Nashville
Solar Financing
Solar and batteries in Nashville are a long-term infrastructure decision, not an impulse purchase. Whether you’re a homeowner in Donelson or Franklin, or you manage a commercial building in Cool Springs, La Vergne, or downtown, the real question is rarely “Can I afford solar?” It’s “How do I structure this so the cash flow, tax picture, and roof timeline all make sense over the next decade or two?”
In Middle Tennessee, that means dealing with NES, Middle Tennessee Electric, and TVA-based rules, plus a mix of tax incentives, loans, and sometimes grant support. It also means looking at your roof, electrical system, and business or household budget as one connected picture. A strong financing plan doesn’t start with a rate and a term; it starts with your property, your utility bills, and what you want solar and batteries to actually do for you.
As The Solar Roofers and The Metal Roofers, we sit at the intersection of roof systems, energy design, and real-world financing. We help Nashville families and businesses turn a pile of proposals into a simple path: what the project costs, what the incentives can do, how different financing options change your monthly cash flow, and how that lines up with your plans for the property. You end up with a system that is engineered for this market and financed in a way that fits the way you actually live and work in Middle Tennessee.
But solar isn’t free - to get these levels of savings, you have to first pay for your solar panel system, with a typical solar panel system costs around $25,000 on EnergySage. Thankfully, there are a number of different ways to pay for your solar panel system, each with their own pros and cons.
Residential Solar Financing
There’s a reason why 2.5 million homeowners–and counting–have already installed solar in the US: it’s a great investment! Solar panel systems last for 25 years or more, offsetting most or all of your electricity bill every month. Those monthly savings add up quickly: if you spend $150 per month on electricity today, you’ll spend over $65,000 on electricity in the next 25 years. By investing in solar, you can avoid most or all of that future spending on electricity.
Solar financing is the option for homeowners to instruments like loans and leases to come up with the funds needed to purchase a solar system by paying in installments over time instead of out-of-pocket upfront at the time of purchase.
There are a number of financing partners available through EnergySage. Some loan providers include GreenBiz Financial and LightStream.
But solar isn’t free - to get these levels of savings, you have to first pay for your solar panel system, with a typical solar panel system costs around $25,000 on EnergySage. Thankfully, there are a number of different ways to pay for your solar panel system, each with their own pros and cons.
Good financing is built around your NES or MTE usage patterns, not a generic “average bill” slide. For a homeowner in East Nashville, Sylvan Park, or Mt. Juliet, that means looking at seasonal swings, HVAC loads, and how much you value backup when storms hit. For a commercial building in Brentwood, Antioch, or Hendersonville, it means understanding business hours, production cycles, and how utility charges behave when you grow.
We start with bills and roof measurements, then design the system. Only after the system is defined do we talk about ways to pay for it, cash, loans, commercial financing structures, or combinations that keep the project moving without straining your budget. The financing supports a well-engineered project; it never drives you into a system that doesn’t match your roof or your usage just to hit a payment number.
In Nashville, a lot of roofs are already halfway through their life, or beyond. Mounting a 20+ year solar array on a roof that is almost due for replacement is an easy way to create extra cost later. Because we are The Metal Roofers and The Solar Roofers, we design the roof system and the solar system together, then help you decide whether they should be financed together as well.
For homeowners, that can look like one unified project that replaces an aging shingle roof with a new metal system, adds solar, and includes a battery for outages, with a single payment plan. For businesses, it can mean timing roof upgrades, structural work, and solar across a capital budget instead of treating them as unrelated emergencies. The paperwork separates roof and solar where your CPA needs it to, but the schedule and financing stay coordinated so you are paying for a complete, long-lived system rather than a patchwork.
Financing lives in the same world as tax filings, lender underwriting, and utility approvals. In Middle Tennessee, that means your project timeline needs to respect design, permitting, roof work, interconnection approvals, and funding milestones. We build the project schedule around your reality, busy seasons for your business, school schedules for your family, and known utility or city timelines, then work with your lender and tax professional so the money and paperwork arrive in the right order.
You are not left to juggle a roofer, a solar installer, a bank, and a tax advisor on your own. We keep the technical side organized, provide clean documentation, and adjust scopes or phasing when something changes. The goal is that when construction starts, your financing is in place, your incentives are understood, and everyone involved knows what is being built and how it is being paid for.
How do I decide between paying cash and financing a solar project in Nashville?
The decision comes down to your cash reserves, your other priorities, and how long you plan to own the property. Paying cash can simplify things and maximize long-term savings, especially if you’re settled in a home in Franklin, Brentwood, or Green Hills for the long haul. Financing can make sense if you want to keep cash free for other projects, or if you’re a business that prefers to spread costs across predictable monthly payments.
For households, we look at your budget, your expected power offset, and how much you value backup during outages. For businesses and churches, we also look at how the project fits into your capital plan and how the payments align with your operating budget. We lay out both scenarios side by side using your NES or MTE data: cash versus financed, so you and your CPA can see how each choice behaves over time.
Can I finance a new roof and a solar system together on my Nashville home or building?
Yes, and in many cases that’s the most logical approach. If you have a 15–20+ year old shingle roof in Donelson, Madison, or Bellevue, or an aging flat roof on a warehouse in La Vergne or Lebanon, it often makes more sense to replace or upgrade the roof before installing solar. Financing the roof and solar as one planned project lets you address both problems at once and match the payment to the life of the combined system.
We separate the roof and solar costs clearly in your paperwork so your lender and tax professional can handle them appropriately, but we plan the construction as one job. That way, you are not taking on a short-term band-aid roof just to “get solar up” or paying twice to remove and reinstall an array when the old roof finally fails.
What kinds of financing options are available for Nashville businesses and commercial properties?
Commercial property owners around Nashville typically look at a mix of traditional loans, equipment-style financing, and in some cases structures that blend ownership and service agreements. Which path fits depends on the size of the system, the strength of the balance sheet, and how you prefer to treat the project on your books.
A small office condo in Green Hills may be best served with a relatively straightforward loan tied to the building. A manufacturing plant in Smyrna or a distribution center in Mt. Juliet might lean toward a dedicated energy or equipment facility. We work with your existing bank or trusted lender whenever possible, providing the technical details, cost breakdowns, and production estimates they need to underwrite the project. You stay in control of the relationship; we supply the engineering.
Will solar financing affect my ability to sell or refinance my property later?
Handled correctly, a financed solar and battery system should support property value rather than complicate it. On the residential side, buyers in Franklin, Nolensville, and East Nashville are increasingly comfortable with owned systems that come with clear documentation and predictable energy benefits. When there is an existing loan on the system, it simply becomes part of the conversation at closing, similar to other improvements that were financed.
On the commercial side, the key is clean documentation and coordination with your lender. Appraisers, buyers, and banks want to see drawings, cost history, maintenance records, and utility data that show how the system performs. As long as those are in place, solar tends to be viewed as an improvement to the asset, and refinancing becomes a matter of structuring the debt rather than untangling a mystery project. We keep records and as-built documentation in a form that travels well when you eventually sell or refinance.
How does my credit profile or business financials affect solar financing options in Middle Tennessee?
For homeowners, lenders look at many of the same factors they use for other home-improvement loans: credit history, income, existing obligations, and overall financial stability. Stronger profiles generally have access to more choices and better terms; more constrained profiles may still be able to move forward, but with different structures. We don’t pull your credit ourselves; instead, we connect you with lenders who specialize in this type of project and let you review offers directly with them.
For businesses, the focus shifts to financial statements, debt levels, and building ownership. An owner-occupied building with stable operations in Antioch or Hendersonville may see one set of options; a multi-tenant property in downtown Nashville might see another. Our role is to shape the project so it fits within the capacity your lender is comfortable with, rather than pushing you toward a system that doesn’t match your financial reality.
How long does the solar financing process take, and when do payments usually begin?
The overall timeline is shaped by three pieces moving together: financing approval, design and permitting, and utility or city approvals. In many Nashville projects, financing decisions can move quickly once design and pricing are in place, while permits and utility interconnection can take longer depending on workload at Metro Codes, NES, MTE, or your co-op.
We sequence the work so financing, approvals, and scheduling line up. For homeowners, that often means securing financing around the same time permits are submitted, so that by the time we are ready to schedule your install in Donelson, Hermitage, or Franklin, everything is in place. For commercial projects, payment schedules are usually tied to milestones, design, equipment ordering, and construction phases. We spell those out clearly so you know when each payment is due, what work it corresponds to, and how that fits with your internal approvals.
