Solar · Texas
Get Your Free Roof Analysis
Austin-based · 512.967.3663
Home / Lease Economics

The money page. Open books, by design.

A fixed rate you can underwrite and a structure built to be financeable. Here's exactly how the economics work, including the calculator and an illustrative pro forma.

The Rate

$0.40 per usable square foot, per year.

Paid monthly, with a 1% annual escalator, for a 20–25 year term. It's a simple, fixed number you can drop straight into an underwriting model: no production assumptions, no variable revenue, no surprises.

A 100,000 sq ft roof generates roughly $40,000 a year, about $1,000,000 over a 25-year term, before the escalator.

Why exactly $0.40?

Because the project has to be financeable.

The lease rate is set by the lender's Debt-Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR): the cushion between project cash flow and debt payments that lenders require to fund construction.

A higher lease rate looks more attractive at first glance, but it reduces DSCR below the level lenders will accept, which makes the project unfinanceable and means it never gets built. $0.40 is the rate that keeps the project bankable and the income flowing to you for 25 years.

Lease Calculator

Estimate your rooftop's lease income.

Live, transparent, and based on our standard $0.40 per usable square foot per year.

5k250k500k+
sq ft
building(s)
Estimated annual lease income
$40,000
$1,000,000
Total over 25-year term iBase estimate before the 1% annual rent escalator, which adds further upside over the term.
$0.40/sf/yr
DSCR-set rate iThe rate is set by lender debt-service-coverage requirements that make the project financeable.

Illustrative estimate. Actual rates depend on a site inspection: available area, transformer capacity, roof age and condition, structural viability, and interconnection.

Representative Economics

An illustrative pro forma.

A representative 100,000 sq ft single-building project. Your actual numbers come from a site-specific analysis.

Illustrative: representative project economics, not a quote
Line itemYear 125-year term
Usable rooftop area100,000 sf100,000 sf
Lease rate (per usable sf / yr)$0.40+1% / yr
Owner lease income$40,000~$1.13M
Upfront capital from owner$0$0
Operations, insurance & maintenance cost to owner$0$0
Net to owner$40,000~$1.13M

Term total reflects the 1% annual escalator on a fixed $0.40 base. Figures rounded and illustrative.

The Stack-Up

How the income builds over 20 years.

Cumulative owner lease income on a representative 100,000 sq ft roof, at $0.40 per usable square foot with a 1% annual escalator. Every bar adds that year's rent on top of the last.

~$881,000 cumulative owner income by year 20 Illustrative: representative lease income, not a quote

Get the real numbers for your roof.

Austin-based · 512.967.3663