How it works
The whole model in one picture, then each piece explained the way you would explain it to a CFO.
The foundation
Installed cost · $425,000 · example
Investment tax credit plus accelerated depreciation, before state and utility programs. Illustrative; not a quote or tax advice.
Flow 1 · Solar → your building
A rooftop or carport array produces power during the day, and your building uses it first. Every kilowatt-hour you make is one you stop buying from the utility. On most commercial tariffs that is the largest single line on the bill, and the array is sized to cover as much of your daytime load as the roof and the economics allow.
$42,900 / yr in the example
Flow 2 · Battery → your building
Commercial bills carry a second charge most owners never look at: a demand charge, set by your single highest fifteen-minute draw in the month. It can be 30–70% of the bill. A battery watches your load and discharges into the building during those minutes, so the utility never sees your peak. Same operation, smaller number.
$12,600 / yr in the example
Flow 3 · Battery → the grid
This is the one most people have never seen. Utilities and grid operators now pay for battery capacity they can call on during heat waves and evening peaks. Enrolling your battery in one of these programs — a virtual power plant — turns it from a cost-saver into a revenue line. The battery is sitting there anyway; the grid pays you for the option to use it a few dozen hours a year.
$27,500 / yr in the example
A traditional power plant sells energy. A virtual power plant sells flexibility. It is hundreds of batteries in hundreds of buildings, coordinated by software, that the utility can ask to discharge at the same moment — which does the same job as firing up a gas peaker plant, at a fraction of the cost.
The utility pays for that flexibility in one of two ways: a capacity payment for keeping the battery available (paid whether or not it is called), and an event payment when it is. Programs vary by state and utility, and they change quarterly, which is why we do not print rates here. What we do is match your building to the programs it qualifies for and model what they are worth.
Your operation is not affected. The battery is sized so that grid events and your own peak-shaving do not compete, and you keep backup reserve for outages if you want it.
Before any of the three flows start, the federal investment tax credit and accelerated depreciation cover roughly half the installed cost — more with domestic-content or energy-community bonuses, and more again where state and utility programs apply. That is what turns a $425,000 system into a $207,000 decision.
See the full incentive stack →Twelve months of utility bills and, where available, interval data.
Solar and battery sized to your load; all four financing structures run against your numbers.
Federal, state and utility incentives identified and documented; VPP programs matched.
Equipment specified for the building and for compliance; regional EPCs bid on a like-for-like scope.
We manage the installer, the interconnection and the program enrollment. You sign; we run it.
Send us the address and twelve months of bills. We come back with every financing structure modelled, the full incentive stack, and a plain recommendation — including “don’t do this” if that is the honest answer.
Two-minute form. Reply within two business days. No quote, no guarantee, no tax advice.
