Solar panels could have a positive effect on the value of your home, according to a new report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that homeowners who decide to switch to solar power could eventually earn a premium on the sale price of their house from buyers looking to go solar themselves. The specific amount depends largely on circumstances such as how old the panels are and other factors, but the report found that the larger the system, the higher the sale price.

“The take-away here is the market is showing that [photovoltaics] is valued by home buyers,” Ben Hoen, staff research associate at the laboratory and the study’s lead author, told the source. “There could be a green cachet for the PV system that would be over and above the expected price.”

The study found that a home’s sale price increased by an average of $5,900 for every installed kilowatt of power generating capacity. Most rooftop residential systems have capacities between two and five kilowatts. The exact amount that your home would fetch if it had solar power depends on many different situations, including whether or not you’re leasing them or they were purchased outright. There is also a strong correlation between the premium that solar panels fetch and the age of the system itself. Sellers generally saw a 9 percent decrease in the premium for each year that the panels had been installed.

But the data shows that besides lowering your electricity bills substantially, solar also provides value for homeowners if they ever decide to move and put their house up for sale.

For more information on how your family can benefit from residential solar energy solutions, contact West Coast Solar today.