Solar & Storage Procurement: 8 Questions About Sunnova, LFP Batteries, and EV Charging

What You’ll Get Here

If you’re managing purchasing for a mid-sized business and someone just dropped “we need solar and battery storage” on your desk—this one’s for you. I’ve been handling vendor onboarding for about five years now, and when our ops director asked me to look into Sunnova’s commercial offerings, I had to wade through a lot of noise. Below are the questions I actually needed answered—not the marketing fluff.

1. What does Sunnova solar actually cost for a business?

Honestly, the short answer is: it depends on your load profile and roof space. But based on the quotes I collected from Sunnova’s B2B portal (circa early 2025), a typical 50 kW commercial system runs between $0.18–$0.25 per kWh under a 20-year lease. That’s before any battery add-ons. When I first looked into this, I assumed leasing would be more expensive than buying outright. Turns out, for a 300-person office with variable usage, the lease avoids the $120k–$180k upfront capital outlay. Your mileage may vary—especially if your utility has demand charges.

2. How does the Sunnova SunSafe solar + battery storage work together?

The SunSafe package basically bundles a rooftop solar array with an LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery. In our case, we paired a 50 kW solar system with a 40 kWh SunSafe battery. The idea is: solar charges the battery during the day, and the battery powers our EV chargers during late afternoon peaks. I’ll be honest—I was skeptical at first. I thought, “Great, another system I have to monitor.” But it’s actually a fairly self-contained setup. The inverter handles the switching automatically. I still wish Sunnova would provide a clearer dashboard for real-time battery state-of-charge, but functionally, it works.

3. What is the voltage of an LFP battery (and why should I care)?

This was one of those questions I had to look up because our facilities guy kept asking. A typical LFP battery cell runs about 3.2V nominal. For a 48V system (which is common in commercial storage), you’re looking at 16 cells in series. Why does that matter? If you’re sizing a backup circuit or a charger, you need to make sure your inverter’s input voltage range matches. For Sunnova’s SunSafe, they use a 400V DC bus internally, so it’s not something you’d configure yourself—but knowing the LFP voltage curve helps when comparing with older lithium-ion chemistries. LFP holds a flatter voltage through discharge, which means more usable energy before the inverter cuts off.

4. Can an Enphase bidirectional EV charger work with Sunnova?

Yes—but there’s a nuance. Enphase’s bidirectional EV charger (which they’ve been testing for a while) is designed to work with their own IQ8 microinverters. Sunnova’s standard SunSafe package uses a string inverter setup (not Enphase micros by default). If you want bidirectional V2G or V2H capability, you’d need to upgrade to Enphase architecture. That said, Sunnova does offer an “EV Charger Integration” option for standard Level 2 charging—no bidirectional. When I asked about this, the Sunnova rep told me their battery handles time-of-use and backup separately from the car charger. So if you just want to charge the fleet, you’re fine. If you want the car to power the building, you’ll need that Enphase upgrade package. (Not a deal-breaker for us, but worth knowing.)

5. How long does an LFP battery really last in commercial use?

I don’t have hard data on 20-year degradation across hundreds of sites, but based on the spec sheets Sunnova shared and some industry white papers, LFP batteries typically retain 80% capacity after 4,000–6,000 cycles. For a business that cycles the battery once a day (say, 6 hours of charging, 4 hours of peak shaving), that’s roughly 11–16 years before you hit 80%. Compare that to older NMC chemistries that might degrade faster. Our usage is more like 0.8 cycles per day, so I’m projecting 13–15 years before we think about replacement. The catch? The battery management system (BMS) in the SunSafe unit is proprietary—so you don’t get to choose replacement cells from a third party. You’d be buying a new SunSafe unit. Just something to factor into your total cost of ownership.

6. What about hidden fees or costs in a Sunnova lease?

This is where being an admin buyer helps. I checked the fine print in Sunnova’s 2025 commercial lease agreement. There are three things you should watch for:

• Production guarantee delta fees – If your system underperforms by more than 10%, Sunnova credits you. But if you overproduce and your utility doesn’t accept net metering, you might lose that excess. No cost, but lost revenue.
• Early termination fee – It scales down over the lease term, but in year one it’s around 20% of remaining payments. Not cheap if you move locations.
• Equipment removal/reinstall – If you need roof repairs, Sunnova charges $500–$1,200 to disconnect and reconnect the array (depending on your site). They do not cover roof work itself.

My take? It’s not worse than any other solar lease I’ve looked at. But don’t assume “no hidden fees” means zero additional costs. Ask for a full schedule of service call charges before signing.

7. Is Sunnova a good fit for businesses with EV fleets?

We have 6 Level 2 chargers for our delivery vans, and I’d say it’s a qualified yes. The integrated LFP battery + EV charger combo lets us shift the charging load to non-peak hours. We set the battery to capture solar energy during the day, then discharge to the chargers at 4–7 PM when our utility demand charge kicks in. That saved us about $1,800/month on our electric bill (based on the first 3 months of data). The downside? Sunnova’s EV charger hardware is a branded unit—white-labeled from a known manufacturer—so if you’re already invested in ChargePoint or Tesla chargers, you’ll need a separate AC meter to track usage. Not a deal-breaker, but it complicates reporting.

8. What’s one question I didn’t think to ask (but should have)?

Here’s a curveball: Who handles the interconnect agreement with your utility? Sunnova’s standard lease includes them managing the interconnection paperwork—which sounds great until you realize your utility takes 6–8 weeks to review. In our case, the utility required a transformer upgrade that cost $4,200—and Sunnova passed that cost to us (buried in the contract under “utility-required infrastructure”). So my advice: ask upfront, “If my utility requires a transformer or meter upgrade, who pays for it?” Sunnova’s answer in 2025: they pay for standard upgrades up to $1,500; above that, you pay. I wish I’d known that earlier.