Portfolio owners
Solar for rental portfolios
By Jake Breaux, solar industry expert · Updated
The short version
Rental-property owners in Florida, Texas, and Illinois are served through a separate landlord program with its own agreement. The setup: the owner takes over the unit's electricity account, pays the subscription, and charges the tenant a flat monthly solar fee set below their old power bill, typically around 10% lower. The subscription runs about half of that old bill, and the gap between fee and subscription is recurring net operating income. Run your own numbers below.
How is this different from the residential subscription?
Rental-property owners in Florida, Texas, and Illinois are served through a separate landlord program, with its own agreement, distinct from the residential subscription a homeowner signs for their own house. It's built around how a rental property actually works, not a homeowner's roof. Our team walks you through the setup for your state.
Who signs the agreement?
On the landlord program, the property owner is the provider's counterparty. The owner signs and carries the contract responsibilities for the property. That's the shape of it at a high level; the specific terms depend on your portfolio and your state, and our team walks through those directly with you rather than over a generic web page.
How is the tenant's solar fee set up?
The owner takes over the unit's electricity account and the tenant pays a flat monthly solar fee instead of a utility bill. The fee is set below what the tenant was paying before, typically around 10% lower, so their monthly cost drops on day one. Your subscription runs about half of what the property's power costs today, and the gap between the fee you collect and the subscription you pay is the NOI boost. Everyone's line moves the right direction: the tenant pays less than they did, you collect more than you pay, and the provider carries the hardware. How the fee is written into your lease varies by state, and our team works alongside your attorney to structure it for your market.
What if I already pay the electric bill myself?
Plenty of portfolio load is already in the owner's name: common areas, house meters, vacant units, and any unit rented with utilities included. Those meters skip the fee setup entirely. The subscription simply replaces your utility bill at a lower number, with typical savings around 40%, an estimate, not a promise, and the expense cut lands in net operating income the same way new income does. The calculator below has a mode for exactly this.
Why does this matter for a portfolio's numbers?
Because the power bill is the one operating expense you can turn into income. Your subscription runs about half of what the property's power costs today, the solar fee sits just below the old bill, and the difference between the two lands in net operating income every month. And unlike most NOI improvements, this one compounds. Raise a rent once, or cut an expense once, and next year starts over from the new baseline. Here, your subscription rises 1.9% per year, fixed, while the fee is benchmarked against utility rates that set their own pace, so the gap between those two lines tends to open a little wider every year without you doing anything.
Run it against your own numbers
Typical numbers are preloaded: the fee around 10% under the tenant's old bill, your subscription around half of that old bill. Estimates, not promises. Move anything and every figure updates, and there's a second mode for the meters you already pay yourself.
NOI calculator
Nothing here is gated and nothing is emailed to you. Move the inputs and watch what happens to net operating income and to what that income is worth.
Per month
Used to convert NOI into value
Annual NOI lift
$37,800
across 25 units, year one
Implied value impact
$630,000
$25,200 per unit, at a 6.0% cap rate. Illustrative arithmetic, not an appraisal.
Portfolio-wide, per month, year one. Tenants save $788/mo against their old bills; their cost goes down on day one, which is what keeps the arrangement easy to lease against.
| Year | You keep / mo | Cumulative | Value impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,150 | $37,800 | $630,000 |
| 5 | $4,046 | $215,259 | $809,197 |
| 10 | $5,423 | $506,104 | $1,084,681 |
| 15 | $7,149 | $891,770 | $1,429,733 |
| 20 | $9,302 | $1,395,937 | $1,860,403 |
Over twenty years this model accumulates $1,395,937 in total, because your cost line rises at a fixed 1.9% while the utility line it is measured against rises at the 4.0% you set above.
How to read this. These are modelled figures, not a quote, not an appraisal, and not an offer. They assume every unit qualifies on roof condition and orientation, that the solar fee is structured lawfully in your state and written into your leases, and that utility rates rise at your assumption. Value impact is arithmetic (annual NOI divided by your cap rate), and whether an appraiser credits it depends on your market, your comps, and how the income is documented. We'll model your actual properties, and work alongside your counsel, before you commit to anything.
Talk to our team
Get this modelled on your actual portfolio. Send us the basics and a real person will follow up with real roof data, real utility tariffs, and the setup for your state. No commitment, and no obligation to proceed.
Want the numbers for your actual roof?
See your roof's numbers