Account admins control two groups of default settings that shape how Aurora calculates pricing and financial analysis across all projects:
- Pricing defaults — configure which pricing methods are available to users and set account-wide baselines for price per watt, starting price, and more.
- Financing defaults — set the financial modeling assumptions (project life, degradation, O&M costs, discount rate, and more) that drive financial analysis outputs like NPV, LCOE, and payback period.
Only account admins can make changes to these settings.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Pricing default settings
Admins can enable any combination of three pricing methods in Aurora:
- Price per component — a combination of component price and component quantity
- Flat price — a customizable, user-set currency amount
- Price per watt (PPW) — a combination of base PPW and system size
Beyond these starting points, adders and discounts can be applied to designs, and dealer fees can be included when applicable financing products are selected. See Adders & Discounts and Loan Modeling Overview for more.
General pricing
To configure general pricing settings:
- In the left-hand navigation, go to Settings > Pricing defaults.
- Click Edit in the upper-right corner.
- Configure any of the following:
- Starting price — a fixed dollar amount added to the cost of every design
-
Pricing method — enable one or more pricing methods; your selections will appear as options on the Pricing page in Sales Mode and Design Mode
- Price per component
- Flat price
- Price per watt (PPW)
- Default pricing method — if you've enabled more than one pricing method, choose which appears as the default for all projects
- Base PPW — the default PPW applied to every design (only relevant when Price per watt is enabled)
- Allow PPW to be edited — when on, Sales Mode and Design Mode users can edit the PPW directly on the Pricing page
Visibility
- Show PPW dropdown — when on, a dropdown appears on the pricing page showing PPW calculations for base, gross (without storage), and gross (with storage)
- Click Save when done.
Component-based pricing
When Price per component is enabled, you'll also need to add prices for all enabled components in your Database.
Note: "Components" here refers to solar system components only — not batteries. Battery costs are included in system pricing independently (for example, even when using flat cost or PPW pricing, batteries are priced by their per-unit cost from the Database).
To set component prices:
- In the left-hand navigation, go to Database.
- Click any of the following component types: Modules, Inverters, DC Optimizers, Combiner Boxes, Load Centers, Disconnects, Service Panels, Meters.
- Click a model name to open the left-hand tray.
- Click Edit in the lower-right corner.
- Enter a price per unit in the Price field.
- Click Save.
Once saved, whenever that model is used in a design, its cost will appear on the Pricing and Financing pages, and in the System Summary in Sales Mode.
Financing default settings
Financing defaults set the modeling assumptions Aurora uses for financial analysis calculations — NPV, LCOE, payback period, and more. These settings apply account-wide and are split into two tabs: Residential and Commercial.
To access financing defaults, go to Settings > Financing in the left-hand navigation, then click Edit in the upper-right corner.
Residential settings
Project details
- Project life — the expected lifespan of the project in years. This determines the length of the financial analysis. The default is 25 years, which reflects standard residential solar panel warranties.
Electricity rate
- Utility bill savings/feed-in tariffs are taxed? — enable this if utility bill savings or feed-in tariff revenue are considered taxable income for your customers. This is not common for residential installs but may apply in certain states or commercial structures.
System and maintenance
- Annual degradation — the percentage by which the system's energy output declines each year due to equipment aging. This value is used only as a fallback: it applies when the module-level degradation setting ("use module's specified light-induced degradation and annual degradation") is turned off, or when a module's annual degradation isn't specified. The industry standard for modern monocrystalline panels is approximately 0.5% per year.
- Inverter replacement cost — the estimated cost to replace the inverter, expressed in dollars per watt of rated AC power. This factors into long-term financial projections. Typical residential replacement costs range from $0.15–$0.25 per watt for string inverters.
- Inverter life — the expected number of years until the inverter needs to be replaced. String inverters typically last 10–15 years; microinverters 20–25 years. Aurora's default of 13 years is a reasonable conservative estimate for string inverters.
- Storage life — the expected number of years until a battery storage system needs to be replaced. Most lithium-ion batteries last 10–15 years. If your customers commonly install storage, set this to reflect the battery technology you most often deploy (10 years is a conservative default).
Financing comparisons
- Enable financing comparisons — when on, sales reps can compare financing options side by side in the proposal using a "compare" button on financing cards.
Discounts
- Discount rate — the interest rate used to discount future cash flows to present value. This affects NPV, LCOE, and several proposal placeholders. See Discount rate for more detail.
Prepayment
- Allow prepayment amount to be editable — when on, users can add a custom prepayment amount to a financing option directly in Sales Mode and on the pricing page.
Down payment (residential & commercial)
- Allow for a down payment — when on, users can add a down payment to a financing option. This option appears in both Sales Mode and the pricing page, and applies to both residential and commercial projects.
Payback period (residential & commercial)
- Sales Mode – show payback period — when on, the payback period is displayed in Sales Mode and the web proposal. Applies to both residential and commercial projects.
Commercial settings
The Commercial tab includes all of the fields above (except Financing comparisons, which is residential only), plus the following additional sections.
Incentives
You can configure default commercial incentives (such as ITC, rebates, or state-level programs) to pre-populate on commercial projects. If no incentives are added here, the field will show "No incentives added." Incentives can also be applied at the individual project level.
Operation and maintenance
These fields model the ongoing costs of running and maintaining a commercial solar system over its lifetime, which are factored into financial metrics like LCOE and NPV.
- Fixed operation and maintenance cost — the estimated annual fixed O&M cost per kilowatt of system capacity ($/kW/year). This covers predictable costs like scheduled inspections, cleaning, and insurance that don't vary with energy output. Per NREL's Annual Technology Baseline, commercial PV fixed O&M averages approximately $19–$21/kW/year.
- Variable operation and maintenance cost — the estimated variable O&M cost per kilowatt-hour of energy produced ($/kWh). This covers costs that scale with energy output. For most commercial systems, this is $0.00–$0.005/kWh; many installers leave this at $0 unless they have specific per-kWh service contract costs to model.
- Operation and maintenance cost inflation — the assumed annual rate at which O&M costs increase, expressed as a percentage. A common assumption is 2–3% per year, in line with general inflation.
- Tax deductible? — enable this if O&M costs are tax deductible for the project owner. This is often applicable for commercial and C&I installations where the system owner can write off operating expenses.
Depreciation
Depreciation settings apply to commercial projects where the system owner can claim a tax deduction for the declining value of the asset over time. See What is depreciation? and How do I see the amount of depreciation? for more detail.
- National depreciation — the depreciation schedule used for federal/national tax purposes. The default is 5-year MACRS with 50% bonus depreciation, which is the standard schedule for commercial solar assets under U.S. federal tax rules.
- Local depreciation — the depreciation schedule used for state/local tax purposes. The default is 5-year MACRS with no bonus depreciation.
Note: MACRS (Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System) is the U.S. tax depreciation method for business assets. Solar systems qualify for 5-year MACRS, meaning the cost is deducted over a 5-year schedule rather than all at once. Bonus depreciation allows a larger deduction in the first year.
Adders and discounts
To learn about configuring adders and discounts in Aurora, see: