Purchasing vs. leasing: A benefit-cost analysis of residential solar PV panel use in California

摘要: Abstract The use of small-scale solar electric generation in the U.S. has been steadily rising more recent years. Solar photovoltaic (PV) cell micro-generation used extensively for residential applications – especially state California. Systems can be purchased by a homeowner or leased through licensed distributor. Leasing become popular option mostly because it does not require substantial upfront costs, and regularly schedules maintenance is often handled lessor. inability households to capture any tax breaks related depreciation capital equipment them also made purchasing home systems even less appealing continues give leasing competitive edge over purchasing. If homeowners were choose financing system home-equity loan, they would eligible interest paid on loan. Our study uses benefit-cost analysis evaluate impacts combined from loans competitiveness under different purchase options 4 kW PV Purchasing strategies are compared one another based resulting net electricity price ($/kWh) each option. metric exploits savings annual utility bills given displacement grid-based generation. We find that cash purchases result highest price. Before depreciation, differential prices between loan roughly $0.07/kWh. This gap shrinks only $0.01/kWh when both considered. Overall, our results suggest additional conjunction with those make much competitive. Sensitivity was conducted key parameters, all sensitivity tests yielded expected results.