The 30% federal solar credit didn't disappear. Here's how you can still benefit.

A five-year prepaid solar lease. You pay for the system up front at about 30% below the cash price, with no monthly payments. The discount comes from a federal commercial clean-energy credit that Balto claims as the system's owner and reflects in your upfront PATH price. At the end of the five years, you'll have the option to buy the system at its fair market value — the worth of five-year-old equipment already installed on your roof, net of what it would cost to take it down.

It's straightforward. The federal commercial credit can be worth more than the 30% that used to be available to individuals — projects can qualify for bonuses on top, tied to things like American-made equipment or the area where a system is built. Balto claims the credit as the system's owner, uses part of that value to fund your upfront discount, and keeps the difference — that's our margin on PATH.

Because the federal commercial credit comes with rules the system has to meet — chief among them, staying in service for five years and being a genuine lease rather than a purchase. Meeting those requirements is what lets Balto claim the credit and reflect its value in your PATH price; a loan or an outright sale wouldn't qualify. The lease structure is what protects the savings.

Five years, starting when the system is switched on (your utility's "permission to operate" date) — not when you sign.

About 30% less than the cash price, with $0 monthly afterward. On an illustrative $50,899 system that's roughly $35,629 — a discount of about $15,270. Your installer will show you the exact number for your home next to a cash quote. (Illustrative example; your price will differ.)

Balto doesn't offer financing for the PATH payment, but you're free to arrange your own. The one real constraint comes from how the lease works: Balto owns the system, so it can't be used as collateral — your lease requires it to stay free of liens. Ordinary consumer credit isn't affected, because it isn't secured by the system: a personal loan or line of credit, or a home-equity product, which is secured by your home rather than by the system. Your lender is the right person to ask about what fits.

It depends on who owns it.

If you own your system (cash or loan), it's yours to monitor and maintain.

If a third party owns it — a lease or PPA — they carry a service obligation for the life of the contract. That sounds good, but it cuts both ways: the contract usually says only the owner may service or modify the system, so you generally can't bring in your own contractor, and you're often dealing with a large national company and its subcontractors. On a 20–25-year term, the owner's incentive to respond quickly can fade after the first five years. And if you later want to expand or change the system, you have to go through them.

There is one real upside to a long third-party term: because the owner must keep the system working for 20–25 years, replacing shorter-lived equipment like batteries (often good for 10–15 years) is their responsibility. In practice, though, these providers have earned a reputation for delaying service for months — or even longer.

With PATH, Balto is responsible during the five-year term — which in practice means standing behind the equipment if it fails early under its manufacturer warranty. Balto works only with local installers who have a track record of taking care of their customers, so if anything comes up you're calling the same trusted local contractor you started with, not a call center. After the five-year term, if you take up the option to buy the system, it's yours outright — service it, expand it, or change it however you like, with any remaining manufacturer warranties transferring to you.

You do, on both counts. Utilities and grid programs — often called virtual power plants (VPPs) — pay homeowners for brief access to their batteries during peak hours. In many prepaid leases and PPAs, the contract hands that to the system's owner: they can enroll your battery automatically, control when it charges and discharges, and keep anywhere from 30% to all of what the program pays. PATH's lease is written the other way around: you set the operating mode and the backup reserve, your battery joins a program only if you enroll it, and when you do, 100% of the compensation is yours — Balto takes no share.

You decide — nothing transfers automatically. Your lease gives you the option to buy the system at its fair market value at that time. Three things to know about that price:

• It's the value of used equipment on a roof, not of a new system. The lease directs the number to account for the system's age, condition, remaining life and warranty — and for what it would cost to remove it, repair and remediate your roof, and dispose of the equipment. (The full definition →)
• You'll know the number before you commit. You and Balto agree on it; an independent appraiser decides only if you can't. Buying is an option, never an obligation — and the lease floors the price at $0.
• Your savings don't ride on it. The roughly 30% discount and five years of production with no monthly bill are already yours, whatever the number turns out to be.

If you'd rather not keep the system, Balto can remove it — and the lease requires your roof to be restored to its original condition, with that repair work warranted for ten years.

Because a pre-set price — or an automatic hand-off — would make this a purchase agreement rather than a lease, and the federal credit that funds your 30% discount applies only to a genuine lease. A genuine lease means two things at year five: buying is your option, and the price is the system's actual fair market value at that time — a number you and Balto agree on when the term ends, with an independent appraiser as the tiebreaker if you can't. That isn't fine print working against you; it's the structure that makes the discount possible.

What the lease does fix is how the number gets figured — a specific test, applied to a five-year-old system that someone would have to pay to remove — and a floor: the price is never less than $0. The definition, in plain language →

Your lease spells it out, and the details matter more than the phrase does.

Fair market value here isn't what a new system costs. It's what this system — five years old, already installed on your roof — would change hands for between a willing buyer and a willing seller, valued at the end of the term. The lease directs that number to account for:

• its age and condition as used equipment, its remaining useful life, and what warranty coverage is left on it;
• what it would cost to take it down — removing the panels, batteries, inverters and racking, then repairing and remediating your roof;
• what the equipment would actually fetch in the secondary market for used solar hardware, if there is one;
• and the value of any federal tax credit lost by the purchase — which, at the end of a completed five-year term, is zero.

There's one more piece. If Balto removes the system instead, the lease requires your roof to be restored to its original condition and that repair work to be warranted for ten years — and it directs that this obligation counts as a reduction to fair market value.

You and Balto agree on the number at the end of the term; if you can't agree, an independent third-party appraiser determines it. The lease also puts a floor under it: the price is never less than $0.

Then nothing happens without your say-so. Fair market value is something you and Balto agree on at the end of the term — and if you can't agree, an independent third-party appraiser is retained to determine it. Buying is an option, not an obligation: you can take the system at the agreed value, or pass and have Balto remove it, restore your roof, and warrant that repair work for ten years. Either way, the deal you already have doesn't change — the roughly 30% discount at signing and five years of production with no monthly bill are behind you, and the year-five number can't reach back into any of that.

Two ways it can go:

1. The buyer takes over the system (most common). You give Balto at least 30 days' notice and the buyer signs a short transfer agreement before closing — Balto sends it straight to your escrow company. Because the lease is fully prepaid, the buyer steps into it with no payments left on the lease, the maintenance and warranties intact, and the same year-five option to buy — and you owe nothing further. A fully prepaid solar system is a selling point, not a liability.
2. The buyer doesn't take it over (less common). You're responsible for a settlement that shrinks each year — see What's the cost if I exit early? →. After year five there's nothing to settle.

The settlement is tied to the federal credit behind your discount. That credit vests over the system's first five years; if the lease ends early, the not-yet-vested portion is clawed back from Balto, and the lease makes that amount — plus the reasonable costs of unwinding it — your responsibility. The recaptured share steps down each year the system has been in service and reaches zero after year five, so the settlement shrinks every year. Exiting in the first year, with a buyer who declines, can cost more in total than a cash purchase would have; the math swings toward PATH each year after that. Your installer can show you the exact schedule for your system before you sign.

No — the common path is that the buyer assumes a fully prepaid, no-monthly-payment lease with the maintenance and warranties intact, which tends to help a sale rather than hurt it. You only reach the declining settlement if the buyer specifically declines to take the system over.

Two things. Length: the leases and PPAs with the rough reputation run 20–25 years; PATH is five. Payments: many leases and PPAs bill you every month for the life of the contract; PATH is paid up front, so there's no monthly bill and no decades-long obligation. And because PATH ends in five years — with the option to buy the system and be done — you're not locked in long-term — see Who's responsible for maintaining the system?.

No — and the differences are worth checking before you sign anything, including PATH. Three to look for. The term: prepaid doesn't mean short; many run 10 to 25 years. PATH is five. The path to ownership: buyout options often don't open until year six or later, at a value the owner assesses, with renewals at their discretion. PATH's option to buy arrives when the five-year term ends. The battery: many prepaid contracts let the owner enroll it in grid programs and keep 30–100% of the revenue — see Who controls the battery?. With PATH, control and 100% of program payments stay with you.