The seasonal swing
Daylight hours vary substantially across the year this far north, and winter sun angles are low enough that even clear days produce far less than summer ones.
Snow cover compounds it. An array under snow produces nothing until it clears, and in North Dakota it can stay for extended periods.
Household consumption often moves the other way, with heating load and lighting both peaking in the darkest months.
So an annual production total conceals a great deal here. Ask for the estimate month by month alongside your own consumption.
Snow allowance and tilt
Ask what snow allowance the production model applied and how it was derived. A model built from generic irradiance with no snow adjustment is describing a milder place.
Ask about tilt specifically. A steeper tilt sheds snow more readily and shifts output toward spring and autumn, which in this climate is often a better trade than maximising a summer peak.
Ask about mounting and whether shed snow would land somewhere that causes a problem, such as over a walkway, a doorway or a driveway.
Ask what temperature assumptions the model used. Cold weather improves panel efficiency, which partly offsets the shorter days, and a generic model may not reflect that.
What the shape means for value
Summer production is when the surplus arises, and surplus is exported at avoided cost of roughly 2 to 4 cents rather than the retail rate around 11 to 12.
Winter production is when you would most value it, and there is least of it. That asymmetry is the core of the North Dakota solar problem.
It is also why self-consumption matters so much here: the more of your summer generation your household absorbs directly, the less of it leaves at the low rate.
Ask for the monthly view with production, consumption and the split between self-consumed and exported generation shown together. That is the picture that tells you whether the design works.
Costing it out where the incentives are thin
The 30 percent federal Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a cash or loan purchase in Minot receives no federal tax credit, and North Dakota has no state solar tax credit.
Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so ask what a provider claims and what reaches you in the rate.
What exists is retail value for self-consumed generation, avoided cost for exports, and a five-year property tax exemption.
Ask for a monthly production and consumption profile with a stated snow allowance, the tilt decision explained, and the self-consumed and exported split shown.