IES Texas Solar Explains the Solar Panel Operating Lease as Commercial Financing Option

IES Texas Solar, a company based in Rowlett, TX, has recently released a blog post featuring an interview with Justin Charles, Energy Solutions Manager at IES, where he explains the solar panel operating lease as a commercial financing option for a solar panel installation. Justin has been in the solar industry for approximately 12 years and he has been with IES for about 18 months. He has been focusing on what and how they are building their commercial solar projects, both from an engineering and a creative design viewpoint. Furthermore, they also assist customers in making a project a reality by suggesting innovative financing solutions that make the solar installation financially feasible for them.

In this particular interview, Justin Charles discusses the operating lease as one of the commercial financing options for a solar project. In the operating lease, the lessor is considered as the owner of the solar panel system and the lessee makes monthly payments to the lessor. In effect, the company is renting the equipment from the lessor or the bank.

Justin Charles says, “Today we’re going to discuss operating leases, which is what’s considered a true lease by the IRS. In this situation, you don’t have a predetermined buyout at the end of the lease. At the end of the lease, you have three choices which are continuing the lease, removing the system or buying it for fair market value. At fair market value, you don’t know what it is. However, usually what you do is you can write a buyout for the year before at a predetermined value. The lessor who bought this system for you, they depreciate the system and then take advantage of the tax credits and this is important. They use that to give you a reduced payment option. So the reason that you would look at this in particular is they’re maybe three or four, really good reasons to look at an operating lease.”

With an operating lease as a commercial solar panel financing option, the lessor gets the benefit of the tax credit, which uses it to decrease monthly payments. While it would not be as good as paying in cash for the solar panel system, the company will be able to get some savings, which is better than not getting any tax benefits.

Another good reason for choosing an operating lease is when the company has capital expenditure requirements. For instance, if the company has to get back a capital expenditure in three to five years, and the payback of the solar system is seven years, it could be funded by an operating lease, providing more room for an operating budget. Thus, rather than buying the solar system with cash, the company uses an operating lease and gets some savings.

Founded in 1973 as Houston-Stafford Electric, IES has evolved into one of the biggest and most reputable electrical contracting companies that provide their services throughout the United States, but most especially in the state of Texas. It was in the early 2000s that the company started to entertain the possibility of providing solar installation services for both residential and commercial buildings. And in 2012, they started providing a complete turnkey process for solar panel projects. They offer a wide range of services, such as: security and fire alarm systems monitoring and installation; solar design and installation services; and voice, data, and video design and installation.

IES Texas Solar offers both residential and commercial solar panel installation services. There are a number of things that make IES one of the leading providers of commercial solar panel installations. These include: their provision of a turn-key installation; the fact that IES is an industry leader in both commercial and residential solar installations; and their proven experience, having provided such services since 2010 and completing more than 1,500 solar installations in Texas.

Those who want to know more about the solar panel operating lease can visit the IES Texas Solar website, or contact them through the telephone or via email. They can also go to the blog post and listen to the interview. They are actively growing their business and accepting new clients.