Going solar's getting easier.

New solar leasing deal heats up Australian market

By Staff Reporter on 15 October 2013

Leading solar developer Ingenero has formed a partnership with Thorn Money to help deliver its solar lease product, ENERGY ACCESS, after the completion of a successful trial period in Australia.

Still relatively new in Australia, the solar leasing model is well established in the US, with solar leases accounting for over 75 percent of solar systems sold in California in 2012.

Ingenero’s ENERGY ACCESS product – currently available to homeowners and commercial and large scale businesses – was the first solar system lease available in Australia.

The company’s partnership with Thorn Money, announced on Tuesday, aims to make solar power more accessible to Australian homeowners and businesses by offering to install systems at no upfront cost, with guaranteed financial backing,

Thorn Money General Manager Richard Shepherd has welcomed ENERGY ACCESS as a new addition to the company’s portfolio of financial products.

“The new partnership with Ingenero will be a long-term collaboration and will play a key role in our strategic initiative to broaden our range of products and services available to the Australian marketplace,” Shepherd said.

Innocent bystander wrote on Oct 15^th, 2013 at 7:24pm:
Leasing is a scam?

ah, take a chill pill, its all good, I mean, getting finance for your solar 'investment' from the lovely people at Radio Rentals / Rentlo couldn't possibly be a stitch up....hahaha

The personal finance equivalent to Pay Day Lenders....so much credibility there #, what on earth were you thinking???

Another senile moment perhaps??? 

PS. what a great name for a personal finance lender, Thorn Money, just picture that big thorn ripping into your bank account each month 

Is 27.5% too much???? Or is 14% too little?

# wrote on Oct 17^th, 2013 at 12:30pm:


don't be silly, its just a dodgy green scam being resuscitated by a dodgy finance scam. You really do need to keep up, your Public Servant background holding you back I guess....

# wrote on Oct 18^th, 2013 at 1:07pm:


its Friday, you've opened the cooking sherry already  ....exactly what conspiracy theory are you alluding to?

I've been in the finance industry for many, many years now old timer, I can smell high profit dodgy deals a mile off, this is one, and you are a fool if you think its a good thing for anyone other than the sharks involved.

Notwithstanding Rider's objections to making solar more affordable, leasing seems to be on the rise.

Solar leasing horizon opens up in Australia

By Jonathan Gifford on 8 November 2013

With the last of the subsidised PV markets in Australia subsiding, a new reality for residential and commercial PV is emerging. While true that the REC regime is still in place, the falling price of solar arrays and high and rising electricity prices have lead to a truly economic market for solar.

Part of this evolution is the introduction of solar leases to the market. If the primary purpose of the PV array is not to pump maximum volume back into the grid for a high FIT, but bring down electricity through self consumption of PV, leasing presents as a potentially good solution.

Solar leases effectively remove the upfront cost barrier to entry for potential residential and commercial PV consumers, with an array simply delivering below-retail price electricity over a set period. A further advantage is that it provides a hedge to the consumer against future price rises for utility-provided electricity.

Given this backdrop, PV companies have been keen to introduce solar leasing products into the Australian market. A number of module manufacturers, PV developers and installers and a US solar leasing provider have all entered the market, with various offerings, of late.

Sungevity introduces its solar lease

Californian based solar lease and online PV sales provider Sungevity entered the Australian market in Q4 2012 and reports good interest in the range of ‘nothing up front’ PV system offerings it has on offer.

Sungevity partnered with the New South Wales based installer Nick Lake to make market entry in Australia. Lake is now the Managing Director of Sungevity Australia. Sungevity first went to market, in terms of nothing-up-front PV, with a seven-year loan product. It has now expanded that with a 15-year pay-as-you-go agreement and will introduce the Sungevity solar lease in Q1 2014.

Sungevity’s Lake says that the staggered roll out of the company’s nothing-up-front offerings has been due to the time taken to secure debt financing for PV from Australian financial institutions. “It really has been a struggle to get the financing happening here in Australia – without the tax equity funding the US market has enjoyed,” said Lake. “There has been a lot of people doing good background work on this, and we’re only seeing now seeing the fruits of that labor.”

There have been reports from some Australian solar installers and developers that some PV retailers have been selling substandard PV modules and components. Certainly some little-known Chinese module manufacturers have been supplying the Australian market, often with product rebadged for sale in Australia.

Nick Lake, from Sungevity, says that the process of getting the banks involved in providing finance for PV arrays over an extended period will mean that the need for quality components will become increasingly important. Quality goes right to the heart of bankability,” said Lake. “Once you are bringing on financiers, they want to know that the equipment they are financing are going to last and do the job without headaches. So if you want to bring in banks and debt financing to this and eventually through to securitization, you are going to need to use reputable suppliers and assurances of good warranties.”

Trina introduces a lease

Last month Chinese manufacturer Trina Solar sought to consolidate its Australian market leading position, as a module supplier, by introducing a solar leasing scheme. Trina Solar Australia created the company Lightleasing to roll out its leasing service. The offer is being introduced into the market in Q4, 2013.

Installer Infinity Solar will roll out the scheme for Trina and Lightleasing, with Infitity’s Group Director Chris Thomson echoed the sentiment of Sungevity’s Lake, saying that by removing upfront costs, customers now have the opportunity to install a “high quality PV system.” “With a really low interest rate, in most cases, the energy savings generated by the solar system will dramatically reduce power bills, and cover the monthly loan repayment so customers are expected to save money from day one,” said Thomson.

The leasing scheme will provide both businesses and residential consumers the opportunity to install a PV system without upfront costs. Lightleasing provides a performance guarantee and “flexible lease terms, maintenance and insurance included,” the firms announced in a statement.

Commercial offering

While the Trina and Sungevity offers are catered to commercial customers, a Western Australian installer and solar developer is taking a different route to market with a leasing product. Perth based Infinite Energy has made an application to the state’s regulatory authorities to become an independent electricity retailer.

Once granted a license, Infinite Energy would be able to offer commercial sized solar installations under a PPA agreement. Infinite Energy’s Managing Director Aidan Jenkins said that under such a PPA, for most businesses, a PV installation can be revenue positive from day one, with the business owning the installation after the PPA concludes.

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Innocent bystander wrote on Oct 15^th, 2013 at 7:24pm:

Stop the presses, wihout environmentalism subsidies wouldn't exist