This section covers the full financial and contractual picture of the 20-year solar lease: what Sunrun agreed to maintain, who actually benefits from the tax incentives and depreciation, how the annual rate escalator works over time, and where Sunrun has fallen short of its obligations.
When Sunrun installs a solar system, they don't just collect lease payments. They capture enormous upfront value through tax credits and depreciation — incentives intended to accelerate renewable energy deployment. But these incentives flow to the company, not to the homeowner who has the system on their roof.
Sunrun recoups two-thirds of their investment immediately through tax incentives — incentives designed to encourage solar adoption. They then collect 20 years of lease payments on top of that. The company breaks even by Year 7, with years 7–20 being pure profit.
The homeowner doesn't benefit from a single dollar of federal or state incentive. We pay for the electricity — or the lease payment, which amounts to the same thing — whether the system produces or not.
The Sunrun lease started at $0.260/kWh in Year 1 (November 2012). With a 2.9% annual escalator, the rate rises every year. This seems reasonable at first — inflation adjustment. But the trap becomes apparent when you compare it to the actual average residential electricity rate in California over the same period. Using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA),[1] Sunrun's lease rate has exceeded the statewide average residential rate in every single year since installation.
| Year | Lease Year | Sunrun Rate | CA Avg. Rate | Annual Production (kWh) | Sunrun Cost | Savings vs. Avg. | Ground Faults |
|---|
This is the contractual rate table from the lease agreement, showing the path of escalation over all 20 years.
| Year | Period | Rate ($/kWh) | Est. Annual kWh |
|---|
The chart above compares Sunrun's rate to the statewide California average — a useful benchmark, but not what I actually pay. My utility is Southern California Edison (SCE), and my electricity is supplied through Clean Power Alliance (CPA) at their 100% Green Power rate. Using my actual SCE utility bills from 2022 through 2025,[2] I can calculate what I actually pay per kilowatt-hour for grid electricity — and compare it directly to what Sunrun charges me.
This is the most important chart on this page. My actual utility rate — what I pay SCE and CPA per kilowatt-hour for grid electricity — has been 9 to 20 percent higher than Sunrun's lease rate in every year I have lived in this home. That means the solar lease was supposed to save me money. Every kilowatt-hour produced by the panels on my roof should have been displacing electricity that costs me over 39 cents per kWh. Instead, 237 ground faults over two years eliminated that production, wiped out those savings, and generated $1,749 in documented double costs.
The numbers break down like this: my SCE bills include two major components. First, SCE delivery charges, which are tiered (Tier 1 baseline at $0.16–0.21/kWh, Tier 2 at $0.25–0.31/kWh, rising each year) plus surcharges for wildfire, PCIA, and fixed recovery. Second, Clean Power Alliance generation charges at their 100% Green Power rate ($0.14–0.17/kWh). Combined, these produce an all-in effective rate that has ranged from 39 to 42 cents per kWh across my three NEM billing years.
Why is my rate so much higher than the California average? SCE is one of the most expensive investor-owned utilities in California. According to SCE's own rate filings, their bundled residential average was 33.77¢/kWh in mid-2024 — already 6% above the statewide EIA average of 31.97¢/kWh. On top of that, my service area (Westlake Village) is in Clean Power Alliance territory, where generation is supplied by CPA rather than SCE. I am enrolled in CPA's 100% Green Power option, which carries a premium above SCE's default generation rate. The result is an effective rate roughly 25% above the statewide average.
Against the statewide California average, Sunrun's rate has been more expensive in every single year since installation. In 2012, the lease started at $0.107/kWh above the California average — a 69% premium. By 2026, that gap has narrowed to roughly $0.05/kWh as utility rates have risen sharply. The cumulative overpayment against the CA average rate across the life of the lease to date exceeds $9,000.
But as the chart above demonstrates, the statewide average understates the cost of electricity in SCE territory. My actual utility rate — over 40¢/kWh — is roughly 25% higher than the California average. Against my rate, the solar system would have produced net savings every year I have owned this home, if it had worked as Sunrun promised. The ground faults did not just waste electricity; they destroyed the only financial benefit this lease was supposed to provide.
There is another dimension to this arrangement that is rarely discussed: the value of the roof itself. Sunrun's entire business model depends on access to residential rooftops. Without my roof, they cannot generate a single watt of electricity, claim a single tax credit, or earn a single renewable energy certificate. Yet the lease compensates the homeowner exactly $0 for the use of this premium, south-facing real estate.
I pay property taxes on the structure. I maintain the home. I carry the insurance. I bear the risk of installation defects — defects that, as documented on this site, have potentially compromised a 50-year rated roof at barely the halfway point of its lifespan. In return, Sunrun drills holes in my roof, collects lease payments, harvests tax incentives worth tens of thousands of dollars, and earns renewable energy credits on power generated from my property. The homeowner provides the platform; the company captures the value.
My lease includes specific maintenance, monitoring, and performance clauses. What follows is what they require — and where Sunrun has fallen short.
Sunrun owns the equipment and is contractually obligated to maintain it. 237 ground faults over two years suggests either a failure that has not been adequately diagnosed, or insufficient effort to resolve the root cause. Telling a customer the system is "back to normal" while faults continue daily does not constitute commercially reasonable efforts.
While cumulative production has remained above the 95% threshold so far (thanks to strong earlier years), the accelerating fault rate in 2025–2026 is eroding that buffer. In 2025, the system produced only 5,383 kWh — well below the estimated ~5,900 kWh after degradation adjustment. The next three-year check could trigger the refund obligation.
This means I continue paying Sunrun whether the system produces power or not. When ground faults eliminate production for half the day, I'm paying for electricity that was never generated. Balanced billing was designed to smooth seasonal variation — not to insulate Sunrun from the consequences of equipment failures.
This clause is designed for situations where the homeowner disconnects or obstructs the system. Ground faults are an equipment failure in Sunrun's own hardware — not a customer-caused event. I have not caused, contributed to, or precipitated these failures.
Equipment ground faults are explicitly not Force Majeure events under this agreement. Sunrun cannot invoke this clause to avoid responsibility for the system's failure to produce.
After Sunrun declared the system "back to normal" on March 2, 2026 — while ground faults continued daily — the informal process has not produced a meaningful resolution.
[1] California average residential electricity rates: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Electric Power Industry Report (Form EIA-861), Retail Sales of Electricity by State and Sector, 2001–2025. eia.gov/electricity/data/browser
[2] "My Actual SCE Rate" calculated from SCE/CPA utility bills for service account 8013178194, NEM DOMESTIC rate plan. Rate = (annual NEM settlement for SCE delivery charges + estimated CPA generation charges) ÷ annual net consumption kWh. SCE delivery rates from "Details of your tracked charges" on each bill; CPA generation rate from "SUPPLY/GENERATION — Clean Power Alliance" billing detail. Three complete NEM billing years: May 2022–May 2023 (settlement $3,436), Jun 2023–May 2024 (settlement $3,685, 16,334 kWh), Jun 2024–May 2025 (settlement $3,476, 14,069 kWh). All source bills on file.