What the Heck is a Pre-Paid Lease?
Recently, SunCommon started offering a new way to pay for your solar project known as a pre-paid lease. We’re going to walk you through what this means below, but let’s start at the beginning with why.
In 2025, residential solar projects were eligible for a 30% solar tax credit– a great deal for homeowners! Unfortunately, that tax credit expired at the end of last year. By offering a pre-paid lease, we are still able to offer homeowners that same 30% off of their project. It’s a win for the planet, and your wallet!
How it works
With a pre-paid lease, our finance partner Participate Energy owns your rooftop system. Because federal tax incentives are still available for businesses (and they are a business), they pass the 30% savings on to you, the homeowner, and then you are responsible for 70% of the total cost. You can pay cash for your portion and have no payments right from the start, or you can take out a loan for your portion.
Once your lease term is complete, you can buy out Participate at fair market value. In fact, you can buy out your lease if you want any time starting at year six of your agreement (but there’s no financial benefit to doing so since you already pre-paid for a 25 year term). Because you’ve already paid for 70% of the system up front, customers typically pay very little if they choose to buy out their lease.
Leasing solar also comes with some important benefits. There’s no credit check required, and there’s no lien on your house (like some financing requires). This makes leasing a good path for a wide range of households. A lease is also transferable if you choose to sell your property. Also, you can still get state tax incentives with a leased system!
New Financing Option; Same Trusted Solar Company
Leasing solar is the new way to get the best possible price on your system. But some things are still the same, namely our best-in-class crews, our 30-year Solar Insure warranty, and SunCommon Advisors who help you bring it all together.
Using your existing utility bill, a Solar Home Advisor will help right-size a system for your unique energy needs and make sure to apply any incentives or rebates that you’re eligible for. Once your rate is locked in, our experienced local crews will install your new system, and you can start harvesting energy from the sun.
And if there’s ever a maintenance need, we will have you covered. The install work on your system will be under warranty with SunCommon, the equipment will be backed by the best manufacturers in the industry and SolarInsure gives you peace of mind that you have the most common repairs covered for 30 years.