How much will my business save by installing solar?

The cost of solar energy deployment has decreased by over 70% in the past decade, making it the cheapest form of electricity in history.

By installing solar and offsetting electricity costs from the central grid, C&I property owners can reduce electricity costs by 75% on average. For an average C&I building owner with a $2,000 monthly electric bill, this equates to a new bill of roughly $500.

If you size your solar system for an 100% offset, you can eliminate 100% of your electricity costs (though you’ll still have to pay for basic utility costs, such as the fixed customer charges, assuming you opt for a grid-tied system).

There are several factors that can increase or decrease these savings: 1) The cost of your current electricity and 2) the way you buy solar.

The first part is a simple relationship: the higher the cost of your current electricity, the more solar will save you, since each kWh of solar production displaces a kWh of grid electricity. The second part is a bit more complicated as there are 3 main ways to buy solar: a cash purchase, a lease, or a power purchase agreement (PPA). A lease and PPA are ways to buy solar with no money down (which usually realizes savings in year 1) whereas a cash purchase is simply a direct purchase of solar that pays back over time (typically within 5-15 years).