You can now rent a solar panel system for your landed property in Singapore, and it’s simple and economically makes sense. We talked to the founder and CEO of GetSolar that started the service.
GetSolar Technology: Rent rooftop solar panels
Founded in early 2020. GetSolar Technology aims to make rooftop solar system adoption as simple, affordable and approachable across South-east Asia.
Solar energy, is the cheapest form of energy in our region, yet the take-up rate of rooftop solar energy in private residential properties is still slow. This is partly due to the perception that the technology is cumbersome and expensive to install and maintain.
In short, it’s just not worth it for average homeowners. But is it?
Solar AI’s latest service, the Rent-To-Own (RTO) scheme, begs to differ.
What was the impetus for the Rent to Own solar panel scheme?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: The cost of the solar system has fallen nearly 90 per cent in the last decade, and solar energy is now the cheapest form of energy to power electricity.
But rooftop solar adoption in the region is still under one per cent, mainly because of its high upfront cost and a lack of trust and awareness.
A residential solar panel system in Singapore typically takes about six to eight years to break even before you can enjoy free solar electricity for its remaining 20 odd years. But it’s difficult for customers to see through that, and many are worried about high maintenance costs or managing the system in case of issues.
In the Rent-to-Own (RTO) model, we finance, install and maintain rooftop solar systems on behalf of our customers, providing them with a risk-free solar system in exchange for a fixed monthly fee.
This monthly fee is typically $50 to $100 lower than their electricity bill, giving them zero-risk, instant savings.
How do you pitch the RTO scheme to Singaporean homeowners?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: The RTO scheme has three core benefits over purchasing a system outright:
- it has zero upfront cost
- provides instant savings
- Solar AI covers all maintenance and servicing
Being able to pay for solar monthly, just like how you pay for your regular electricity bills instead of footing a massive upfront fee of $20,000 to $50,000, makes the idea of adopting solar energy much less intimidating.
On top of that, we also provide a minimum energy guarantee on our solar systems.
We pay our customers for the difference if the system generates less energy than our projections, assuring them that well actively monitor and maintain their systems to generate the most electricity across our five- or 10-year plans.
GetSolar’s solar panel rental programme is only available for landed properties. Can HDB or condo owners rent solar panels in the future?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: Since the most effective way to harness energy is to install solar panels on rooftops, our offerings are limited to property owners.
As for multi-residential apartments like condominiums, existing metering arrangements limit the ability to export and monetise excess electricity to the grid, reducing solar benefits to these property owners.
However, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and SP Group are actively looking into this, and we’re looking forward to extending our offers to these customers.
In public housing, HDB already has a national plan to solarise all viable HDBs over time through large-scale government tenders.
Read More: HDB Plans To Increase Solar Capacity
How do the solar panels look? And how should they be installed on my roof?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: The aesthetics appeal will be somewhat subjective. In general. the panels are either dark blue or black in colour.
As long as it is placed neatly, a solar panel system can add a nice touch to the look of your house. Going green is a cool look these days too!
We’ve also had customers who highlighted the added benefits of reduced heat on their attic floors with solar panels as an additional layer of shade on their roofs.
The roof design is an essential factor to consider when it comes to energy yield because we are on the equator.
While the direction your solar panels face does not matter much, the inclination of the solar panels on your roof is extremely important.
For example, a 45-degree tilt compared to a 10-degree tilt can result in up to 20 per cent lower energy yield on your solar panels, as they receive less sunlight across all hours of the day.
How much money in electricity bills can we save with solar panels?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: The savings depends on the size of the roof and, as consequentially, the size of the solar system.
However, our average landed home customer saves between $350 to $400 each month.
Our 10-year RTO plan has zero upfront cost, and customers only need to pay a flat monthly fee, which is almost always lower than their electricity bill savings.
But should a family opt for our five-year plan, there is an affordable down payment compared to the total upfront cost of the solar panel system, and then they can pay off the remaining amounts every month.
Read Also: Electricity to come from Floating Solar Panels at the Tengeh Reservoir
How much electricity does an average Singaporean home use?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: The average HDB home consumes about 350 to 400 kWh each month, while landed homes consume about 1,200 kWh – these are statistics from EMA and SP Group.
However, we’ve seen our customers energy consumption range from 600 kWh for energy efficient landed homes to 5,000 kWh for some Good Class Bungalows (GCBs).
As a data science-focused company, we’ve also built an online solar simulator, allowing customers to find out their roof’s solar potential and compare this to their energy consumption to learn more about how much they can save.
To date, more than 3,000 landed homeowners in Singapore have used this solar assessment tool to get an instant estimate.
How many solar panels do I need for my landed home?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: On average, our solar panel systems will offset about 70 to 80 per cent of our customers’ energy consumption.
So, if the average landed home consumes 1,200 kWh of energy per month, it would require about 50 square metres of available roof space for solar panels to offset their energy consumption.
It’s a common misconception that solar panels have to power your home entirely. The right way to think about solar panels is that they are an additional energy source – similarly connected to your home like the conventional electricity from the grid.
Whenever your home is consuming electricity, with solar panels in place, solar energy will first be used instead of drawing electricity from the grid. At night, you simply continue to draw power from the grid.
A solar energy surplus generated during the day will automatically flow back into the grid, and homeowners are compensated for this amount by the SP Group.
Read More: Can I afford Solar Panels for my house in Singapore?
How many Singaporeans have converted to solar panels?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: Our RTO model was soft-launched in July 2022 and officially in October.
Through the past months, we seen a 2.5 times increase in take-up rate for the RTO model compared to paying for solar panels upfront, giving us confidence that were solving a pain point for our customers.
We’ve signed up more than 30 customers since.
Are some areas in Singapore better for solar panels?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: Singapore is a small nation, so weather patterns are generally quite similar across the island, so there isn’t a noticeable difference in different locations.
However, if you really want to go into the nitty gritty – the East and South of Singapore do have a slightly higher solar irradiance, which is a measure of the amount of sunlight over a period of time.
What are your hopes for the future?
GetSolar CEO Bolong Chew: We hope to continue sharing this RTO model with more property owners to help them switch to clean energy.
Our mission is to make it as simple as possible for all property owners to get a solar panel system. And a big part of doing this is providing accessible and affordable rooftop solar systems.
We are planning to expand this to the Philippines over the next two years and soon across the rest of SEA.