PV Value™

This spreadsheet tool developed by Sandia National Laboratories and Energy Sense Finance is intended to help determine the value of a new or existing photovoltaic (PV) system installed on residential and commercial properties. It is designed to be used by real estate appraisers, mortgage underwriters, credit analysts, real property assessors, insurance claims adjusters and PV industry sales staff. For appraisers, the inputs specific to PV in the Residential Green and Energy Efficient Addendum can be used as inputs to PV Value™.

Valuing a PV system is done using an income capitalization approach, which considers the present value of projected future energy production along with estimated operating and maintenance costs that are anticipated to occur during the PV module power production warranty timeframe.

Version 1.1 is now available and can be used on both Microsoft Windows and OS X operating systems. It works with both Excel® 2007 and 2010 for Windows, and Excel® 2011 for Mac.  A recent service pack released for Office for Mac (Excel 14.3.1), makes the spreadsheet inoperable, and until the issue is resolved PV Value is only known to work properly in version 14.1.4. If you are using Service Pack 2 (14.2.4) an error message asking whether you are connected to the internet will appear, which you can ignore as the calculation does work correctly. After filling out the form below, you can download the tool and user manual describing how to use the tool and changes made for this version. This information will be used to notify you of updates to PV Value™.

Sandia Labs hosted a webinar describing PV Value™ on December 7, 2011, which can be viewed below. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council hosted a webinar about PV Value™ on April 18, 2012, which can be viewed here.

Updates will be made as necessary, with a new version released on or before December 20, 2013. The current version is 1.1.

Additionally the PV Value™ tool can be accessed at www.pvvalue.com. A web application is currently in development for 2013. PV Value™ is a trademarked name by Jamie Johnson with Energy Sense Finance.

PV Value™ Webinar

Click here to download the video.

For any questions or to request more information, send an e-mail to: info@pvvalue.com.