Prepaid TPO (third-party ownership) is one of the fastest-growing financing structures in residential solar. A third-party company owns the system, the homeowner pays the full cost upfront, and the TPO provider passes the commercial 48E tax credit savings to the homeowner as an upfront discount — typically 20–40% off the system cost. Common providers include Participate Energy, Propel (by SolSource / Concert Finance), and HDM.
You can model prepaid TPO in Aurora today using custom loan products. This article walks you through the full setup for both major loan structures, so your reps can present accurate prepaid TPO proposals in Sales Mode.
In this article
- Provider quick reference
- Before you begin
- Part 1: Escalator loans (Participate / Credit Human)
- Part 2: Payment factor loans (Propel / Concert)
- Configuring flat storage pricing
- How it looks in Sales Mode
- Things to know
Provider quick reference
The three most common prepaid TPO providers and how to model each one in Aurora:
Participate Energy
- Product type: Prepaid lease
- Financing: Any approved lender or cash (no single lender required)
- Aurora loan type:
- Credit Human financing: Graduated payment (escalating) loan
- Other lenders: loan type depends on the lender’s payment structure
Propel (by SolSource / Concert Finance)
- Product type: Prepaid Energy Services Agreement (ESA)
- Financing: Concert Finance required — no other lender can be used
- Aurora loan type: Payment factor loan
- Hardware: Enphase required
- Ownership transfer: After year 5
HDM
- Product type: Prepaid PPA
- Financing: Cash, personal loan, or HELOC (no specific lender required)
- Aurora loan type: Whichever loan structure your lender provides
- Ownership transfer: After approximately 6 years
Note: Not sure which loan type to use? Ask your financing partner for their payment schedule. If it's a percentage of principal per period, use a Payment factor loan (Part 2). If it uses an interest rate with escalating payments, use a Graduated payment (escalating) loan (Part 1).
Before you begin
- You have Admin access in Aurora. Only admins can create and edit financing products.
- You know which loan structure your financing partner uses. If they give you a payment factor schedule, use Part 2. If they give you an interest rate, term, and escalation rate, use Part 1.
- You have the net system price from your TPO provider. This is the price after the provider's discount — it's what you'll enter as the system cost in Aurora.
Part 1: Escalator loans (Participate / Credit Human)
Use an escalator loan — labeled Graduated payment (escalating) in Aurora — for any prepaid TPO product financed by a loan whose monthly payments start lower and increase by a fixed percentage each year.
Step 1: Create the escalator loan product (admin)
- Go to Database > Financing products and click Add financing product.
- Enter a name (for example, "Participate / Credit Human 25yr"), select a Project type, and choose Loan. Click Add.
- Click Add Loan and set Loan type to Graduated payment (escalating).
- Configure the following fields:
Shared loan fields:
- Name — A clear label for reps in Sales Mode (for example, "Participate 25yr – Escalator").
- Assign to — Select applicable partners, or leave as All partners.
- Principal — Set to 100%.
- Flat fee — Any per-loan origination fee as a fixed dollar amount. Leave at $0 if none.
- Dealer fee — Your lender's fee percentage, if applicable. See Loan Dealer Fee for how this is calculated.
- Incentives apply to dealer fee — Configure per your lender agreement.
Escalator loan-specific fields:
- Interest rate — Annual rate from the lender.
- Duration — Loan term in months (for example, 300 months for a 25-year loan).
- Annual escalation rate — The percentage by which monthly payments increase each year.
- Loan can have a prepayment — Leave off for standard prepaid TPO modeling.
- Click Save.
Step 2: Set up the system price correctly (user)
Enter the net system cost — after the TPO provider's discount — as the project price. Do not add the discount as an Aurora incentive line item. The commercial 48E ITC is claimed by the TPO company, not the homeowner, so adding residential incentives to the project will produce inaccurate financials.
Note: Some providers instruct installers not to label the price reduction as a "discount" in homeowner-facing materials. Confirm with your provider how they want pricing presented in the proposal.
Step 3: Check dealer fee and gross price math (user)
Some providers require the net price to equal a specific percentage of the gross (for example, net must be 70% of gross). Dealer fees in Aurora are applied to the net price after discounts, which can shift the displayed gross price and break the required ratio. Verify the math before sending the proposal.
Part 2: Payment factor loans (Propel / Concert)
Propel is a Prepaid Energy Services Agreement (ESA) offered by SolSource Solutions as the TPO owner, paired with a 25-year Concert Finance loan (a TriBeam Financial product). Propel requires financing through Concert — no other loan provider can be used. Enphase hardware is required. The third party owns the system for years 1–5, then ownership transfers automatically to the homeowner.
Concert uses a payment factor loan — monthly payments are defined as a fixed percentage of the original principal per period, rather than derived from a standard amortization formula. Concert will provide you with the payment factor schedule.
Step 1: Create the payment factor loan product (admin)
- Go to Database > Financing products and click Add financing product.
- Enter a name (for example, "Concert 25yr – Propel"), select a Project type, and choose Loan. Click Add.
- Click Add Loan and set Loan type to Payment factor.
- Configure the following fields:
Shared loan fields:
- Name — A clear label for reps (for example, "Concert 25yr – Propel PPL").
- Assign to — Select applicable partners.
- Principal — Set to 100%.
- Flat fee — Any origination fee from Concert, if applicable.
- Dealer fee — Concert's fee, if applicable. See Loan Dealer Fee for the calculation formula.
Payment factor-specific fields:
- Interest rate — For display purposes only. Does not affect the calculated payment.
- Duration — Auto-calculated from your period entries. Read-only.
- Payment factor periods — Add one or more periods using the schedule Concert provides. Each period requires:
- Duration (months) — How long this factor applies.
- Payment factor (%) — Monthly payment as a percentage of the original loan principal. For example, a 0.35% factor on a $30,000 loan = $105/month.
See Loans: Payment factor for a full explanation of how periods work.
- Click Save.
Step 2: Set up the system price correctly (user)
Follow the same guidance as Part 1, Step 2. Enter the net system cost as the project price and do not add residential incentives.
Configuring flat storage pricing
Many prepaid TPO providers supply a total system cost that includes storage as a single combined number. Aurora's flat storage price option lets reps enter that total storage cost directly — no manual math required.
- Go to Settings > Pricing defaults and click Edit.
- Under Storage pricing methods, enable Flat storage price.
- Optionally set Flat price limits (Minimum and/or Maximum) to keep rep-entered values within your provider's required range.
- Click Save.
Once enabled, reps can switch between price-per-battery and flat storage price using the pencil icon next to Storage component total on the Pricing page.
Note: This setting applies account-wide to all new designs, not just prepaid TPO projects. Existing designs with min/max values already set will not be affected.
How it looks in Sales Mode
Once you've configured the loan product, reps select it from the Financing tab in a Sales Mode proposal — the same way they select any other financing product. The proposal displays the homeowner's monthly payment, loan term, and net system cost. Aurora does not yet show a dedicated prepaid TPO view, so the homeowner sees the standard loan presentation.
Things to know
- This is a workaround, not a native product type. Aurora is actively building dedicated prepaid TPO support. The steps in this article are the current best practice, but the experience will improve as native functionality ships. This article will be updated as new capabilities become available.
- Dealer fee math can affect required price ratios. If your provider requires net price to equal a specific percentage of gross, verify the numbers before sending the proposal (see Part 1, Step 3).
- Payment factor loan payments may differ slightly from your lender's schedule. Minor rounding differences are expected. Consult your lender's documentation for the precise factor values to use.
- Propel requires Concert Finance. No other loan provider can be used for Propel.
- Payment factor loans don't show a principal/interest breakdown in the Excel export. This is expected — since payments are defined by factors rather than amortization, Aurora can't separate those components.