Yesterday, I wrote an article about EnergySage’s new Instant Solar Estimate tool. The tool uses proprietary market price data and “the industry’s leading tools and databases” to deliver pretty awesome solar cost and solar savings reports. One thing it does that I haven’t seen elsewhere is that it compares the financial benefit of going solar through a cash purchase, a $0-down solar loan, and a $0-down lease or PPA (where these are available). If you checked out the example screenshot shared in the article, you probably saw that solar leasing was really lame on this metric. The 20-year savings (for “Anytown, USA”) were:
- Cash purchase = $23,000
- $0-down loan = $9,900
- $0-down lease/PPA = $2,700
Yikes, $2,700 vs $9,900?
Of course, that’s just one scenario, and it seems that it’s not even for a real home. So, I decided to run some estimates for real addresses in various states where solar leasing exists in order to see what other estimates would show. I had to make a “best guess” for the electric bills, so don’t take any of this as fact (well, don’t take any such estimates as fact), but enjoy the interesting findings I came up with:
1. San Jose, California
(Address: 286 N 24th St, San Jose, CA 95116 | Monthly electric bill: $150)
In this case, solar leasing actually beat the $0-down solar loan:
2. San Diego, California
(Address: 3802 Monroe Avenue, San Diego, CA 92116 | Monthly electric bill: $50)
Here, the $0-down solar loan inches out the solar lease:
3. Phoenix, Arizona
(Address: 1019 East Hiddenview Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85048 | Monthly electric bill: $300)
The $0-down loan ends up losing you money, while the lease saves you $12,000!
4. Colorado Springs, Colorado
(Address: 7425 Julynn Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80919 | Monthly electric bill: $150)
Again, the lease wins (not counting the cash purchase, of course, which crushes it):
