There are three main ways to pay for your home solar system: an upfront cash payment, a solar loan, or through a lease or power purchase agreement (PPA).
If you can’t afford to pay for your system out-of-pocket, solar financing allows homeowners to use products like loans and leases to finance the purchase of a solar system by spreading out the cost over time. A typical solar panel system costs around $25,000 on EnergySage’s marketplace, not including installation.
The two most cost-efficient ways to pay for your solar system are through a cash purchase or a solar loan.
Generally speaking, these two options are the best way to go solar because you either own your own system right away or by the end of your loan. With a cash purchase, you buy your system for its full cost upfront and have no payments moving forward. If you choose a solar loan, it’s similar to financing a car or paying off your mortgage — you’ll be required to make fixed monthly payments over your loan term, which is usually anywhere from five to 25 years.
The third option for financing a new solar system is to enter into a lease or power purchase agreement (PPA). These options aren’t necessarily a smart financial choice because despite paying tens of thousands of dollars, you still won’t own your solar system by the end of the agreement. For example, if you lease a solar panel system for $100 a month for 20 years, you will have spent $24,000 on solar power over two decades, but at the end of the lease you won’t own the system despite spending almost the same amount of money as if you had purchased them.
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