owning, leasing, and Power purchase agreements

Rooftop solar generally comes with a variation of three options.  You can either own your home power plant or you could lease it with a few variations.  Let's talk leasing first.  Most leases are not technically leases.  They are called Power Purchase Agreements where a third party such as Sunrun or Lightreach pays your local installer to put solar on your roof and then the third party sells you the energy that it generates each month.  Essentially, they become an alternative power provider. The value in choosing them over your current power provider is that they'll offer you discounted energy rates with a known future rate schedule.  So instead of not knowing how much your local energy provider will charge you in the future, you'll have an agreed upon energy rate schedule that you can both afford and plan for. 

With ownership, as opposed to a lease/ppa, instead of buying power from a third party, you either pay cash or finance your system and all of the energy generated belongs to you and your family.  This option is typically more affordable than a Lease/PPA and it also increases your home equity whereas leasing does not impact your home value.  

So, if owning is less expensive and increases home value, why would anyone lease?  The lease option is typically sold by emphasizing no debt (as opposed to financing solar) and no maintenance as the third party who facilitates the lease must keep the power plant production in order.  We'd argue that the debt to own solar is good debt because it earns you money and increases your home value.  We'd also argue that as long as you buy solar with a reputable installer and a real warranty, there would be little concern with maintenance.   In most scenarios owning solar is a better option that leasing, although there could be outlier situations where leasing might be a strong fit.