has the fastest turnaround among U.S. cities in a study looking at how long it takes for homes with new solar panel systems to start paying off.

MarketWatch reports its team analyzed the average local cost of solar installation and monthly electric bills with and without solar energy.

Using those figures, the team calculated how long it takes to break even in cities across each U.S. state and ranked the ones with the quickest return on investment.

The study sampled 576 cities, all of which have populations of 10,000 or more.

In Chandler, according to the study, it takes just less than two years for solar installation to pay for itself — the quickest of any U.S. city it analyzed.

The official average for Chandler homes to break even is 1 year, 11 months and 8 days, or 23.3 years.

Not far behind Chandler were three other Valley cities. Avondale, Glendale and Mesa were second, third and fourth in the study, respectively, with all three having homes that took between 24 and 24.5 months to break even with solar.

MarketWatch concluded Arizona cities made the top 10 list primarily driven by high home energy bills. Arizonans use of central air conditioning units more than almost any other state, pushing energy bills up to an average of more than $600 a month, according to MarketWatch findings.

The high number of sunny days helps drive solar in Arizona as well, MarketWatch reported. In contrast, the California cities on the list have lower energy bills than Arizona, but made the top 10 as a result of having the cheapest solar installation costs in the study, combined with another high proportion of sunny days.

Hawaii is the whole state where solar installation pays for itself the quickest, taking an average of nearly three years, MarketWatch reported.

When looking at the top city in each state, Santa Maria, Calif., ranks tops in California for quickest solar installation repayment, fifth overall behind Chandler and the other Valley cities.

In the state of Washington, it takes a little over 19 years to cover solar installation costs, the slowest repayment in the U.S. based on MarketWatch analysis.

Between 2010 and 2020, the amount of solar energy installed in U.S. homes increased 27 times over, while the cost of panels decreased by half, according to Energy Star, a part of the EPA, MarketWatch reports.

The national average is about eight years, according to MarketWatch.

Read the full MarketWatch study here.

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