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Custom Leases & PPAs

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Aurora Solar
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Overview

Account Admins can create custom leases and power purchase agreements (PPAs) for their reps to present in Sales Mode by uploading the yields, rates (kWh), EPC price-per-watt (PPW), and escalation rates related to the financing products they offer.

With their third-party ownership (TPO) financing products in Sales Mode proposals, Admins can quickly and easily refresh rate tables with the latest data, allowing reps to educate homeowners about their various financial options for going solar.

Note: To determine pricing for Custom Leases & PPAs built using rate tables, Aurora uses performance simulations from Aurora and/or PVWatts (v6). If attempting to upload rate table data from a third-party ownership (TPO) provider, pricing shown in Aurora’s Sales Mode will only match the TPO provider’s pricing if they also rely on Aurora’s or PVWatts’ performance simulations. Please follow up with your TPO partner for any questions about the performance simulations they use.

How to Create Custom Leases & PPAs in Aurora

First open the Database using the left-hand navigation menu, then click Financing products.

 

Click Add financing product in the upper-right and use the pop-up modal to give the product a name, select a Project type (Residential or Commercial), and then select Lease or PPA as the Financing type. Click Add. 

 

Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)

First add the core details for your PPA product:

  • Partner assignment - if you’ve created Partners within your tenant, use this drop-down to make the PPA available for ‘All partners’, ‘No partner (Tenant only)’, or one or multiple Partners
  • Name - give your PPA a clear and descriptive name; this text will be visible to homeowners when presented in Sales Mode
  • Project type - select ‘Residential’ or ‘Commercial’ to make the PPA available for projects of either type
  • Escalation rate - the annual, percent-per-year increase (or decrease) to the PPA rate
  • Upfront payment - the amount the homeowner would pay as collateral for the system
  • Solar rate selection - ‘Define a single solar rate’ or ‘Define a pricing matrix’
    • Single solar rate - enables you to input a single  per kWh rate (for year one, with subsequent years incorporating the specified escalation rate)
    • Pricing matrix - enables you to create a pricing matrix based on inputs for per kWh rate, yield, and EPC rate

PPA with Pricing Matrix

After selecting Pricing matrix as the rate selection type, add the following additional details by copying and pasting values from your rate table:

  • Per kWh rates - the price per kWh that the homeowner will pay in year one
  • Yields - the annual energy production of a design divided by the system size, representing the system’s efficiency
  • EPC price per watt (PPW) values - the price-per-watt value that the EPC will receive for installing this project

 

With your kWh rates, yield, and PPW data uploaded, Aurora will generate a Pricing matrix for you to review. After confirming all values are correct, click Save in the upper-right corner.



PPA with Single Rate

After selecting Single Rate as the rate selection type, add your Solar rate expressed in dollars ($) per kWh.



Levelized Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)

In Aurora, a Levelized PPA entails payments that stay the same from month-to-month. (Escalation rates will still increase payments year-over-year for a levelized PPA.) Like a traditional PPA, production estimates are used to calculate the system’s yield and the $/kWh rate will be selected by a Sales Mode user. Next, however, the homeowner’s total annual cost is divided by 12 and a “levelized” monthly payment is determined.

 

First add the core details for your Levelized PPA product:

  • Partner assignment - if you’ve created Partners within your tenant, use this drop-down to make the PPA available for ‘All partners’, ‘No partner (Tenant only)’, or one or multiple Partners
  • Name - give your PPA a clear and descriptive name; this text will be visible to homeowners when presented in Sales Mode
  • Project type - select ‘Residential’ or ‘Commercial’ to make the PPA available for projects of either type
  • Escalation rate - the annual, percent-per-year increase (or decrease) to the PPA rate
  • Upfront payment - the amount the homeowner would pay as collateral for the system

 

Next, add the following additional details by copying and pasting values from your rate table:

  • Per kWh rates - the price per kWh that the homeowner will pay in year one
  • Yields - the annual energy production of a design divided by the system size, representing the system’s efficiency
  • EPC price per watt (PPW) values - the price-per-watt value that the EPC will receive for installing this project

 

With your kWh rates, yield, and PPW data uploaded, Aurora will generate a Pricing matrix for you to review. After confirming all values are correct, click Save in the upper-right corner.

 

Leases

First add the core details for your Lease product:

  • Partner assignment - if you’ve created Partners within your tenant, use this drop-down to make the Lease available for ‘All partners’, ‘No partner (Tenant only)’, or one or multiple Partners
  • Name - give your Lease a clear and descriptive name; this text will be visible to homeowners when presented in Sales Mode
  • Project type - select ‘Residential’ or ‘Commercial’ to make the Lease available for projects of either type
  • Escalation rate - the annual, percent-per-year increase (or decrease) to the monthly lease payment
  • Upfront payment - the amount the homeowner would pay as collateral for the system
  • Monthly payment selection - ‘Single monthly payment’ or ‘Pricing matrix’
    • Single monthly payment - enables you to input a single monthly payment (for year one, with subsequent years incorporating the specified escalation rate)
      • Allow lease to be edited - Enables users to edit the monthly payment and escalation rate once the lease is added to a design
    • Pricing matrix - enables you to create a pricing matrix based on inputs for per kWh rate, yield, and EPC rate

Lease with Pricing Matrix

After selecting Pricing matrix, add the following additional details by copying and pasting values from your rate table:

  • Per kWh rates - the price per kWh that the homeowner will pay in year one
  • Yields - the annual energy production of a design divided by the system size, representing the system’s efficiency
  • EPC price per watt (PPW) values - the effective price per watt from the EPC’s perspective

 

With your kWh rates, yield, and PPW data uploaded, Aurora will generate a Pricing matrix for you to review. After confirming all values are correct, click Save in the upper-right corner.

 


Lease with Single Rate

First select Define a single monthly payment. Next, add a Monthly payment expressed in dollars ($) and select whether to Allow lease to be edited (if toggled 'ON' users will be able to edit the monthly payment the annual escalation rate after tadding this lease to a design).

 



Performance simulation settings

To calculate year 1 monthly payments for Custom PPAs and leases created with rate tables, Aurora uses the following formula:

Monthly payment = Solar rate * System yield * System size / 12 months

(where System yield = Annual production / System size)

Thus, your chosen performance simulation settings will impact annual production values and in turn, year 1 monthly payments. (The selected escalation rate will dictate monthly payments beyond year 1.)

In Aurora, navigate to Settings then Performance simulations. Click Edit to make selections for:

  • Simulation - choose from ‘Auto’, ‘Aurora’, or ‘PVWatts v6’
    • Auto - if selected, settings for both Aurora and PVWatts simulations will appear
    • Aurora - if selected, settings for only Aurora simulations will appear
    • PVWatts v6 - if selected, settings for only PVWatts simulations will appear
  • System losses - review or adjust loss percentages over the system’s lifetime (unless noted as annual)
    • After making any adjustments, review the Estimated total loss field at the bottom of this column

Presenting Custom Leases & PPAs in Sales Mode

In Sales Mode, custom leases and PPAs can be presented to homeowners just like any other financing product. When meeting with a prospect, Sales reps can easily switch between products and/or switch to a different solar rate (or monthly payment in the case of a lease) within the same product to find the ideal solution for that homeowner.

 

In Sales Mode, navigate to the Financing page.

On the Financing page, use the first (left) drop-down menu to select Aurora Custom Financing.

 

Next use the second (right) drop-down menu to scroll through all your custom financing products and select the Lease or PPA you’d like to present to the homeowner.

 

After selecting a custom Lease or PPA, a pop-up modal will appear in the center of the screen. From this modal you can:

  • See the system yield and pre-solar rate per kWh in the upper-right corner 
  • Switch to a different PPA or Lease using the upper-left drop-down menu
  • Select a solar rate with a corresponding monthly payment and EPC price-per-watt

 

Click Save to finalize your selection.

 

Back in Sales Mode, your selected Lease or PPA will be shown along with the corresponding Solar rate, Escalation, and Year 1 monthly payment. To choose a different rate or a different financing product altogether, click the Edit (pencil) button.

If a Sales Mode user selects a single-rate custom lease, for which the Allow lease to be edited option is toggled ‘ON’, clicking the Edit (pencil) button will open the Edit lease modal. Here, users are able to change the annual escalation rate and year one monthly payment.

Shown below, click Expand details to expose ‘Lifetime savings’ and a cashflow chart that can toggle between cumulative and annual cash flows. You can also export a XLSX file that details the calculations behind the various values and click Compare to show the homeowner another financing product side-by-side.

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