Pass-through Financing Obligations - Additional Information (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Property Subject to or Available for Operating Lease [Line Items]
Initial lease term	20 years
Solar energy systems, gross	$ 3,627,519	$ 3,441,797
Depreciation on lease	$ 430,780	399,280
Discount on expected remaining lease payments	5.00%
Solar energy systems under lease pass-through fund arrangements
Property Subject to or Available for Operating Lease [Line Items]
Solar energy systems, gross	$ 463,300	464,200
Depreciation on lease	$ 67,700	$ 63,700
Solar energy systems under lease pass-through fund arrangements \| Minimum
Property Subject to or Available for Operating Lease [Line Items]
Initial lease term	20 years
Solar energy systems under lease pass-through fund arrangements \| Maximum
Property Subject to or Available for Operating Lease [Line Items]
Initial lease term	25 years

Percentage of discount on expected remaining lease payments.

No definition available.

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- Definition

Term of the lessor's leasing arrangement, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents the reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

The amount of accumulated depreciation, by major property class, recorded on property subject to or available for lease as of the balance sheet date.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 840
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 4
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84164653&loc=d3e41551-112718

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 840
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 3
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=77907726&loc=d3e41460-112716

+ Details

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- Definition

Amount before accumulated depreciation of physical assets used in the normal conduct of business to produce goods and services subject to or available for lease.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 840
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=77907726&loc=d3e41457-112716

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 840
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 4
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84164653&loc=d3e41551-112718

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Details

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