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South Carolina, United States

1.29TWh
every year, from one 325-watt panel on each of 2,776,040 buildings.

What that is equal to

🏠 122 thousand
homes powered for a year
at the US average of 10,500 kWh per household
🌍 477 thousand t
CO₂ avoided annually
displacing grid power at 0.371 kg CO₂e/kWh (EPA eGRID)
🚗 104 thousand
cars taken off the road
an average passenger vehicle emits 4.6 t CO₂e a year
⚡ 3.67 billion
electric vehicle miles
at roughly 0.35 kWh per mile

The pay-off

It pays for itself here. A panel on this roof delivers electricity at 8.2¢ a kWh against a local price of 16.2¢ — 49% cheaper than local power. The install is repaid after 12.4 years, inside the panel's 25-year life.
8.2¢ vs 16.2¢
cost per kWh: this panel vs the grid
levelised over 25 years including 0.5%/yr degradation
$2.5 billion
to fit every building here
2,776,040 panels at $900 installed each
12.4 years
to break even
saving $208 million a year area-wide at today's price

Assumes $900 to install one 325 W panel — hardware, mounting, microinverter, electrical work, labour and permitting — repaid only by the electricity it avoids buying. No subsidies, tax credits, net-metering premium, financing cost or future price rises are counted, and the figure is undiscounted. Electricity price is the SC residential average (EIA, May 2026). A single panel is unusually expensive per watt because it carries a whole array's fixed costs, which is why these numbers look worse than rooftop solar generally does.

How this is calculated

Buildings with roofs2,776,040
×  Panel rating325 W
×  Annual yield per panel here463.2 kWh
Annual generation1,285,941,741 kWh
Assumptions and limitations
  • Yield is specific to this location: 463.2 kWh per panel per year, from NASA POWER climatology transposed onto a tilted roof plane. The same panel makes roughly 596 kWh in Phoenix and 265 kWh in Anchorage.
  • Assumes a south-facing roof at a typical residential pitch, with a ~22% total system loss for soiling, shading, wiring, inverter, and heat.
  • Counts every above-ground structure with a footprint of at least 20 m², so garages and outbuildings are excluded but barns and sheds of real size are not. Building data is machine-derived and imperfect.
  • No account is taken of roof orientation, obstructions, structural condition, or whether the owner wants a panel.

Counties in South Carolina

Horry County · 114 GWhGreenville County · 113 GWhSpartanburg County · 81.7 GWhCharleston County · 75.7 GWhRichland County · 72.4 GWhYork County · 72.3 GWhLexington County · 68.8 GWhAnderson County · 55.8 GWhBerkeley County · 47.9 GWhAiken County · 42.9 GWhBeaufort County · 42.2 GWhFlorence County · 34.1 GWhDorchester County · 32.7 GWhPickens County · 32.2 GWhOrangeburg County · 27.5 GWhSumter County · 27.1 GWhOconee County · 25.6 GWhLancaster County · 24.9 GWhLaurens County · 20.9 GWhKershaw County · 20.3 GWhGeorgetown County · 18.9 GWhDarlington County · 18.8 GWhGreenwood County · 17.8 GWhCherokee County · 15.8 GWhChesterfield County · 15.2 GWhColleton County · 13.1 GWhNewberry County · 11.9 GWhWilliamsburg County · 11.4 GWhClarendon County · 11.3 GWhMarion County · 10.3 GWhChester County · 9.71 GWhDillon County · 9.23 GWhAbbeville County · 9.26 GWhUnion County · 8.31 GWhJasper County · 8.34 GWhMarlboro County · 8.12 GWhEdgefield County · 6.97 GWhSaluda County · 6.76 GWhFairfield County · 6.76 GWhCalhoun County · 6.79 GWhBarnwell County · 6.71 GWhHampton County · 6.27 GWhLee County · 5.94 GWhBamberg County · 4.54 GWhMcCormick County · 3.49 GWhAllendale County · 2.77 GWh

Metro areas in South Carolina

Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC · 573 GWhGreenville-Anderson, SC · 221 GWhColumbia, SC · 182 GWhMyrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC-NC · 163 GWhCharleston-North Charleston, SC · 156 GWhAugusta-Richmond County, GA-SC · 136 GWhSpartanburg, SC · 81.7 GWhFlorence, SC · 52.8 GWhHilton Head Island-Bluffton, SC · 50.6 GWhSumter, SC · 38.4 GWhOrangeburg, SC · 27.5 GWhSeneca, SC · 25.6 GWhGeorgetown, SC · 18.9 GWhGreenwood, SC · 17.8 GWhGaffney, SC · 15.8 GWhNewberry, SC · 11.9 GWhUnion, SC · 8.31 GWhBennettsville, SC · 8.12 GWh

Places like South Carolina

Alabama · 1.31 TWhNew Jersey · 1.14 TWhKentucky · 1.1 TWhMassachusetts · 1.02 TWhColorado · 1.29 TWhOklahoma · 1.16 TWh