Financing commercial solar

Does commercial solar pay for itself

For many businesses it does, but the honest answer is that it depends on your own numbers, so anyone quoting a fixed 'pays for itself in so many years' on a web page is guessing. What actually drives payback is the size of the system, how much power you use and when, your tariffs, and any rebates you're eligible for. A bigger system costs more but usually saves more, and a business that runs plant through the day gets more out of solar than one that's dark by mid-afternoon.

The useful thing isn't a number off a page, it's payback worked from your own figures. Someone from our team can help you look at that against a real indicative finance figure for the system, so you're weighing the saving and the repayment side by side rather than on a hunch.

How the finance sits under a system that's earning

Unlike most equipment, solar starts generating a return the day it's switched on, so it's a little different to finance. The system earns, in lower power bills, while you pay it off, and for a lot of businesses the bill saving covers much of the repayment. And because solar earns over a long life, it can often be financed over a longer term than most equipment, up to ten years, which keeps the monthly figure lower while the savings do the work.

There are three ways most businesses finance it. A Chattel Mortgage means the system is yours from day one and you finance the purchase. Rent-to-Own spreads the cost as regular rentals with ownership at the end. A Lease keeps the repayments steady over a set term. You don't pick the lender; you tell us about the system and the business, and someone from our team compares lenders and arranges the finance in the structure that fits. Some businesses go further and store what they generate or charge vehicles from it; when you're ready to look at battery storage or EV charging, the finance works the same way.

What drives the repayment

The size and price of the system (ex-GST), the term you run it over, and the structure you choose. A bigger system costs more but usually saves more, so the right size is a question worth talking through, and a longer term lowers the monthly figure while costing a little more across the life of the finance.

We work from the system price (ex-GST); the GST and the tax treatment are your accountant's territory. We won't put a rate or a total against it here, because the only figure worth acting on is the indicative one for your exact system.

Rebates and incentives

Government incentives for commercial clean energy do exist, and they can change the picture, but they turn on the system, your business and your eligibility, and the details shift over time. Rather than print a figure or a scheme name that goes stale, we'll point you to where the current incentives are worked out for your situation, and your accountant is the right person to confirm how they apply to you. It's worth factoring in, and it's worth getting right rather than guessed.

Who you'll deal with

You deal with a real person from our team, not a call centre and not a form that vanishes once you hit send. The same contact who arranges your finance is the one you can call when something comes up, before settlement and after. We compare the lenders so you don't have to, and we keep you in the loop in plain language the whole way through.