Buying Solar Panels Vs Paying For Electricity

Your current electricity bill is the largest factor in determining how much you ll save by installing solar.

Buying solar panels vs paying for electricity.

Cash buying your solar electric system outright is best. Solar panels generate their own power and can therefore greatly offset your monthly electricity bill if not eliminate it. Clearly solar power is more cost effective than regular or standard electricity. The tax break reduces.

The higher your bill the more likely you ll benefit from switching. Taking out a solar loan will also give you much greater long term savings than if you lease solar panels. If you buy a solar panel system you own the system either outright if purchasing with cash or after repaying your solar loan. For example electricity from utility scale solar systems typically large arrays where panels slowly change tilt and orientation to face the sun all day usually costs less than electricity produced from solar panels fixed on someone s home.

Decide how you re going to pay for the system purchase lease or what s known as a solar power purchase agreement in which the consumer buys the power but doesn t own the system. An average sized residential solar system about 400 square feet of solar panels costs 18 000 according to the solar energy industries association an industry group. According to the world economic forum wef installing new solar panels is cheaper than a comparable investment in coal natural gas or other fossil fuel options. If you lease the system or sign a power purchase agreement ppa a third party owns the solar panel system.

How much do you pay for electricity. Power purchase agreements ppas work much like solar leases but instead of renting the system you agree to pay a set price for the electricity the system produces. The main practical distinction between buying and leasing a solar pv system is in ownership. When you purchase solar panels you pay off the system immediately and then have no more monthly payments.

However when you buy the system outright your long term savings will be substantially larger. You pay your utility company for every kilowatt hour kwh of electricity you use and your rate varies significantly depending on where you live. In others you ll pay 20 cents or more. In some parts of the country you can pay as little as 8 cents per kwh.