The rapid growth of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems can pose a number of financial challenges for electric utility shareholders and their customers. One potential pathway to resolving these perceived challenges involves allowing utilities to own and operate rooftop solar systems. However, the financial benefits and costs of this business model are not well understood. Here we model the financial performance of a large-scale utility-owned residential rooftop solar programme. Over a 20 yr period, the programme increases shareholder earnings by 2–5% relative to a no-solar scenario, compared to a 2% earnings loss when an equivalent amount of rooftop solar is instead owned by non-utility parties. Such a programme could therefore be attractive from the perspective of utility investors. The impacts on utility customers, however, are more mixed, with average bills of non-solar customers increasing by 1–3% compared to the no-solar scenario, similar to the 2% increase under traditional, non-utility-ownership structures.

屋顶太阳能光伏系统的快速发展可能给电力公司股东及其客户带来许多财务挑战。解决这些已知挑战的一种潜在途径包括允许公用事业拥有和运营屋顶太阳能系统。但是，这种商业模式的财务收益和成本尚未得到很好的理解。在这里，我们对大型公用事业拥有的住宅屋顶太阳能计划的财务绩效进行建模。在20年的时间里，与无太阳能方案相比，该计划将股东收益提高了2％至5％，相比之下，当非公用事业单位拥有等量的屋顶太阳能时，该收益损失了2％。因此，从公用事业投资者的角度来看，这样的计划可能很有吸引力。但是，对公用事业客户的影响更为复杂，