Make it more confusing for me. They must pay the sales commissions on top of it all. Yes, you can depreciate solar panels faster than normal, and you can sell off that depreciation for some early tax breaks, but show me how it all adds up to 8 cents/kwh spread over 25 years. Right now expect to pay $5 for a peak watt to buy the panel, pay for grid intertie equipment and wiring, permits, installation, sales commissions, and overhead (billing, support, legal), risk costs and future maintenance expenses, as well as of course, the cost of capital. Each peak watt gives you about 2kwh per year in sunny places, a bit less elsewhere.

Now take away rebates, tax credits, depreciation resale, clean generation credits, pollution credits and get me down to 8 cents/kwh with a profit. If not, what do you have to pay for the peak watts to make a profit?