Commercial solar pays for one reason: the incentives. A 30% federal credit, depreciation against real tax liability, and in some cases a grant or an assessment-based financing structure are what turn a six-figure roof project into a deal that closes. Which of those a particular business can actually capture depends on facts about that business, and most of them are knowable before anyone climbs on the roof.
What is not knowable is the future. Every proposal a building owner receives assumes their electricity rate climbs three or four percent a year, forever, and that single assumption does more work in shortening the payback than the hardware does. We do not make it. The work in this section computes what the tax code and your own bill already say, holds your rate flat, and names every figure we refused to guess at.
7 articlesUpdated JUL 30 2026
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