From the financial return point of view, buying a solar PV system is more beneficial than buying solar power. When you buy a solar system, you become the owner of the solar system and it adds to the property value of your building. Also, once the Return on Investment is achieved within a period of 3~4 years, the power generated by your solar system is available to you virtually for free. The ownership of the solar system also brings the benefits of accelerated depreciation and tax redemptions which is a great financial benefit for commercial and industrial power consumers.

If you choose to buy solar power instead of the solar system, you are relieved from paying the capital cost of the solar system. This reduces the cost of going solar initially as you are required to pay just the per unit cost of solar power that you will be consuming. However, in the longer run, i.e. 20~25 years, the amount spent on the solar power consumed surpasses the capital cost and the operation and maintenance cost of the solar system. Since you won’t own the solar system here, this also takes away the accelerated depreciation and tax redemption benefits that you could have availed if you had owned the solar system. Having said that, buying solar power is a good deal for large power consumers such as an industry or a business setup who have most of their funds employed in their working capital. This way these businesses can enjoy the benefits of low cost power without having to struggle to pay for the capital cost of the solar system upfront.

You can know the estimated cost that you will have to incur in both buying a solar system or buying a solar power by running the MYSUN Solar Calculator.