Interested in Solar Power but don’t have tens of thousands of dollars? Free Solar Panels?

Solar City has an interesting program where you lease solar equipment and pay a monthly lease. The Solar Lease payment and lower electric bill will be less than your current electric bill. The company owns the solar panels and you rent them by paying the cost of the power.

They advertise a medium sized 4kW system with $0 down – free solar panels!, no security deposit for $110 a month with 3.9% annual interest rate for 15 years on approved credit.  When the solar lease ends, you can extend it, remove the solar panels, or upgrade to a new, more efficient solar system. Other providers should have similar offers in other areas.

Savings with Solar Panel Leasing (Credit: Solar City)

You can save $10,050 over the next 15 years, because you have locked in low price for solar electricity while utility rates continue to increase. Some leases last from ten to twenty years and cost from $30 to $300 a month.

Sun Run partners with local companies to provide solar systems and financing.  They have a Solar Power Purchase Agreement or solar PPA where you pay a fixed, set rate for all the solar electricity produced by the solar panels. The rate is typically $0.20/kWh for the next 18 to 20 years. Sun Run also has a solar lease you pay a monthly payment to rent the solar panels on your roof. There may also be a small installation fee upfront with either plan, usually under $1000. PG&E recently invested in the company.

The amount of your monthly solar lease payment is the same each month, regardless of how much solar electricity your system produces. This is the main difference between a solar lease and a solar power purchase agreement.

Leasing your system does not qualify you for Federal or State solar rebates, the company installing them gets the rebates. Make sure the provider is passing along the rebate in the form of lower monthly lease costs. Some plans allow prepaid leasing, which can double or triple your net savings. The best solar incentives are in Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.  Texas and Florida are coming online.

Read Are Solar Panels for me? and decide if  Solar Panels are in your future.