Simple payback, levelized cost of energy (LCOE), NPV and IRR, the federal ITC and MACRS depreciation, state and utility incentives, and how cash purchase, PPA, and lease financing structures change what a project's numbers actually mean.
A technically flawless solar or storage design that can't be financed, or can't explain its own return to the customer paying for it, doesn't get built. This module works through the four core financial tools — simple payback, LCOE, NPV, and IRR — then the incentive stack that determines what number those tools actually produce: the federal Investment Tax Credit, MACRS depreciation and how the two interact, and the state and utility programs layered on top.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a cash purchase, a PPA, and a lease can produce three different economic outcomes from the identical physical system — and why the ITC's basis-reduction rule means simply adding the full value of the tax credit and MACRS depreciation independently overstates a project's real combined benefit.