Cash, loan, lease, or PPA — which is right for you?
Going solar isn’t one decision but two: whether to install, and how to pay for it. The financing path you choose can swing your lifetime benefit by tens of thousands of dollars, yet it’s the part installers often gloss over. This calculator lays all four common options side by side on an apples-to-apples, 25-year net-benefit basis.
Why 2026 reshuffled this decision
Until the end of 2025, the math was simple: owning your system captured the 30% federal tax credit, so cash or a loan almost always beat a lease. The One Big Beautiful Bill changed that. As of January 1, 2026, the homeowner credit (Section 25D) is gone, so a cash or loan purchase no longer earns any federal credit. Meanwhile leases and PPAs are third-party owned, and that owner can still claim the commercial Clean Electricity Investment Credit (Section 48E) and pass part of the value back to you through lower payments. The result is that the long-standing advantage of ownership has narrowed — and for some households the ranking now flips.
Ownership: cash and loans
When you buy your system, you own the asset and all the energy it produces, with no monthly payment escalator working against you, and you may still qualify for state and utility incentives. Cash delivers the most lifetime savings because you pay no interest; a loan requires little or nothing upfront in exchange for the interest you pay. What ownership no longer includes, in 2026, is the federal tax credit — which is exactly why running the numbers now matters more than ever.
Third-party: leases and PPAs
A lease or power-purchase agreement has a provider own the panels while you either pay a fixed monthly lease or buy the energy at a set per-kilowatt-hour rate. The appeal is real — zero money down, no maintenance responsibility, and immediate savings versus the utility — and because the provider can still claim the 48E credit, that benefit is often baked into competitive 2026 pricing. The trade-offs remain a typical annual escalator and no equity in the system, so compare the 25-year totals carefully.
Reading the comparison
The table ranks every option by net benefit — the lifetime value of the solar energy minus what you pay out of pocket plus any incentives you capture — and flags the winner. Cash still usually leads on raw lifetime value, but with the ownership credit gone the gap to a well-priced lease or PPA is smaller than it was, and a low-cost loan or a hands-off third-party deal may suit your situation better. Adjust the inputs to match real quotes and see how the ranking shifts for you.