DIY kit prices, as of August 2026
These are the packaged systems we sell as equipment: panels, battery, inverter, and a complete wiring kit, shipped to you to install. They are the cleanest starting point for a budget because the price does not move with your site conditions.
| Kit | Array + storage | Panels | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cabin Ready | 6.6kW / 16kWh | 12 | $12,255 |
| Homestead | 13.2kW / 32kWh | 24 | $22,559 |
| Ranch | 19.8kW / 48kWh | 36 | $34,255 |
Each kit is built around 550 W bifacial panels, LiFePO4 battery modules in 16 kWh increments, and a single 12000XP inverter, with paralleling kits added at the Ranch tier. Racking is a separate add-on priced per panel — roughly $118 to $165 per panel as of August 2026 depending on whether you are mounting to shingle, metal roofing, or the ground. Everything else on a DIY job — concrete, trenching, conduit, permits, inspection, and your own labor — is on you.
What a full installation costs
Published kit prices are easy. Installed prices are the number people actually want, and the honest version is that we have two complete 2026 contracts to point at rather than a statistical average:
| 14.4 kW off-grid solar build, central New Mexico | About $62,500 — array, battery and inverter package, ground-mount racking, concrete, and site work. Built mid-June through mid-July 2026. |
|---|---|
| Solar well pump and complete water system, Torrance County | About $55,000 — 200-ft well with 6-inch steel casing, helical-rotor solar pump on a dedicated 1,200 W array, two 2,500-gallon cisterns, and about 520 linear feet of trenched water line. Completed July 2026. |
On the 14.4 kW build, equipment was roughly two-thirds of the installed cost, with labor and site work making up the balance. That ratio is the useful part: when someone quotes a whole-house off-grid system for barely more than the hardware is worth, something in the scope is missing.
Two projects is not a market survey, and we are not going to dress it up as one. A small cabin system can land well below this range, and a large home on rock with a long access road can exceed it. What these figures do tell you is the order of magnitude for a complete, permitted, professionally installed off-grid property in central New Mexico.
What actually drives the number
- Battery capacity. The biggest single lever, and the one most quotes differ on. Our own kit ladder shows the slope: 16 kWh at $12,255, 32 kWh at $22,559, 48 kWh at $34,255. How many days you want to ride out cloudy weather without the generator sets that number.
- Ground conditions and trenching. Rock is expensive. On the Torrance County job, about 520 linear feet of trench at a minimum 30-inch depth through rocky terrain was billed at $1,300 per day. Two identical systems on two parcels can differ by thousands on dirt alone.
- Well depth, when water is part of the job. That project’s well was drilled to 200 feet with 6-inch steel casing by a licensed New Mexico driller; drilling beyond 200 feet is billed at $75 per foot. Nobody knows the final depth until the rig is turning.
- Mounting. Ground-mount arrays need concrete and layout work that a roof mount does not. They also age better and are easier to service, which is why we use them on most rural builds.
- Access and distance. Every mile from the shop and every rough mile up the driveway shows up in mobilization and crew time.
- Generator integration. An automatic transfer arrangement is straightforward to build in on day one and annoying to retrofit later.
The federal residential credit is gone — read 2026 quotes carefully
This matters more than a footnote, because a credit-adjusted price is how a lot of solar was sold for the last decade. If a company hands you a proposal with a federal residential credit in the math, ask them to cite the current statute in writing. It is a fair question and it will tell you a great deal about who you are dealing with.
This page is about residential work. Business and agricultural properties are taxed under different provisions entirely, and that is a conversation for your CPA rather than your contractor.
The state credit today — and the 30% bill to watch
New Mexico’s own incentive, the New Solar Market Development income tax credit (NMSA 1978 § 7-2-18.31), is still active: 10% of purchase and installation costs, capped at $6,000 per taxpayer per year, drawn from a $30 million annual statewide pool certified through EMNRD. That is real money — on a $50,000 system it is roughly $5,000 back at tax time for a qualifying installation.
Here is the part worth watching. In the 2026 legislative session, Senate Bill 55 would have raised that credit to 30% with a $15,000 cap — a direct answer to the federal credit’s termination. It passed the New Mexico Senate 26–10 and cleared House committee, but the 30-day session ended before a House floor vote, so it did not become law. As of August 2026 the credit remains 10%. Given that Senate margin, a similar bill returning in the 2027 session is a real possibility — but until one passes, no honest quote should show a 30% state credit. If a proposal does, ask for the statute in writing, same as with the federal credit above.
New Mexico gross receipts tax
New Mexico has no sales tax, but it does have gross receipts tax, which sellers typically pass through on the invoice. NMSA 1978 § 7-9-112 provides a deduction from gross receipts for the sale and installation of solar energy systems, with regulation 3.2.247.8 NMAC governing how it is applied and documented, so a qualifying job should not arrive with that tax added to your price. Separately, NMSA 1978 § 7-2-18.31 is the New Solar Market Development income tax credit — a different statute and a different tax, claimed on your own return. The full breakdown, including what to check on a quote, is in our New Mexico gross receipts tax guide.
DIY kit or installed system?
Buy the kit if you can set racking, pour concrete, trench, and land the electrical work to a standard an inspector will sign off on — or if you have a licensed electrician lined up for the parts you should not do yourself. You will save the labor and the site work, which is where the money is.
Buy the installation if you want one company responsible for the permit, the inspection, the commissioning, and the phone call two winters from now. That is the actual product: not the panels, but the fact that someone in New Mexico owns the outcome.
When you are comparing two installed quotes, line them up on these:
- Same usable battery capacity in kWh, and same inverter continuous rating?
- Racking, concrete, and trenching included, or listed as “by owner”?
- Permits, inspection, and commissioning in the price?
- Gross receipts tax handled under § 7-9-112, with the paperwork prepared for you?
- Payment terms in writing. Ours on the Torrance County water system were 70% at mobilization and 30% at completion, which is the kind of structure you should expect to see spelled out.
If you want to sanity-check a system size before you talk to anyone, the off-grid estimator will size panels and storage against your loads, and the net metering versus off-grid comparison covers the case where the grid is close enough to be worth connecting to.