Leasing vs. Buying: What’s the Difference?

When you lease solar panels, you pay monthly to use them, but the company owns them.

They fix any problems, but you don’t get tax breaks or rebates. You keep paying every month for 15 to 25 years.

When you buy solar panels, they’re yours.

You get all the tax breaks, rebates, and savings. You can also upgrade or change your system whenever you want. Owning solar panels makes your home worth more, too.

Pros and Cons of Leasing Solar Panels

Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of leasing solar panels, so you can decide with confidence.

Pros:

• Start Right Away: Begin cutting your electric bill without spending thousands upfront.

• Zero Maintenance Hassle: The solar company handles all repairs and keeps everything working perfectly.

• Fixed Monthly Cost: Your payment stays the same every month, making it easy to budget and avoiding surprise electric bills.

• Anyone Can Qualify: Great option if you have poor credit or just don’t want to buy a system.

Cons:

• No Ownership Benefits: You miss out on tax credits, rebates, and the extra home value that comes with owning panels.

• Smaller Total Savings: Monthly lease payments over 20+ years mean you save less money than buying would.

• Selling Problems: Future home buyers may not want your lease, which could make your house sit on the market longer.

• No Control: You’re stuck with what you get — no adding panels or making improvements to fit your changing needs.

Pros and Cons of Buying Solar Panels

Buying solar panels is a long-term investment. Let’s look at the pros and cons to see if it’s worth it.

Pros:

• Save money on electric bills: Solar panels cut your electric bills for 20–30 years. Most people save thousands of dollars over time.

• Get all the rebates and tax breaks: When you own the panels, you keep all the money from government rebates and tax credits.

• Your home is worth more: Solar panels make your house worth more money and easier to sell.

• Easy to take care of: Solar panels need almost no work once they’re up. They come with long warranties too.

• Make your own clean power: You create electricity from sunlight and don’t rely on the power company as much.

Cons:

• Costs a lot upfront: You’ll pay $17,000-$25,000 before any discounts. That’s a big chunk of money to spend at once.

• Weather matters: Panels make less power on cloudy days. If your roof doesn’t get much sun, they won’t work as well.

• Your roof needs to work for solar: You need enough space and the right setup. Not every roof can handle solar panels.

• Takes years to pay for itself: It usually takes 6–10 years before you save enough money to cover what you spent.

• Batteries cost extra: Want power at night or during outages? You’ll need to buy expensive batteries separately.

How to Decide: What’s Right for You?

The solar lease vs purchase choice comes down to your money situation, plans, and what you want from solar.

Lease solar panels if you:

• Want to save money on electric bills right now without paying much upfront.

• Don’t want to worry about fixing or maintaining anything.

• Don’t have great credit or much cash available.

Buy solar panels if you:

• Plan to stay in your home for many years.

• Have good credit for solar panel financing or money to pay upfront.

• Want tax breaks and to make your home worth more.

• Don’t mind taking care of your own system.

Think about how comfortable you are with owning things.

When you buy, you handle any problems but also get to make all the decisions. When you lease, the company takes care of everything but you can’t change anything.

Look at your budget goals too. Buying saves you more in the long run, but takes years to pay off. Leasing gives you smaller savings right away with the same payment every month.

For more info: https://www.stephenssolar.net/