ClickCease
December 30, 2021

Commercial Solar Lease

About Commercial Solar Leases

Our Commercial Solar Leasing programs provides businesses a critical alternative financing option for commercial solar projects in the 10kW to $10 million range. While we work with many large scale firms who utilize our Power Purchase Agreements, smaller operations simply can’t justify the PPA’s transaction and ownership costs. If there is tax liability, we recommend our Energy Savings Program. However here are more details on how solar leases for businesses work.

Property Assessed Clean Energy Programs (PACE) and other financing forms can be expensive and strain the tax benefits. Our commercial lease program puts a tax equity investor behind a simple operating lease structure to minimize costs and deliver 100% project financing for about 85% of the project’s purchase price. Energy consumers get a fast-path to ownership, the solar installer gets a fair margin and REC Solar is able to provide a development fee to our project origination partners.

Commercial Solar Lease Benefits

Solar Lease customers may benefit from:

    • A reduction in the EPC payment price and negative effective interest rates
    • Increased cash flows
    • Protection from market utility price inflation and volatility
    • Lower operating expenses and increased property valuation
    • Retention of SRECs and the environmental attributes of solar
    • A fast, financed path to ownership
    • Lease terms range from 5 to 7 years, and end-of-term residual values may also be financed and depreciated. Eligible solar energy off-takers must be for-profit entities with solid financials.

Curious about solar? Let us present you with an solar savings proposal where we calculate your energy savings.

Other Useful Resources

Common Commercial Solar Financing Models
Illinois Solar Incentives
Solar Energy FAQ
Solar Power Vocabulary 101