Suntegrity Solar News

TPO stands for Third Party Ownership and its the best mechanism to capture tax credits on residential installations. The residential tax credit expired at the end of 2025. The commercial tax credit is still available. A residential system can be commercialized per IRS requirements through TPO. TPO allows for capturing of the 30% commercial tax credit and depreciation. Additional tax credits can also be claimed: If the property is in a DOE defined energy community it qualifies for an additional 10%, If equipment used in the installation has a significant amount of content from the US, it can qualify for an additional 10% domestic content adder. The TPO party can then share these benefits to the homeowner via a discount on the overall cost of the solar & battery system that can range from 15 – 35% depending on the provider, equipment used, and location. You also get this discount up front instead of waiting to file your taxes as was required with the residential tax credit.

Most TPO providers will own the system for 5 to 6 years so that the tax credits can be captured. During this period, the homeowner receives the power generated by their solar and battery system. After this period, ownership reverts back to the homeowner with the balance of warranties. Depending on how the TPO provider has structured the agreement, the homeowner may or may not owe additional funds at the end of the 5-6 year period. These are also generally known as pre-paid leases.

Pre-paid leases are much better options than monthly leases as pre-paid leases make ownership transfer easy if selling your home and there are no annual escalators in payments. A standard lease is generally a 20 year commitment, which can be very costly to exit early, even when selling your home.

We have several great pre-paid leases that we can quote for you. We also have financing options with fixed monthly payments and no prepayment penalties.

Yes, this is possible.  We can add additional solar as a zero-export system.  The new solar can not export any power to PG&E, while your existing solar can export as much power as needed to PG&E and remain on NEM 1 or 2.  The new solar has special controls (PCS) that can throttle the solar output so it does not exceed your usage.  Batteries can also be added to store energy when producing more than using.  These are complex systems to model properly, which we can do.  Zero-export systems typically make financial sense if your using a lot more energy than your current solar is producing. 

Franklin recently introduced their new aPowerS battery.  This is effectively an aPower2 battery with a built-in solar inverter.  Thus, the aPowerS is now capable of supporting solar directly.   A solar system with the aPowerS will run about 5% less cost overall than an Enphase solar system with the aPower2.  Both are great options.

Santa Rosa, CA

Enphase IQ8P-3P  Three phase, 208VAC inverters

Ironridge BX ballasted flat roof mounting system

Kewood, CA

Franklin WH aPower2 battery/inverter. Customer had an existing ground mount solar system with failing inverters. We upgraded system with the new Franklin aPower 2 batteries to replace the existing solar inverters, provide backup power, and to maintain the existing NEM status.

Santa Rosa, CA

Mission Solar 435W panels, Enphase IQ8AC inverters, Enphase IQ10C batteries