One of the biggest hurdles of installing solar power for commercial organizations has been securing solar financing to cover the cost of the installation and maintenance. Some organizations are large enough and wealthy enough to purchase their solar panel systems outright and capitalize on the energy benefits, but most companies will need some form of incentive and financing to make solar power a reality for them. For many years the story ended here, but recently more options have become available to really encourage the commercial and residential use of solar power across America.

The first option that most organizations and individuals will hear about are the government incentives to installing solar power. These local and Federal grants and tax breaks are a huge aid for anyone positioned to take advantage of them, but sometimes they are so complicated that they require hiring additional staff or consulting services to utilize. Other solar financing options have arisen recently that go a long way towards supplementing the government incentives.

Solar power purchasing agreements (PPA) are growing increasingly popular, wherein a third party company installs the solar panels on location and allows your business to buy power from them at a lower rate than using the electrical grid. Solar leases, on the other hand, are similar to PPAs yet rather than purchasing power the organization leases the equipment for a fixed rate and benefits from all of the power generated by the panels. These two agreements are popular because they require no up front capital to be invested in the project, but as a result the return on investment is significantly diminished from owning the equipment outright.