What a lease or PPA actually costs per kWh
A third-party solar quote arrives as a monthly payment and an escalator. The number that would let you compare it to your electricity bill — the price per kilowatt-hour — is almost never on the page. But the providers report it to the federal government every year, because selling the output of an array on your roof makes them a seller of electricity, and sellers of electricity file Form EIA-861.
These are the 14 third-party filings for 2024, covering 957,999 households. The comparison column is the customer-weighted average residential rate of every utility in the same state, taken from the same filing and computed the same way, so the two sides are genuinely comparable.
| Provider | State | Their price | Utility average | Difference | Households |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla Inc. | California | $0.1856 | $0.3056 | -39% | 147,441 |
| Spruce Finance | California | $0.1918 | $0.3056 | -37% | 25,337 |
| Sunrun Inc. | Massachusetts | $0.2462 | $0.3126 | -21% | 57,153 |
| SunPower Capital, LLC | California | $0.2424 | $0.3056 | -21% | 71,494 |
| Sunrun Inc. | Maryland | $0.1418 | $0.1787 | -21% | 25,231 |
| Tesla Inc. | Arizona | $0.1217 | $0.1508 | -19% | 40,229 |
| Sunrun Inc. | New York | $0.2215 | $0.2657 | -17% | 38,886 |
| Sunrun Inc. | California | $0.2586 | $0.3056 | -15% | 325,586 |
| Tesla Inc. | Maryland | $0.1584 | $0.1787 | -11% | 26,988 |
| Sunnova | California | $0.2755 | $0.3056 | -10% | 52,766 |
| Sunrun Inc. | Arizona | $0.1372 | $0.1508 | -9% | 40,061 |
| Sunrun Inc. | New Jersey | $0.1807 | $0.1951 | -7% | 45,019 |
| Sunnova | New Jersey | $0.1904 | $0.1951 | -2% | 30,079 |
| Sunrun Inc. | Illinois | $0.1506 | $0.1504 | 0% | 31,729 |
What this shows
13 of the 14 filings came in below the utility average in their state , and 1 sat level with it. So the industry's central claim — cheaper than your utility from day one — holds in most of the book, and not in all of it.
The spread is the part nobody advertises. Tesla Inc. in California sold at 39% below the utility average. At the other end, Sunrun Inc. in Illinois sold at $0.1506 against a utility average of $0.1504 — no cheaper than the utility. Same product, same kind of company, opposite answer.
That range is the reason a national claim about third-party solar is worth very little. What decides it is the retail rate you are being measured against, and that is set by your utility, not by the provider. Where the incumbent rate is high the discount is real and large; where it is low the contract can start level and go up from there.
Read the escalator against this table, not against your bill
A 2.9% annual escalator on a price that starts 12% below the utility average overtakes it in under five years if utility rates hold flat, and never if they rise faster. The whole bet is which line climbs quicker. A contract sold on "you save from day one" is telling you about the first row of a twenty-five row table.What this does not show
- It is an average over a book of contracts signed across many years, not the price on offer today. Older contracts have escalated; new ones start lower.
- It is not the whole bill. A PPA household still pays the utility for everything the array does not cover, plus the fixed monthly charge. The comparison is price per kWh, not total cost of living in the house.
- The customers are not evenly spread across a state's utilities. A provider concentrated in the dearest territory looks better here than it would against its own customers' actual utilities.
- It says nothing about ownership. You do not own the array, the contract binds the property, and transferring it at sale is its own negotiation — see what solar does to resale.
- It is 2024 data. Form 861 is annual and publishes about eleven months after the year it covers; this is the most recent utility-level data that exists anywhere.
Why this comparison matters more in 2026 than it did in 2025
The 30% federal residential credit (§25D) expired for systems placed in service after 31 December 2025, so a homeowner buying a system now pays full price. §48E still reaches leases and PPAs until the end of 2027, and the provider keeps that credit — which is exactly why third-party offers got more competitive the moment purchases got more expensive. The question is no longer "solar or no solar" but "whose balance sheet owns it".Source: US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, data year 2024, "Behind the Meter" filers. Price per kWh is residential revenue divided by residential sales. Download the source archive and check any figure here. Related: what third-party ownership is, lease versus PPA, prepaid leases, rates by utility.
Written and maintained by guarledes . Last reviewed 2026-08-19.