Every number on this page comes from a real commercial building in the New York metro area — the engineering and cash-flow analysis we prepared for its owner. We have removed the names, because our clients are under NDA. We have not rounded anything up.
Four buildings, four very different answers. That is the point: the case for solar is not one pitch. It depends on your roof, your load, your utility, and your tax position — and it should be calculated, not asserted.
Energy charges are what you pay for kilowatt-hours consumed. Demand charges are what you pay for the single highest 15-minute draw in the month, whether you sustain it or not. On Con Edison and PSEG Long Island rate schedules, demand routinely runs a third or more of the total — and panels alone barely move it.
Each of these was analyzed under the rules in force at the time, and we say so. What has not changed since: the utility rates, the roofs, and the arithmetic of a kilowatt-hour you no longer buy.
A utility bill is not a fixed cost. It is an escalating one. Our 2026 models assume 5% annual escalation, and with fuel markets unsettled by the conflict in the Middle East, we consider that conservative. The chart on the right is one of the buildings above — a $77,000 bill left alone.
The federal solar tax credit that helped the projects above is no longer available for new commercial solar. Here is what is — and what we build a 2026 cash flow from.
A solar system is five-year MACRS property, and 100% bonus depreciation lets a business deduct the full cost in the year it goes into service. For a profitable company this is now the largest single lever in the stack — and without a federal credit reducing the basis, you depreciate the whole thing.
The federal investment tax credit still applies to battery energy storage. That matters in the Northeast because storage is what brings demand charges down — the part of the bill solar alone cannot reach. The Long Island facility above pairs 158 kW of solar with a 100 kW / 406 kWh battery for exactly that reason.
New York's NY-Sun program pays a per-watt incentive that steps down as each block of funding is used, and new blocks open when the state allocates more. New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts each run their own programs on their own schedules. These levels change continuously and vary by utility territory and system size.
We do not print a rate here because it would be stale by the time you read it. We calculate your project's available incentive at the time of your assessment, from the current block — not from a number on a website.
Every kilowatt-hour your roof produces is one you do not buy at next year's price. Con Edison and PSEG Long Island commercial rates are among the highest in the country and have risen faster than inflation for a decade. We model 5% a year. If it comes in higher, the projects above did better than their analysis said.
Ten minutes on our form. Within 48 hours you will have a preliminary system size, a demand-charge read, the incentives that apply to your building today, and a first-pass cash flow. No cost, no obligation, and no one will call you twice.