New Jersey Solar Panel Costs
The upfront cost of a solar energy system is dependent on the size of your system, the complexity of the roof installation, and your choice of solar panels. There is an argument to be made however that regardless of whether you pay for your system up front in cash, or finance it over some period, all solar panel systems end up being free.
The reasons for this are simple: every month you use your system, you will save money on your electric bill. These savings will eventually offset the cost of any system. The only difference is how long that will take. If you chose to pay cash, you will typically have the fastest payback (5 – 7 years). If you chose one of our zero dollar down finance options, it will take a bit longer but then you don’t have to come up with any money up front.
Green House Solar Financing Options
Solar Purchase
Put simply, purchasing your solar system outright results in the quickest payback of your investment through savings on your electric bill and NJ SRECs. Not to mention NJ State and Federal incentives that are available which increase your savings even more. These incentives are adjusted from time to time, but the team at Green House Solar stays on top of everything and makes sure you have all of all the information necessary to take advantage of every discount and incentive possible once your installation is complete.
Solar Loan
A solar loan is just like getting a loan for your car except for one thing: you typically don’t have to make any net payments. Your solar panels make the payments for you! You achieve instant savings on your electric bill without spending any money. Solar Loan is probably the most popular option with our customers because they get a solar energy system and utility bill savings without having to lay out any cash at all.
Solar Lease
With solar leasing, the amount you pay for energy is locked in at a fixed cost, regardless of what happens in the SREC or energy market generally. Furthermore since you don’t own the system, the leasing company (Sunpower) is fully responsible for the costs of maintaining and fixing your system.
Factors Affecting the Cost of Solar Panel Systems
If you’ve asked this question a bunch but still don’t feel like you’re getting a straight answer, we’d like to try to explain why that’s probably true.
- Generic “per square foot” estimates from website calculators on many solar installer sites are basically worthless. They are designed to produce low numbers for whatever you input so that they can get you to call them. Then watch these estimates go up, up, up….
- There’s a lot more to cost than knowing how big your system will be. Even if you are smart enough to know that you will have a 10KW system on a roof that fits 20 panels, the analysis of solar panel costs doesn’t end there:
– How much power does your home or office typically consume
– What are you currently spending for electricity?
– What efficiency are the panels you would like?
– What are the aesthetics of the panel you like? There are color choices!
– What roofs and angles to the sun are available for installation?
– Do trees block the sun that will need to be taken down?
– What is the condition of the underlying roof? Will it support the installation?
– How will power be run? Where will inverters be placed?
– Will a backup system be installed? Where? How large? - Financing options. The short answer to how much your system will cost can indeed be ZERO Dollars. But of course we know that really means that the costs of installation are simply spread out over many months, increasing the amount of time before your system really pays you back fully in energy savings.
So What will my Solar Panel System Really Cost?
If you are serious about solar, the best and perhaps only true way to get a proper solar cost estimate is to call and speak to an expert.
Frank Curran and his team are true experts who love what they do and who want to bring solar to NJ to help create a better, greener future for all of us.