Overview:
Aurora’s Sales Mode now highlights the itemized amount that an applied incentive will discount. This itemization can be used as an educational tool to help the homeowner better understand the value of the incentives on the total system expenditure. Itemized incentives are highlighted on the Financing page, System Summary page, and the Web Proposal.
How it Works:
Sales Mode displays the total value of an incentive over its lifetime. The total value will be shown in today’s dollars. The itemized incentive value will update automatically when the financing product on a project is updated.
Where Can I show itemized Incentives?
You can use itemized incentives in the same area of Sales Mode that displays incentives today. Those product areas are the Financing page, the System Summary page, and the Web Proposal.
Understanding Itemized Incentive Calculations
An incentive is calculated as a series of annual disbursements made upfront (Year 0) and over the life of the project (where the N is the configured project life). Each itemized incentive value is the sum of all annual disbursements of that incentive over the life of the project.
Below is some additional helpful information highlighting how Aurora calculates itemized incentives based on type.
Cost-Based Incentives (CBI): For Cost-Based Incentives (CBI) the configured amount is a percentage of the system cost and applied as a Year 1 tax credit. The system cost used as the basis is equal to the total of the solar and storage system costs, including dealer fees, minus non-taxable Year 0 grants (fixed and system size-based incentives). Note that Year grants only include three types of incentives: Fixed Amount, System Size, Storage System Size incentives. If a cap is specified and the cap value is less than the calculated disbursement, the actual disbursement is the cap value. See note above regarding caps.
Fixed Amount Incentives: For Fixed Amount Incentives the configured amount is applied as the total, singular disbursement made in the specified year. Thus, the itemized value is the same as the configured amount.
Performance-Based Incentives (PBI): The configured amount is a $/kWh rate. Disbursements are made in Year 1 and through the configured duration. For example, a duration of three years disburses in years 1, 2, and 3. An escalation percentage is also configured to exponentially increase the disbursement each year. The incentive takes the annual production from the performance simulation and applies panel degradation. Degradation defines the expected energy production each year of the project life relative to the previous year. You can edit the degradation on an account level for projects in Aurora’s Design Mode and Sales Mode. Please note that any changes to the degradation will be applied to all projects within your account.
i = year
Example: If degradation is 0.5% and 10MWh is produced in Year 1, then Year 2 is expected to produce 9.95MWh
Incentives With Caps: An incentive with caps is an incentive with limits on the incentive value. The cap value is calculated by multiplying the relative cap by its basis. This is normally the system cost with or without grants subtracted. Note, that relative caps are calculated and applied like a fixed cap in the incentive calculation More specifically, the lesser of the fixed cap and relative cap is used when capping the incentive disbursements. Some Cost-Based Incentives (CBIs) or Storage System Size, may also set relative caps.
Example: Nevada Energy Storage Incentives- For this incentive, the incentive amount is the "Lesser of $0.19 per Wh, 50% of equipment costs or $3,000.” In other words that would be a system size incentive with an amount of $0.19/Wh, and both a fixed cap of $3000 and a relative cap of 50%.
System Size and Storage System Size-based incentives: For this incentive type, the configured amount is calculated as a $/variable-unit rate multiplied by the selected system size basis to determine the singular disbursement made in the specified year. If a cap is specified and the cap value is less than the calculated disbursement, the actual disbursement is the cap value. See note above regarding caps.
Solar System Size Based Incentives: the configured amount is a $/W value relative to the STC, PTC, or AC ratings of the design system size.
Storage System Size Based Incentives: the configured amount is a $/Wh value relative to the Nominal Capacity, Usable Capacity, or Usable AC Capacity ratings of the configured energy storage system, or a $/W value relative to the AC power rating of the configured energy storage system.
Storage Incentives (SGIP): This incentive is calculated as the given amount * wh_ac_capacity. The incentive is paid out either in Year 1 or Years 1 through 6, depending on the system size.