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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
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.
| 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 — the owner still keeps the Section 48E credit and the depreciation, because those follow ownership, not the funding source.
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.