The popularity of residential solar leases is helping homeowners in a growing number of states go solar with little or no upfront costs. On Sept. 8, Constellation Energy (NYSE: CEG) joined the growing number of companies—like SolarCity, Sungevity, SunRun and One Block Off the Grid—offering solar leases and perhaps became the first utility to offer solar leases in its service areas.

The company is now offering homeowners in its service territories of Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania a chance to go solar with a little-to-no upfront cost through its partnership with Astrum Solar, a company it invested in earlier this year.

Constellation is coming into the market just when states on the East Coast are becoming familiar with solar leases. For instance, earlier this summer, Sungevity launched its Rooftop Revolution campaign, which included major media buys and a traveling ice-pop truck that helped educate people about solar leases. This resulted in 50 percent of newly generated quotes coming from the region, despite only launching services there earlier this year.

“It’s a good opportunity right now,” said Constellation spokesperson Christina Pratt. “A lot of people are [going solar]. But this opens it up to a lot of customers,” she said. “It’s a 20-year lease term and makes it easier for homeowners.”

Particularly, solar leases work for homeowners that want to go solar but can’t afford to pay all the upfront costs right away.

Since the program was just announced a couple weeks ago, it’s hard to determine how many people are interested in it.

“There was not a huge amount of prerelease work done. We’re just sort of getting the wheels turning,” Pratt said.

However, the company does anticipate the program will gain traction.

“Obviously, we’re optimistic or we wouldn’t be starting the program,” she said.

Under the offering, Astrum Solar will maintain and operate the systems, Pratt said.

Constellation will retain any SRECs (solar renewable energy credits) generated by the systems under lease, according to Pratt.

“Their payment is dependent on the credit they would have received from the SRECs. Those are used to calculate the monthly payment,” she said.

Lease payments will also be affected by the price that SRECs are selling for, so when they sell for more, the leaseholder would likely have to pay a smaller lease payment, she said.

Constellation will use the SRECs to meet state requirements for renewable energy. The company has a good head start with solar projects throughout the U.S., some in states it doesn’t even operate in. Currently it has about 95 megawatts of solar generation, according to Pratt.

“Our goal is to up that,” she said.

Image courtesy of Constellation Energy.