There are three events concerned in a photo voltaic PPA: the native utility firm, the house owner, and the photo voltaic firm.
Your photo voltaic firm administers the PPA. They may design, allow, set up, and keep the photo voltaic mission over your contract time period. For the reason that photo voltaic firm owns the photo voltaic system, it will probably additionally declare incentives just like the funding tax credit score (ITC).
The house owner “hosts” the photo voltaic system, that means the photo voltaic firm installs the photo voltaic system on their roof to be used. Because of this, the house owner receives discounted vitality costs under the utility fee. How a lot a family pays as a part of the settlement is dependent upon their vitality utilization, native vitality prices, and the quantity of vitality the panels produce.
Lastly, the utility firm continues to supply conventional vitality to the house owner as essential. If you happen to dwell in an space providing web metering applications, your utility will distribute any web metering credit for extra vitality despatched again to the grid.
Photo voltaic PPA vs. Photo voltaic Lease
Photo voltaic PPAs and photo voltaic leases are each agreements the place your photo voltaic installer suits panels in your roof that you don’t personal. As a substitute, you pay the corporate every month to make use of the system (a lease) or the vitality it generates (PPAs).
Underneath a PPA, your month-to-month funds will fluctuate based mostly on how a lot electrical energy the panels produce. As an illustration, if the panels produce extra vitality in the summertime, you’d pay greater than within the winter when productiveness is decrease. Then again, with a photo voltaic lease, you pay a hard and fast value every month.
With a photo voltaic PPA, you’re technically paying your photo voltaic set up firm for the vitality the put in panels produce at a reduced electrical energy fee. Underneath a photo voltaic lease, you’re paying to make use of the photo voltaic gear in your roof quite than the electrical energy.