this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2026
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Just by googling the electricity prices in California, I'd venture a guess and say yes. Unless it's particularly expensive to install there.
Here where I live, in Estonia, electricity is about a third to a half of the price of California if you get a fixed plan, or it gets super expensive in the winter when solar is useless, and super cheap (sometimes free energy, but grid fee still applies) in the summer when solar output is awesome thanks to the super long days, if you don't have a fixed plan. Installing solar panels without hefty batteries wouldn't pay off in 2026 (the only real benefit is on a fixed plan in the summer so you don't have to use grid power at all). In comparison, California has way less seasonal variability in production and as I understand it, less seasonal variability in demand too (our heating systems haul ASS in the winter, our record peak power consumption happened Feb 5th of this year).
It is famously expensive here.
It depends on where in California the installation is. We have regions that get significant sun year round, and others that are under a coastal marine/stratus cloud layer for long periods of time. We also have alpine areas that have seasonal weather like you're describing, but relatively fewer people live in those areas.
Upside... the surfing is still good when its cloudy. :-)
You'll have much less variability in the length of the day though. If you transported Estonia to North America, it would extend from the northern border of British Columbia and about a quarter of the way down to Vancouver. The shortest day is 5h36m in Tallin vs 9h17m in Redding, for a northern CA town. That sun will also be much lower in the sky in Tallin.
Yeah, that's a fair point. I was considering how weather impacts sunlight at the panels more than latitude. California is quite varied nonetheless.