Aurora’s proposal template builder allows admins to insert Variables (formerly placeholders) that dynamically populate information when a proposal is generated.
In this article, we’ll cover:
How to Add a Variable
To add a variable to your proposal template, follow these steps:
- Hover over the textbox and the toolbar will appear
- Select “Variable” on the right
- Use the search box or scroll through the available list manually, then select the desired variable.
List of Variables
Note: More variables will be added to this list regularly. Check back to see as variables are made available.
The following gives a list of all available variables and their definition, organized by category:
- Design
- Environmental
- Financing
- Homeowner
- Incentives
- Loan
- Pricing
- Project
- Storage
- Utility and Billing
Design
- Design System Size: The system size of the design.
- Energy Offset: The percentage of energy consumption offset by solar energy production within the first year after solar installation.
- Groundmount Count: The number of ground mounts.
- Groundmount Name: The name of ground mounts.
- Module Count: Number of modules in the installation.
- Module Manufacturer: Name of the module manufacturer.
- Module Name: Name of the module.
Environmental
- Barrels of Oil Saved: Estimate of the amount of CO2 emissions from the barrels of oil needed to produce the equivalent amount of energy as the solar system.
- Trees Planted: The number of trees that would have to be planted to produce an equivalent reduction on CO2 emissions.
- Vehicles Per Year: The number of vehicles that would be saved per year to produce an equivalent reduction in CO2.
Financing
- Finance Payback Period: The amount of time (in years) it will take for the system to produce a positive return on investment. This is a financial metric representing the payback period of the financing option.
- Financing Name: The name of the financing. This is a financial metric representing the name of the financing option.
- Interest Rate: The interest rate of the financing. This is a financial metric representing the interest rate associated with the financing.
- IRR: The internal rate of return is the interest rate at which the net present value of all the cash flows (both positive and negative) from a project or investment equal zero.
- Lifetime Savings (Nominal): This measure shows you how much savings you should expect over the entire life of your solar project. Aurora's measure of lifetime savings takes into account all the financial costs and benefits of going solar. This is a nominal value i.e. the cash flows do not take into account the discount rate. This is the total dollar amount you would get if you added up all the cash flows over the life of the system. This measure does not account for inflation or opportunity cost.
- Lifetime Savings (NPV): This measure shows you how much savings you should expect over the entire life of your solar project. Aurora's measure of lifetime savings takes into account all the financial costs and benefits of going solar. This is a present value i.e. the cash flows are converted into present-day dollars via the discount rate. The amount of discounting can be set via the discount rate in the Financing Settings.
- Loan Principal: The loan principal in currency. This is a financial metric representing the principal amount of the loan.
Homeowner
- Customer Address: Address of customer.
- Customer Email: Email of customer.
- Customer First Name: First name of customer.
- Customer Last Name: Last name of customer.
Incentives
- Estimated Value of ITC: The estimated ITC value.
- Incentive Name: A list of incentives formatted by name.
- Incentive Name and Amount: A list of incentives formatted by name and amount.
- Incentive Name and Value: A list of incentives formatted by name and value.
- Total Value of Incentives: The total value of all incentives applied to the design.
Loan
- Down Payment: The total amount of down payment for install. This is a financial metric related to the initial payment made by the customer.
- Loan Duration (Months): The financing's number of months. This is a financial metric representing the duration of the loan in months.
- Useful Project Life: The lifespan of the solar (module) system. This is a technical metric representing the expected lifespan of the solar system.
Pricing
- Annual Degradation Factor: The annual rate (%) solar system degradation.
- Base PPW: Price Per Watt of the system only.
- Discount Rate: The rate at which future cashflows are discounted to today's rate.
- Gross PPW with Storage: System PPW with storage plus dealer fee.
- Gross PPW without Storage: System PPW without storage plus dealer fee.
- Net Cost: Loan principal minus the cumulative value of incentives.
- System PPW with Storage: Net PPW plus adders, discounts, applicable incentives, and storage.
- System price with Storage: The system price with storage included.
- System Price without Storage: The system price without storage included.
Project
- Owner Company Name: The name of your company/organization.
- Owner Email: The email address of this project's owner.
- Owner First Name: The first name of the user who generates the proposal.
- Owner Last Name: The last name of the user who generates the proposal.
- Owner Phone Number: The phone number of this project's owner.
- Tenant Address: Address of the tenant.
- Tenant Name: Name of the tenant.
Storage
- Average Daily Surplus: The average daily surplus for a solar system in the first year with or without storage.
- Average Grid Use: The average daily grid use for a solar system in the first year with or without storage.
- Battery Capacity: Total usable capacity of all batteries in the design.
- Battery Count: The total quantity of batteries (or battery) attached to a solar system.
- Battery Inverter Count: The total quantity of batteries (or battery) attached to a solar system.
- Battery Inverter Manufacturer: The manufacturer name of the battery inverter selected in the storage design.
- Battery Inverter Name: The model of the battery inverter selected in the storage design.
- Battery Manufacturer: The manufacturer name of the battery selected in the storage design.
- Battery Name: The model of the battery selected in the storage design.
- Battery Operating Mode: The storage mode of the battery attached to the design.
- System Cost With Storage: System cost with storage included.
- Battery Operating Mode: The storage mode of the battery attached to the design.
- Battery Output: Discharge rate of the battery.
- Storage Backup Allocation (percentage): The percentage of storage capacity reserved for backup, when homeowners are primarily self-consuming stored electricity.
- Storage Backup Duration: The number of days a homeowner can expect their storage to last, powering appliances, essentials, or their entire home during an outage event.
- Storage Cost: The price of all batteries and inverters included in the storage setup.
- Utility Bill (First Year): The price of all batteries and inverters included in the storage setup.
Utility and Billing
- Annual Consumption - One Year (Pre-Solar): The total annual energy consumption for the first pre-solar year.
- Annual Production: The estimated energy production of the system in its first year, measured in kWh.
- Annual Savings: The total utility bill savings in the first year after going solar.
- Average Monthly Utility Bill: The average utility bill for a solar system in the first year with or without storage.
- Average Monthly Utility Fixed Charges (First Year): The first year utility rate fixed charges averaged over 12 months.
- Post-Solar Annual Utility Bill: The estimated energy production of the system in its first year, measured in kWh.
- Post-solar average monthly bill savings %: The average monthly utility bill savings % for the first year after going solar.
- Post-Solar Cost per kWh: The forecasted post-solar cost per kWh.
- Post-Solar Final Year Monthly Bill: The average monthly utility bill in the final year of the project should the client go solar.
- Post-Solar Lifetime Utility Bill: The lifetime post-solar bill.
- Post-Solar Monthly Average Bill Savings (First Year): The monthly average bill savings over the first post-solar year.
- Post-solar Monthly Bill: The average monthly utility bill for the first year after going solar.
- Post-Solar Utility Rate Name: The utility rate of the home/building after going solar. This can be the same as the current (pre-solar) utility rate, or it could be different.
- Pre-Solar Cost Per kWh: The estimated cost per kWh before solar installed.
- Pre-solar Final Year Monthly Bill: The estimated average monthly utility bill in the final year of the project, should the client choose not to go solar.
- Pre-Solar Lifetime Utility Bill: The total utility bill over the project lifetime before solar.
- Pre-solar Monthly Bill: The average monthly utility bill for the first year before going solar.
- Pre-Solar Present Annual Utility Bill: The current annual utility bill before solar.
- Pre-Solar Utility Name: The name of the utility company for the pre-solar utility rate.
- Pre-Solar Utility Rate Name: The current utility rate of the home/building (i.e. before going solar) as defined in the consumption profile.
- Utility Rate Escalation: The expected annual increase in utility rates.
- Year 1 Annual Storage Savings: The annual savings from storage in the first year.