What is a distributed solar PV business model?

Source: Authors. Distributed solar PV business models include project-owner investment, bank loans, financial leasing, and cooperative development. Bank loans and, in particular, financial leasing are the two main financing models at present. Banks are generally unwilling to provide financing.

How does a solar lease work?

With a solar lease, the customer does not pay for the energy produced but leases the equipment and uses the energy generated by the PV system. This means monthly rental payments (e.g. $/month) , , . The leasing solution is usually predominant in states in the US where PPAs are not permitted .

What is the difference between a solar PPA and a lease agreement?

While under a solar lease agreement, the host customer pays a certain amount of monthly rental ($/month), regardless of the actual amount of energy produced by the system, under a solar PPA, the host customer pays a power bill on the basis of generation per kW h ($/kW h). As such, the amount paid varies monthly with generation.

What is a distributed PV generation business model?

Distributed PV generation business models include both customer-owned projects, projects owned by third parties who can more efficiently use the available tax credits and utility-owned investments in distributed solar projects or companies.

What are the investment and financing challenges for distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) development?

The primary investment and financing challenges for distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) development in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area) are dificulties in securing fi- nancing from banks, long payback periods, and high financing costs from finance leasing, as well as the lack of a profit-guarantee mechanism.

What is distributed solar generation?

Distributed solar generation (DSG) has been growing over the previous years because of its numerous advantages of being sustainable, flexible, reliable, and increasingly affordable. DSG is a broad and multidisciplinary research field because it relates to various fields in engineering, social sciences, economics, public policy, and others.