Reading Proposals

What a solar proposal must state, which assumptions shorten payback on paper, and how to test whether a production guarantee obligates anything.

Reading Proposals September 10, 2026 Solar Production Guarantee: What a Shortfall Actually Pays A filed 20-year contract pays $39.93 for a system running a fifth below its own estimate. Work out the deadband, the agreed price, and who reads the meter. 12 min read
Reading Proposals August 31, 2026 Solar Payback Calculation: Degradation and Escalator One $24,000 system, six defensible dial settings, paybacks from 8.3 to 11.3 years. Rebuild the three assumptions your proposal buried in fine print. 7 min read
Reading Proposals August 21, 2026 Solar Proposal Checklist: The 12 Items It Must Show A proposal quoting 11,900 kWh from 8.40 kW claims 1,417 kWh per kW-DC. Twelve items decide whether that number survives contact with your own tariff sheet. 10 min read

About this section

Priya Raghunathan writes Kilowatt Ledger because three quotes for the same roof can produce three different payback figures, and the difference is always in assumptions nobody writes down. She does not work in the energy industry and has never sold, financed, or installed a system. Every number here is traced to a utility tariff sheet, a regulator's decision, or a published standard, and the arithmetic is written out so you can redo it on your own bill.

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How this is checked

Every guide cites the agency, statute, or document it was checked against, and carries the date it was checked. Rules change — if something here is out of date, tell us and it gets corrected.