Paying for it
Four ways to pay for it. One of them fits your situation.
A solar system costs a fixed amount to put on your roof. The real decision is who pays that cost — because whoever pays it receives the benefit of it. That is the whole thing, and everything else on this page is detail underneath it.
The trade you are actually making
Every option below sits somewhere between two ends. At one end you spend the most today and keep the most over the life of the system. At the other you spend nothing today, your bill drops the most in month one, and you keep the least of the long-term value. Nobody gets both.
You pay for it
Someone else pays for it
1. Pay cash
2. A loan with no fee
3. A loan with a fee, for a lower rate
4. Let someone else own it
- Left to right
- Less money out of your pocket today, and a bigger drop in your bill in the first month.
- Right to left
- More of the total value stays with you over twenty-five years.
Salespeople tend to have a favourite end of this line, usually the one they are paid more to sell. We would rather you picked the end that matches what you are trying to do with your money. If the cash is earning well where it is, the right answer may be the end that does not touch it.
The four, in that order
Pay cash
You buy the system outright, so everything it earns is yours.
- Out of pocket today
- The full cost, up front.
- In the first month
- Your power bill drops to whatever the roof does not cover. There is no payment.
- Over twenty-five years
- The most of anyone. You keep what your utility pays for power you send back, you keep any credits your state pays for the power your roof makes, and you own equipment worth something at the end.
- This fits you if
- You have the cash sitting somewhere earning less than this would, and you are comfortable owning a thing that occasionally needs a repair.
A loan with no fee
You still own it. You just pay for it monthly instead of all at once.
- Out of pocket today
- Usually nothing.
- In the first month
- A loan payment instead of most of your power bill. Whether that is lower than the bill depends on the house.
- Over twenty-five years
- Nearly as much as cash. You keep the same export value and state credits, minus the interest you paid to borrow.
- This fits you if
- You want the long-term benefit of owning without writing one large cheque, and you would rather pay a higher rate than a fee.
A loan with a fee, for a lower rate
The same loan at a lower interest rate, because a fee was paid up front to buy the rate down.
- Out of pocket today
- Usually nothing — but the fee is inside the price you finance.
- In the first month
- A lower payment than the same loan without the fee.
- Over twenty-five years
- Slightly less than the no-fee loan over the full term, because you financed the fee too. Sometimes more, if the rate reduction is large enough and you keep the loan to term.
- This fits you if
- The monthly number is what has to work, and you want to see the arithmetic both ways before choosing.
Let someone else own it
A company puts the system on your roof at their cost and you buy the power it makes, or pay a fixed monthly amount, for twenty-five years.
- Out of pocket today
- Nothing.
- In the first month
- The biggest immediate drop of any option. You pay less than your current bill from the first month, having spent nothing.
- Over twenty-five years
- The least of the four. The owner keeps the tax credit, the state credits, and the value of the power you send back. You are buying power at a good price, not building an asset.
- This fits you if
- You want a lower bill now without a purchase, or the up-front cost is simply not available — and you would rather have a smaller certain saving than a larger one that needs capital.
Three things worth knowing before you compare anything
The monthly payment is the wrong thing to compare
Two quotes with the same monthly number can differ by tens of thousands of dollars over the term. Ask for the payment in year one and year twenty-five, and ask what happens to the export value and the state credits. Those three answers separate the options far better than the monthly figure does.
Every savings figure assumes your power bill keeps rising
Ours included. Ask any installer — us first — what the savings look like at today’s rate with no increase at all, and compare that number instead. We publish twenty years of actual published prices next to the increase we assume, including the windows where our assumption looks generous.
A loan can carry a fee you never see itemised
Most solar loans offer a lower interest rate in exchange for a fee, and that fee is usually built into the price you finance rather than shown as a line. This is normal and legal. What is not normal is refusing to show you the cash price beside the financed price, so ask for both — from anyone, including us.
If someone else owns it: the terms that decide whether it suits you
These are the parts of a third-party agreement that matter, and the ones people are surprised by later. We will name the company that will own the system and hand you the agreement itself before anything is signed.
- The yearly increase
- The payment usually rises every year by a fixed percentage set when you sign. The tiers available run 0%, 0.99%, 1.99% and 2.99%, set by the quality of your site. A flat 0% is a real option and worth asking for by name — a 2.99% increase roughly doubles the payment by year twenty-five.
- What is included
- Monitoring, maintenance, repair and insurance for the whole term, plus a production guarantee. If the system makes less than promised, you are credited the shortfall at your own rate.
- Buying it later
- At the fifth anniversary, any time after it, or when you sell. The price is fair market value set by an independent appraiser. You can also prepay the remaining payments at any time, discounted 5%.
- Selling the house
- The buyer takes over at the same rate, subject to passing a credit check, with fifteen days’ to three months’ notice. If they do not qualify you can prepay and pass on the use of the system, or buy it outright. You remain responsible until the transfer is signed. Worth reading before you list, not during.
- At the end of the term
- The owner can remove it at no cost to you, offer to sell it, or offer a new rate. It renews a year at a time unless someone ends it.
- Two restrictions people miss
- The agreement limits what other power-generating equipment you may connect to the house — if a generator is in your plans, ask exactly which restrictions apply to your configuration. And the system needs a working internet connection to report what it produces.
Loan programmes worth asking about
Solar and storage loans
Ten-, fifteen- and twenty-year terms. You own the system, so you keep the export value and the state credits, and you carry the maintenance. The estimator’s “as low as” figure uses a twenty-year note around 6.99% APR. Real rates are based on your credit and disclosed in writing before you sign.
Connecticut Smart-E
A Green Bank loan up to $50,000 for one-to-four-unit homes. Heat-pump specials have been offered as low as 1.99% APR through December 31, 2026 for Eversource and Avangrid customers with an Energize CT rebate. Restrictions apply.
Mass Save HEAT Loan
0% financing on qualifying heat pumps and weatherization in Massachusetts, which can be combined with the state rebates on the incentives page.
Twelve-year HVAC lease
Nothing down, a soft credit check, service included. At the end: renew, upgrade, or buy it. Useful when the Energize CT rebate still leaves a gap.
Where the federal credit went
This is the single biggest change to solar economics in years, and it is why the four options above sit differently than they did in 2025. The 30% credit homeowners used to claim on their own tax return ended for money spent after December 31, 2025. There is no homeowner credit any more.
The credit that survives — and it is never a line on your 1040. On a lease or a PPA the system owner claims it and prices it into what you pay. How long a system has to be built depends on when its equipment was safe-harboured: equipment committed before the end of 2025 carries eligibility through December 31, 2029 and is exempt from the federal sourcing rules, while a project starting fresh today has to be running by December 31, 2027. That gap is the reason third-party ownership can still carry a federal benefit in years when buying the system outright carries none — and it is a finite runway with a date on it, not a permanent feature. Ask any provider which of the two applies to your system, and get it in writing.
You will still find companies advertising that homeowners “get 30% back”. Read that carefully. When a company owns the system, a commercial version of the credit belongs to them — and that is precisely what makes a no-money-down arrangement possible. But you are not claiming anything on your return and no part of it arrives as a cheque. The only number worth comparing is the rate you would pay against the rate your utility charges.
Five questions to ask anyone, including us
- 1Who owns this system, and who receives the tax credit, the state credits and the net metering credits? Ask to be shown the clause, not told the answer.
- 2What is the payment in year one, and what is it in year twenty-five? Ask for the whole schedule.
- 3What do the savings look like at today's power rate, with no increase at all?
- 4Show me the cash price next to the financed price. If they will not, you have learned something.
- 5What exactly happens if I sell the house and the buyer does not pass the credit check?