What's a Prepaid Solar Lease?
A Prepaid Lease is as close as you can get to ownership, although still technically a lease. It mimics outright purchase and ownership of a solar system, yet contains all the same features of a standard monthly solar lease. The only difference between a prepaid solar lease and a monthly solar lease is that the prepaid requires a large onetime upfront payment, with no subsequent monthly payments over the lease term. The Solar Provider receives all tax credits and local or state rebate incentives just as it would with a monthly solar lease. In addition, because the solar on your home is a commercially owned asset, the Solar Provider can recover the cost of the solar in as little as 5 years. It does this through the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) which is not available to homeowners that own their solar system. MACRS is an accelerated depreciation tool for commercially owned renewable energy technologies. Since the homeowner makes only one bulk payment upfront with a prepaid lease, the Solar Provider assumes zero risk that the homeowner may default. That fact along with realizing the commercial tax advantages not available to a homeowner enables the Solar Provider to offer an attractive prepaid price for solar. The upfront cost to invest in a Prepaid Lease is often less than the net cost of ownership.