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We use your location to provide localized solar offers and incentives.
We serve MA, NH, CT, RI, ME, VT, NJ, PA, and TX
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Review the preliminary layout with a commercial solar specialist. We’ll confirm roof condition, structural requirements, utility service, and the next feasibility steps.
Analyze a commercial roof
Official benchmark context + your project inputs
Use federal benchmarks to understand the cost model, then use the facility's EPC quote, production model, tariff, and documented tax eligibility to make the decision. This guide does not substitute a statewide average for a real project.
There is no defensible one-price answer for a specific building. The installed cost must come from a site-scoped EPC quote. Official DOE models provide benchmark context, while project economics require the actual quote, year-one production, serving-utility tariff, operating costs, financing, and confirmed tax eligibility.
Free address-based tool
Get a preliminary roof layout, panel count, system size, annual production range, and confidence grade before sharing contact details.
No account required to see your roof result
Official benchmark, correctly labeled
DOE's published 2024Q1 table includes a representative 3 MW agrivoltaic system at a $1.34/W minimum sustainable price, $1.51/W modeled market price, and $22/kW-year operation and maintenance benchmark. Those values describe that reference system and methodology; they are not a generic Northeast commercial-rooftop price.
Minimum sustainable price
$1.34/W
Representative 3 MW agrivoltaic benchmark
Modeled market price
$1.51/W
Same reference system; not a local bid
O&M benchmark
$22/kW-year
Reference-system operating cost
U.S. Department of Energy
Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmarks
Published 2024Q1 benchmark table and definitions for modeled market price, minimum sustainable price, O&M, and LCOE.
Verified 2026-08-06
U.S. Department of Energy / National Laboratory of the Rockies
Q1-2025 Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmarks
Latest official downloadable PV system cost-model dataset. It is a benchmark model, not a NuWatt project quote.
Verified 2026-08-06
Normalize these items before comparing $/W, payback, or financing.
Roof membrane, structural reinforcement, civil work, drainage, foundations, and access.
Service voltage, switchgear, transformer work, conductors, trenching, and interconnection upgrades.
Ballasted roof, attached roof, canopy, and ground mount solve different structural and site problems.
Prevailing-wage obligations, registered apprentices, phasing, operating-hour constraints, and mobilization.
Orientation, shade, curtailment, export compensation, demand charges, and interval load shape.
EPC exclusions, O&M, performance guarantees, insurance, financing fees, and tax ownership.
Federal tax decision spine
6%
Before the wage and apprenticeship increase.
Up to 30%
Project documentation and labor compliance matter.
100%
For eligible property; tax value depends on the taxpayer.
The Section 48E begin-construction window closed July 4, 2026: projects that began construction on or before that date may use the longer continuity pathway. Commercial solar projects starting now generally must be placed in service by December 31, 2027. The statutory credit is 6%; it can increase to 30% when the applicable prevailing-wage and registered-apprenticeship requirements are met.
Separate cost from return
The cost guide owns pricing and scope. The calculator owns ROI and payback so one tool evaluates the quote, production, utility value, operating cost and documented tax inputs consistently.
Open the ROI calculatorAddress, asset geometry, structural/civil constraints, imagery date, shade screen, and interconnection assumptions.
Bills, interval data, tariff, quote, production model, O&M, financing, tax assumptions, and incentive eligibility.
Utility approvals, program award, labor compliance, tax review, permits, final design, and signed commercial terms.
Energy storage technology is not subject to the December 31, 2027 placed-in-service deadline or the July 4, 2026 begin-construction trigger — both apply to applicable wind and solar facilities only, and Section 48E(e)(4)(C) expressly excepts energy storage technology (IRS Notice 2025-42, section 2.02). A standalone commercial battery remains eligible for the statutory 6% Section 48E credit, increased to 30% when the applicable wage and apprenticeship requirements are met, under the standard clean-electricity phase-out that starts at the later of 2032 or when U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from electricity are 25% of 2022 emissions or lower.
There is no single official nationwide installed price for a specific commercial building. A defensible figure comes from the EPC quote for that site. DOE benchmark models are useful reference points, but they are not local contractor quotes and must not be presented as one.
Bring the address, bills, interval data if available, and any existing quote. We will separate verified facts from assumptions and scope the next decision.