Financial research concept

Residential Solar Creation Cost per Subscriber Addition

measures the in-period cost assigned to creating each new subscription customer under the issuer's stated unit-economics convention.

By Lee BaileyPublished Sep 26, 2026

Research context

See what supports this page, how current it is, and where comparable or historical context is available.

Research date: Sep 26, 2026Use the dated article and cited sources for the definition, examples, and stated limitations.
Operating-model context: 17 connected conceptsPart of the reviewed Residential Solar & Storage Subscription Economics; issuer definitions remain distinct where disclosed.
Company examples: 1 reviewed companyRelationships reflect supported examples, not a normalized cross-company KPI ranking.

Creation Cost was about 85.6% of Contracted Subscriber Value
The gap is not Upfront Net Subscriber Value
Creation Cost is not a generic CAC
Part of the Residential Solar & Storage Subscription Economics
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Residential solar creation cost per Subscriber Addition measures Sunrun's issuer-defined in-period cost assigned to creating each new subscription customer.

Sunrun reported $41,067 of Creation Costs per Subscriber Addition for the fourth quarter of 2025.

Creation Cost was about 85.6% of Contracted Subscriber Value

Contracted Subscriber Value was $47,988.

Dividing $41,067 by $47,988 gives roughly 85.6%, showing how much of the modeled contracted value was matched by the issuer-defined creation-cost measure.

The gap is not Upfront Net Subscriber Value

Subtracting Creation Cost from Contracted Subscriber Value gives $6,921.

Sunrun's reported Upfront Net Subscriber Value was only $2,692 because that metric uses estimated upfront financing proceeds, not total Contracted Subscriber Value, as its starting point.

Creation Cost is not a generic CAC

Creation Cost should not be assumed to equal customer acquisition cost, installation cost, capital expenditures, or GAAP operating expense per customer.

Use it only inside Sunrun's stated subscriber-unit-economics framework.

Primary sources: Sunrun 2025 Form 10-K, Sunrun 2026 Proxy Statement, and Sunrun first-quarter 2026 results filing.

Part of the Residential Solar & Storage Subscription Economics

Connects residential solar and storage deployment growth with subscription mix, per-subscriber creation economics, network capacity, and the discounted value of contracted and modeled subscriber cash flows.

Browse the full operating model in Company Analysis →

Where this concept fits

Subscriber unit economics and earning-asset valueCurrent relationship
Contracted Subscriber Value and Creation Cost determine near-deployment economics, while Subscriber Value adds modeled upside and Gross Earning Assets extend discounted cash-flow assumptions across the existing subscriber base.
Contracted Gross Earning Assets Contracted Subscriber ValueCreation Cost per Subscriber AdditionCurrent conceptGross Earning Assets Net Earning Assets Subscriber Value Upfront Net Subscriber Value Upfront Net Subscriber Value Margin Upside Gross Earning Assets
Customer growth, subscription mix, and deployment volume
Customer Additions split between subscription customers and system purchasers, while Subscriber Additions feed the long-term Customer Agreement base. Solar and storage capacity measure the physical deployment produced by that customer growth.
Customer Additions Customer Count Solar Capacity Installed Storage Capacity Installed Subscriber Additions Subscription Mix
Storage adoption and cumulative network scale
Storage Attachment Rate describes the mix of new customers taking batteries, while Networked Solar Capacity captures cumulative deployed solar scale across the installed network.
Networked Solar Capacity Storage Attachment Rate

Contracted Gross Earning Assets
Contracted Subscriber Value
Creation Cost per Subscriber AdditionCurrent concept
Customer Additions
Customer Count
Gross Earning Assets
Net Earning Assets
Networked Solar Capacity
Solar Capacity Installed
Storage Attachment Rate
Storage Capacity Installed
Subscriber Additions
Subscriber Value
Subscription Mix
Upfront Net Subscriber Value
Upfront Net Subscriber Value Margin
Upside Gross Earning Assets

See It in Company Research

These companies are examples of how the concept is reported or discussed in public filings. Definitions can differ by issuer; these links open company research rather than a normalized metric comparison.

RUNOpen operating-model research →17 of 17 reviewed concepts in Residential Solar & Storage Subscription EconomicsSubscriber unit economics and earning-asset value9 of 9 bridge concepts supportedContinue through this bridge:Contracted Gross Earning Assets Contracted Subscriber Value Gross Earning Assets Net Earning Assets Subscriber Value Upfront Net Subscriber Value Upfront Net Subscriber Value Margin Upside Gross Earning Assets

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Compare public companies

Compare Sunrun's issuer-defined creation cost with contracted value and the separate upfront financing bridge.

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