Facts checked 25 July 2026. PPA pricing is contract-specific — figures here describe structure, not a quote.
A Solar Power Purchase Agreement is the arrangement where someone else pays for the solar system on your roof, and you buy the electricity it produces. No capital outlay, no maintenance responsibility — in exchange for a long contract and a smaller share of the savings.
We offer both routes — outright installation and PPAs — so we have no reason to push you toward either. This is the honest comparison.
How a PPA works
- The provider designs, funds, installs, owns, insures and maintains a solar system on your premises.
- You commit to buying the electricity it generates, at a rate set below your grid rate, typically for 10–25 years.
- At the end, depending on the contract: buy the system at market value, extend the agreement, or have it removed.
The commercial logic is simple: your roof is worth more generating electricity than doing nothing, and the provider’s return comes from the spread between what the system costs to run and the rate you pay. Your saving is the gap between the PPA rate and your grid rate — real from month one, but smaller than if you owned the asset.
PPA vs buying: the honest comparison
Buy outright when you can. That’s not a sales line — it’s arithmetic. Ownership captures the whole benefit: the NDMG grant (PPA providers claim it instead, passing it through in the rate), Accelerated Capital Allowances against year-one tax, and every unit at full value for 25+ years. Over the life of the system, ownership beats a PPA on total euros in almost every realistic scenario.
A PPA earns its place when:
- Capital is genuinely better used elsewhere. If money invested in the business returns more than the solar spread, preserving it is rational.
- You want zero operational involvement. Performance risk, maintenance, insurance and inverter replacement all sit with the provider, usually with a generation guarantee.
- The balance sheet matters. PPA payments are an operating cost; no debt, no depreciation schedule.
- Your tenure is long but your certainty isn’t. Contracts can carry assignment provisions for a property sale — though this is exactly the clause to have your solicitor read twice.
The trade-offs to go in with open eyes about:
- Long commitment — 10–25 years is longer than most business plans.
- Less control — it’s the provider’s equipment; changes need their agreement.
- Total cost — you will pay more over the term than an owner would.
- Credit assessment — providers fund the asset, so they underwrite you.
Questions to ask any PPA provider (including us)
- What is the starting rate, and what is the annual escalation? (Fixed-with-escalation of 1–3% is typical — model the final-year rate, not the first-year one.)
- What happens if the system underperforms — is there a guaranteed generation floor with compensation?
- What are the end-of-term options, priced how?
- What happens if we sell the building?
- Who insures what, and who pays for the inverter replacement mid-term?
A provider that answers all five in writing is worth talking to. One that gets vague on question 3 or 4 is not.
What we’d tell a friend
If your business is profitable, has the cash or cheap finance, and intends to stay in the building: own the system — grant, allowances and full savings included. If capital is tight or you want energy-as-a-service simplicity: a well-drafted PPA is a legitimate, sensible route that beats doing nothing by a wide margin every year it runs.
The wrong answer is the third one — leaving a large daytime load under an empty roof at Irish commercial electricity prices.
Ask us to model both options for your site — we’ll show the arithmetic side by side. (090) 640 0180.