FAQ

The easiest way to transfer a solar system when a home is bought or sold is to have the system totally paid off. If the system is owned outright at the time of the home sale the system is treated as part of the house.

If your buying or selling a home with a solar lease, this means a third party most likely owns the system. The home seller will need to transfer the lease to the future home owners. Sharing the benefits of solar with the buyers will help them feel confident about taking over the payments.

Inform them on the details, like if the third-party owner covers repairs of the leased system. This releases the new homeowner from paying out of pocket for repairs, leaving them responsible for regular cleaning and maintenance. This is a selling point of a leased system.

Here’s a typical lease transfer process:

• The homebuyer signs an ownership transfer form
• An attached credit application is sent to the solar company
• Once approved, there’s a new lease transfer, and the new homeowner will take over the payments
• The seller and buyer will sign over ownership; the new homeowner will take over new ACH payments
• An interconnection approval from the utility must be received

The remaining loan must be settled if you go the secured loan route. If an unsecured loan was the option you chose, as long as it is not tied to the property, you could sell the home; however, you remain responsible for paying off the loan. 

It would be great to include this guide in your home buying and or selling process. Print it, screenshot it, and share it with the seller or buyer; these are the questions you want to ensure are answered and fully understood.

Typically with a monitoring app: Many PV systems come with a monitoring app that allows you to track your energy production and consumption, view real-time data, and receive alerts if there are any issues with your system.

These apps are usually provided by your system’s inverter manufacturer. The inverter in many ways acts as the brain of system. The inverter and monitoring hardware track the system production and pushes that info out to an app. These apps are typically available for both Android and iOS devices.

The system can be monitored on mobile using the Enphase app or on web using the below link:

https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/login

Enphase Customer Support

(877) 797-4743 

Home Owner Transfer Process:

Transfer the Enphase Installation to your name.

https://encare.enphase.com/bundleOffer?_ga=2.134071182.1260800116.1590494139-321344038.1577671292

Link to the Solaredge monitoring platform.

https://www.solaredge.com/us/products/software-tools/mysolaredge

Solaredge Customer Support

510-498-3200 

System Owners Support Link:

• https://www.solaredge.com/en/support/system-owner

Transfer System to New Owner:

https://www.solaredge.com/en/support/system-owner/transfer-pv-system-ownership

If you’re a Sunnova customer, you can see your solar production and other system information through MySunnova. 

https://account.sunnova.com/login?returnUrl=/&action=logout

Sunnova Customer Support

866-786-6682 

Sunnova Lease Transfer Process:

Buying a Home With a Sunnova Lease

• https://www.sunnova.com/faq/buying-a-home-with-a-sunnova-home-solar-system

Selling a Home With a Sunnova Lease

If you’re a Sunrun customer, you can see your solar production and other system information through:

https://my.sunrun.com/login

Sunrun Customer Support

855-478-6786 

Sunrun Transfer Process:

https://www.sunrun.com/go-solar-center/what-happens-if-i-move

Buying a Home With a Sunrun system:

• https://www.sunrun.com/sites/default/files/Serivce-Transfer-For-Buyers.pdf

Selling a Home With a Sunrun system:

https://www.sunrun.com/sites/default/files/Serivce-Transfer-For-Sellers.pdf

Monitor your home solar, storage and electricity use—from virtually anywhere. Use the mySunPower mobile app to view your individual panel production in real time to see how each panel is performing.

https://us.sunpower.com/products/software/mysunpower

Sunpower Customer Support

800-786-7693 

Net Energy Metering (NEM) is a rate option that allows customers with an eligible renewable generating system to receive a credit for the surplus electricity supplied to the electric grid. This credit is applied to their energy bill to offset all or part of the costs associated with the energy consumed each month.

Net Energy Metering (NEM) Program Requirements:

NEM customers are required to take service on a Time-of-Use rate. Please see the Mandatory Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate Requirement for Residential Customers expansion below for more information.

Generating system must be sized to the customer’s onsite usage.

Grandfathering for the current NEM tariff (NEM 2.0) is extended to customers for 20 years. In the event of a new NEM tariff, NEM 2.0 customers are grandfathered to their tariff for 20 years from their PTO date. The 20-year NEM tariff grandfathering does not include grandfathering for your Time-of-Use rate.

To participate in NEM 2.0, customers must have a compatible meter. SMART meters are compatible. For opt-out customers, other options may be available by region.

To learn more, below is a link to PG&E’s FAQ’s on NEM.

https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/account/billing-and-assistance/nem_brochure.pdf

NEM 1.0

When net metering was first introduced in California, the goal was to incentivize renewable energy installation at point-of-use. The original program  applied to any customer enrolled before July 1, 2017.

NEM 1.0 credits customers one kilowatt-hour (kWh) of utility-generated electricity for every kWh of solar electricity fed back into the grid. Customers receive full retail credit for every excess kWh of electricity their system produces. At the end of the month, customers only pay for the energy they use after all their credits are deducted. Customers also receive a monthly connection fee of $1 and a free interconnection. 

NEM 2.0

Net Metering 2.0 makes a few minor changes to California’s original net metering policy, but it preserves the key element that makes solar economical for California residents: retail rate bill credits. Homeowners and businesses that enroll in NEM 2.0 will still receive per-kWh credits for their solar electricity that are equal to the value of a kWh of utility electricity. This means that the economics of solar are still very favorable under NEM 2.0

In addition to preserving retail rate bill credits, the new California net metering program also prohibits many fixed charges for residential customers, including demand charges, grid access charges, installed capacity fees, and standby fees. NEM 2.0 will run until 2023, at which point the CPUC will look at establishing a new program NEM 3.0

There are three main differences between the original California net metering policy and Net Metering 2.0: time-of-use rates, interconnection fees, and non-bypassable charges. The California Solar Energy Industries Association (CalSEIA) estimates that the combined impact of these changes will be approximately $10/month compared to the original policy.

NEM 3.0

The main impact of NEM 3.0 is that it reduces compensation for excess power sent to the electric grid. NEM 1.0 offered a credit equal to the retail electricity rate for exported solar production: this is known as one-to-one net metering, in which you’re credited at the same rate for solar exports as what you’d pay to use electricity from the grid. In NEM 3.0, the CPUC established a new rate for crediting solar exports, shifting the structure from net metering to net billing, which is much lower in value. 

NEM 3.0 is based on “avoided cost” rates, meaning what your utility pays for any electricity you send to the grid is no longer based on your typical electricity rates, like a traditional net metering credit, but rather calculated separately. The exact rate varies depending on the hour of the day, day of the week (i.e., weekday vs. weekend), and month you export the energy: in fact, there are 576 possible export rates in total! On average, the avoided energy costs rates come out to about 25 percent of retail electricity rates during those same hours, meaning the value of net metering credits has decreased by about 75 percent under NEM 3.0.

Grandfathering is a provision that allows an old rule to continue to apply to existing situations while a new rule applies to all future cases. In net energy metering (NEM), grandfathering is a 20-year lock-in period after the utility turns on a solar system

Yes, the net metering agreement is tied to the meter number, so if the home is sold, the new owners can continue to operate under the original NEM rules until 20 years from the date the system received PTO, permission to operate.