How do you pay for a solar battery installation?

Home batteries are taking off in the US; during 2019 and 2020, each quarter saw more residential energy storage installations than the previous one. And there’s good reason for this growth: the growth in the storage industry is driven by the desire for resilience in the face of increasing storms and outage events, and battery costs that have declined significantly over the last decade. 

But storage isn’t free: to take advantage of the myriad benefits batteries offer, you’ll first need to pay for your energy storage system. When paired with a solar panel system, a typical battery will cost around $15,000 on EnergySage. While there aren’t as many ways to pay for batteries as for solar, you still have a few different options to pay for storage at your disposal, each of which has pros and cons.

Similarly to solar, there are three primary models for financing your energy storage systems, with slight variations from what’s available for solar. 

Cash purchase

The most common way to pay for a battery is through an upfront, or cash, purchase. When you purchase a battery upfront, you take full advantage of any incentives and rebates, from tax credits to cash rebates to performance-based incentives. Like solar, buying your battery upfront is the best way to maximize your savings with storage.

At the same time, the one clear drawback of a cash purchase is that storage isn’t cheap. If you want to purchase your system in cash, you’ll need enough capital to pay for your battery, which can set you back $15,000 or more, depending on how much backup power you’re after.  

Storage loans

Storage loans are another way to own your system outright. They let you pay for the system over ten years, as opposed to all at once upfront. There are two different types of storage loans: 

• Solar-plus-storage loan: the most common way to finance a storage system is through a dual solar-plus-storage loan. If you’re buying a new solar-plus-storage system, adding the price of a battery to your solar loan will increase your monthly bills slightly.

• Storage-only loan: increasingly, solar financing companies offer storage-only loans, meaning you can take advantage of low-cost financing even for a retrofit or standalone storage system.

Storage loans–or solar/solar-plus-storage loans–are available through several entities, from solar-specific lenders to home-equity loans through your bank or credit union. Check out our loan marketplace to see some financiers in your area, or schedule a call with one of our Energy Advisors if you have a question about the differences between loans or financing options. 

Battery lease

Similar to leasing a solar panel system–or a car–some companies also offer leases for energy storage systems. While much rarer than leases for solar panels, the concept works effectively the same way: pay a monthly fee for your battery, which someone else owns and maintains for you. If you plan to lease your solar panel system and you want to add storage, rolling the battery into your solar lease might be the best way to finance it.

EnergySage is the nation's online marketplace for solar and storage. When you sign up for a free account, we connect you with companies in your area who compete for your business with custom solar-plus-storage quotes tailored to your needs. Over 10 million people visit EnergySage annually to learn about, shop for, and invest in solar and home batteries. Sign up today to see how much you can save.