Solar Loans: Compare Solar Panel Financing Options

What is a solar loan?

A solar loan is an unsecured personal loan used to pay for solar panels and installation. Banks, credit unions and online lenders provide solar loans. Typical loan amounts range from $1,000 to $100,000, and annual percentage rates (APRs) typically vary from about 6% to about 36%.

» MORE: See our picks for the year’s best solar companies

How do solar loans work?

Solar loans are installment loans, which means you receive the money in a lump sum and repay it in equal monthly installments over a predetermined period, typically two to seven years.

Solar loans tend to be unsecured, meaning they don’t require you to provide collateral. This means your home or solar panels aren’t at risk of foreclosure if you miss payments, but you may have to pay late fees and a higher interest rate.

» MORE: What to know about solar panel financing

Solar loan rates and features

Be sure to understand these solar loan features when you're looking for a low-cost solar loan that fits your budget.

Annual percentage rate

APR represents the total cost of a loan, including interest and any fees ^[1]. It offers the best way to make an apples-to-apples cost comparison between loan offers and other financing options. The loan with the lowest APR is the least expensive.

Monthly payments

Affordable monthly payments are as important as getting a low rate. Be sure that loan payments fit comfortably into your budget, as missed or late payments can reduce your credit score.

Fees

Some lenders may charge an origination fee of 1% to 10% of the loan amount. For a $30,000 solar loan, for example, this could mean fees of $300 to $3,000. The lender may deduct the fee before sending you the funds, reducing the amount you actually receive.

Repayment term

The length of a loan’s repayment term affects the size of the monthly payments. Some lenders offer extended repayment terms specifically for home improvement projects. Although loans with longer repayment terms have lower monthly payments, they result in higher total interest costs.

» MORE: How to choose the best personal loan term length

How to get a solar loan

» MORE: How long does it take to get a personal loan?

Solar panel tax benefits

The federal government offers a 30% tax credit to homeowners who purchase and install a new solar panel system^[1]. For example, if you install solar panels in 2025, you could receive a $6,000 credit on a $20,000 system with the federal tax credit alone.

Tax credits reduce your tax liability and aren't the same as tax deductions or tax refunds. Tax credits work similarly to gift cards: if you get a $6,000 credit, you can apply it to your tax bill to reduce how much you owe by $6,000. And like gift cards, this credit is nonrefundable, meaning if you don’t owe taxes, or owe less money than the tax credit, you won’t get that leftover money back in cash. You may, however, be able to carry any unused tax credit amount to a future tax year.

You can take advantage of tax benefits if you own your system, no matter how you pay for it.

Some states also offer tax benefits and other incentives for solar installation. You can look up your state’s offerings in the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency.

Other ways to finance solar panels

Solar energy company financing

Some solar companies offer financing through third-party lenders. These loans can be similar to personal loans — unsecured with no down payment required. The payment plans could have lower rates and longer repayment terms than personal loans, making your monthly payment lower.

Compare a quote from a solar company with other options to find the least expensive one.

Home equity loan

If you know how much your solar panels will cost, you can apply for a fixed-rate home equity loan. These loans typically have lower rates and longer repayment terms than unsecured loans, as putting your home up as collateral reduces the lender's risk.

» MORE: Best home equity loans

Home equity line of credit

A HELOC is another low-rate option that is secured by your home. It’s more flexible than a home equity loan because you can draw on funds as you need them, and you often have the option to pay only interest during the initial phase of the loan. Unlike personal and home equity loans, HELOCs have variable rates.

» MORE: Best home equity lines of credit

Cash-out refinance

A cash-out refinance is a second mortgage that’s larger than your current mortgage. You use the new loan to pay off the old loan and then “cash out” the difference to purchase solar panels. It can be a good option if current mortgage rates are lower than what you’re paying and if you can keep closing costs low.

Closing costs can range from about 2% to about 5% of the mortgage amount. That means a $350,000 mortgage can have $17,500 in closing costs — more than half the cost of installing a new solar panel system.

» MORE: Best cash-out refinance lenders

Leasing or getting a power purchase agreement

If you don’t want to make a large upfront payment or are ineligible for federal and state tax credits, consider a power purchase agreement or leasing solar panels.

In both cases, you pay little or no upfront costs to essentially rent and use the solar panels. The owner of the panels collects payment from you, as rent or through usage, and receives federal tax credits or any available tax incentives from the government.

Are solar panels a good investment?

Here’s how to determine whether solar panels are worth the investment.

Calculate your sun exposure, costs and savings. Whether and how much solar panels will affect your electricity bill depends on where you live. For example, someone in Seattle might not get the same value from solar panels as someone in Phoenix because of the disparity in sunshine.

To estimate your savings, you first need to know how many kilowatt-hours you use and how much you’re paying for them. In 2022, the average household used 899 kilowatt-hours each month^[1]. In September 2025, residential customers paid an average of 18.8 cents per kilowatt-hour, which comes out to about $170 per month^[1]

Then, figure out what size system you’ll need. You can use a solar savings calculator to see how many panels your home would need and how much energy they would generate.

» MORE: Are solar panels worth it?

Estimate your payback period. Your solar loan payback period is the time it takes for your electric bill savings to match the cost of installing the system. This will be years, not months.

Other factors determining your payback period include maintenance costs and whether utility rates change in your area.

How we chose the best personal loans

Our team of consumer lending experts follows an objective and robust methodology to rate lenders and pick the best.

30+

Lenders reviewed

We review over 35 lenders, including major banks, top credit unions, leading digital platforms, and high interest installment lenders operating across multiple states.

25+

Categories assessed

Each lender is evaluated across five weighted categories and 27 subcategories, covering affordability, eligibility, consumer experience, flexibility, and application process.

60+

Data points analyzed

Our team tracks and reassesses hundreds of data points annually, including APR ranges, fees, credit requirements, and borrower tools, ensuring up to date, accurate comparisons.

Star rating categories

We evaluate more categories than competitors and carefully weigh how each factor impacts your experience.

Affordability

25%

We review lenders’ annual percentage rate offerings and the competitiveness of each lenders’ APR range. We also assess whether a lender charges an origination fee and any opportunity for borrowers to receive a rate discount.

Customer experience

20%

We consider the experience of the consumer trying to manage a personal loan, which means accessibility of customer service representatives, whether borrowers can choose and change their payment due date, and the ability to track their loan on a mobile app.

Underwriting and eligibility

20%

We consider the rigorousness of each lender’s underwriting practices and how widely available their loans are. This category includes whether a lender does a hard credit check before providing a loan, the range of credit profiles they accept and how many states their loans are offered in.

Loan flexibility

20%

We assess how flexible lenders can be with borrowers, including whether they offer multiple loan types, personal loan amounts and repayment term options and whether they offer direct payment to creditors on debt consolidation loans.

Application process

15%

We consider the lender’s full application process, including a borrower’s ability to preview their loan offer via pre-qualification, whether basic loan information such as APR range and repayment terms are available and easy to find online and how quickly a loan can be funded after approval.

5.0

Overall score

NerdWallet’s review process evaluates and rates personal loan products from more than 30 financial technology companies and financial institutions. We collect over 60 data points and cross-check company websites, earnings reports and other public documents to confirm product details. We may also go through a lender’s pre-qualification flow and follow up with company representatives. NerdWallet writers and editors conduct a full fact check and update annually, but also make updates throughout the year as necessary.

Our star ratings award points to lenders that offer consumer-friendly features, including: soft credit checks to pre-qualify, competitive interest rates and no fees, transparency of rates and terms, flexible payment options, fast funding times, accessible customer service, reporting of payments to credit bureaus and financial education. Our ratings award fewer points to lenders with practices that may make a loan difficult to repay on time, such as charging high annual percentage rates (above 36%), underwriting that does not adequately assess consumers’ ability to repay and lack of credit-building help. We also consider regulatory actions filed by agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We weigh these factors based on our assessment of which are the most important to consumers and how meaningfully they impact consumers’ experiences.

NerdWallet does not receive compensation for our star ratings. Read more about our ratings methodologies for personal loans and our editorial guidelines.

Show more