Finding the right solar financing for your home

Buying solar panels for your home has never made more sense. Solar panels help to lower your home’s electricity bill and reduce your environmental footprint. With the right solar financing, you can easily bring solar power to your home. Here are three common methods for going solar:

• Cash purchase • Solar Lease • Solar Loan

The Cash Purchase: Investing in Your Home’s Value Today

Buying solar panels with a cash purchase is the most straightforward path to going solar. Plus, the total costs of solar panels and installation can be reduced by as much as 50% through tax incentives and local rebates. The U.S. federal government offers homeowners a big tax deduction with the 30% Investment Tax Credit (ITC), and you can increase this savings with additional state and local government incentives. Even more exciting is that owning solar panels can increase your home’s value by an average of $17,000, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report.

Buying solar panels with a cash purchase may make sense if you:

• Have cash on hand

• Would like to own your solar system outright and be free of ongoing payments

• Want to benefit from Federal, state, and local tax incentives

• Are interested in increasing your property’s value with solar panels

The Solar Lease: Offering Low Payments and a Performance Guarantee

If you prefer a low monthly fee for access to solar energy, then a solar lease may be the way to go. There are two types of lease options available to you:

• Prepaid Lease • Installments Lease

A prepaid lease requires paying upfront the net after rebates amount while an installments lease requires no down-paymentband offers affordable monthly payments. Some leasing companies offer an early buy-out opportunity after a few years of leasing your solar energy system. This can be a great option to have if you want to buy the solar system before the end of the lease term. At the end of the solar lease term, you typically can renew, buy, or return the solar system.

 Both types of lease offer the following key benefits:

• System maintenance, insurance and performance guarantee.

• Option to buy your system after a five or six years or at the end of your lease term

• Most offer the ability to expand your system later to meet your future energy needs (electric vehicles, home addition)

• Flexible end of lease options – Renew the lease, purchase the system or request removal at no cost

Leasing solar panels may make sense if you:

• Have a good credit score

• Want a manageable monthly bill

• Would like to benefit from a performance guarantee

The Solar Loan: Making a Solar Purchase Affordable

A solar loan is yet another solar financing option to manage the cost of solar panels and installation. There are two common loans to finance residential solar panels: an unsecured solar loan or a home equity loan. Sisco Solar’s strong lender relationships can help you get an unsecured solar loan for up to 20 years. With a fully amortizing loan, you can enjoy low payback periods and low interest rates. Solar loans come in a range of term lengths to fit your needs.

Unsecured solar loan key benefits:

• Simple interest, unsecured financing

• Long term—20-year (you can also pick 5-, 10-, or 15-year terms for slightly better interest rates)

• Low rates—From 7.99% on 20-year loans (from 5.24% on 5-year loans)

• No balloon payments

• No pre-payment penalty

• No annual es

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• When it’s paid off, you own it – and you have free electricity for life