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We serve MA, NH, CT, RI, ME, VT, NJ, PA, and TX
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Use the free estimator for a preliminary layout, or share your preferred response method with the commercial team. Final feasibility still requires site, utility, and engineering review.
Model cash, a commercial loan, C-PACE, a solar PPA, or a lease using the terms you actually received—not generic rates or payment claims.
Provider quote
PPA / Lease
Address check
C-PACE
Lender terms
Commercial Loan
Follow ownership
Tax Benefits
Compare every option over the same period using project-specific production and tariff value. For cash, a loan, or C-PACE, include installed cost, upfront cash, fees, debt service, O&M, and only the tax or incentive value the system owner can actually use. For a PPA, include the starting price per kWh, escalator, production, contract term, transfer terms, and end-of-term rights. A lease uses its scheduled payment and contract protections. The NuWatt comparator requires customer-entered financing terms instead of assuming a lender APR or PPA price.
Free address-based tool
Use one site-specific assessment to establish preliminary layout, system size, and production. Then compare cash, loan, C-PACE, and PPA terms here without changing the assessment flow.
No account required to see your roof result
Use your proposal and utility tariff
Cash, debt, property-assessed financing, and a PPA allocate cost, tax benefits, operations, and long-term control differently. Enter the terms you actually received; the calculator will not substitute a generic lender or PPA offer.
Need help finding the terms? Check the proposal firstWe do not preload a lender APR or PPA price. Enter the terms you were quoted so the payment, cash flow, and ownership tradeoffs are based on your project—not a fabricated offer.
Nothing entered here is submitted. A specialist sees these assumptions only if you choose to review them together.
Use the production and installed cost from your proposal. The energy value must come from your utility tariff or bill analysis.
Leave a rate blank to omit that option. A 0% entered rate is modeled as 0%.
Lender-provided terms
Address and program dependent
Third-party ownership
NPV discounts future cash flows; nominal benefit does not. Neither is a financing offer or tax opinion.
The calculator will not substitute a state average. Use a blended value based on the site's utility tariff, self-consumption, export compensation, and time-of-use periods.
Start with a real roof layout, then have a commercial specialist verify the tariff, incentive eligibility, interconnection path, and financing quote before you rely on the result.
Ownership: cash, loan, and C-PACE assume customer ownership; the PPA assumes third-party ownership.
Energy value: every solar kWh is modeled at the blended value you enter, not a statewide average.
Exclusions: fixed utility charges, taxes, demand charges, curtailment, buyouts, and unentered fees are excluded.
Before you sign
A useful financing comparison holds the building, system scope and electricity-value assumptions constant. Then compare cash required, payment timing, operating responsibility and exit terms. A smaller payment alone does not establish a lower lifetime cost.
| Decision to resolve | Evidence to request |
|---|---|
| Cash needed before savings arrive | Request a dated deposit, construction-draw and payment schedule. Keep a possible tax receipt separate from money available at contract signing. |
| Payment changes over time | For debt, obtain the APR, fees, amortization schedule, balloon and prepayment terms. For a PPA, obtain the initial price, annual escalator and payment formula—not only the first-year payment. |
| Roof work, repairs and downtime | Name the party paying for removal and reinstallation, insurance, monitoring, inverter replacement and lost production. Record the remedy and exclusions in the contract. |
| Building sale or tenant departure | Ask what happens on sale, refinancing, lease expiry or a change of tenant. Identify assignment consent, liens or assessments, buyout pricing and removal obligations. |
| Utility savings and environmental claims | Use the same production and account-specific tariff assumptions for every offer. Identify export credits, demand-charge assumptions and who owns renewable energy certificates. |
| Incentives and tax-benefit timing | Identify the legal owner, eligible claimant, documentation and expected receipt year. Compare a delayed-benefit case; do not count a benefit twice in both a lower contract price and owner receipts. |
An eligible tax-exempt or governmental owner may use elective pay for a qualifying credit. It is not an automatic discount at purchase: pre-filing registration, a valid election and the underlying credit requirements still apply. Review domestic-content requirements and any applicable exception with your tax adviser.
With a third-party-owned PPA, compare the electricity purchase contract rather than adding the developer’s tax benefits to your own cash receipts. With ownership, budget maintenance and any funding needed before an expected incentive payment. Do not assume a taxable corporation’s depreciation savings apply to a tax-exempt organization.
Read the nonprofit solar guideCompare the quoted case with lower electricity value, delayed incentives and a roof or equipment expense. Keep financing payments due during those events. Use the annual worksheet to examine owner cash flows; its project-cost view is not a substitute for a lender’s repayment schedule or a PPA contract model.
Primary references: DOE PPA contract examples (federal procurement examples, not universal commercial terms); IRS elective pay and transferability; IRS clean electricity investment credit requirements. This checklist is planning guidance, not a financing offer or tax determination.
These planning questions are useful nationally. NuWatt installation service is limited to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas; utility-data availability elsewhere is not an offer to install there. Site and financing eligibility require individual review.
| Feature | Solar PPA | Solar Lease | C-PACE | Commercial Loan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront Cost | Set by the proposal | Set by the proposal | Program- and quote-specific | Set by the lender quote |
| Ownership | third-party | third-party | property | customer |
| ITC Eligible | ||||
| MACRS Eligible | ||||
| Accounting | Contract-specific; accounting review required | ASC 842 and contract review required | Tax and accounting review required | Usually recognized debt; confirm with accountant |
| Term | Contract-specific | Contract-specific | Program- and quote-specific | Lender-specific |
| Payment | Metered solar production × contracted PPA price | Scheduled lease payment | Periodic property assessment | Amortized lender payment |
| Learn More | Details | Details | Details | Details |
A third-party provider owns, installs, and operates the solar system. The customer purchases the electricity it produces at the starting price, escalator, and term stated in the contract.
A third party owns the system and the customer makes the scheduled lease payments stated in the contract. Unlike a PPA, the payment is not normally calculated from each month’s metered solar production.
C-PACE can finance eligible improvements through a voluntary property assessment under a state and local program. Availability, eligible costs, term, assessment structure, lender consent, and transfer rules vary by address and capital-provider quote.
A bank, credit-union, SBA-supported, equipment, or specialty-energy loan can fund customer ownership. The meaningful comparison uses the lender’s actual principal, APR, fees, down payment, amortization, term, collateral, and prepayment terms.
C-PACE is authorised state by state, so the administrator, the maximum term, and whether the programme is reachable in a given town are all local questions. Two rules travel everywhere in NuWatt's territory: the municipality has to have opted in, and C-PACE is financing rather than a rebate. Tax ownership matters, but credit and depreciation treatment also depend on the claimant and project meeting the applicable requirements; C-PACE approval is not tax approval.
Qualifying commercial, industrial, nonprofit, and multifamily properties in participating municipalities can finance clean-energy improvements.
Commercial, industrial, nonprofit, and multifamily properties with five or more units in participating municipalities. Lexington is listed as participating.
Eligible commercial properties in participating municipalities can finance solar and other qualifying improvements.
Programme facts read from NuWatt's official-source-only commercial incentive records, verified 2026-07-29. Rhode Island C-PACE publishes no fixed maximum term; terms are set in underwriting with the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank. Confirm municipal participation before assuming availability at a specific address.
Loan & C-PACE
PPA & Lease
There is no universal winner. Compare written quotes using the same project production, tariff-specific energy value, analysis period, and discount rate. Ownership options can preserve eligible tax benefits and post-financing asset value, while third-party structures can reduce capital needs and shift some operating obligations. The contract, financing cost, tax appetite, site plan, and business objectives decide the result.
Start with a real roof layout, then have a commercial specialist verify tariff value, incentive eligibility, interconnection scope, and written financing terms.