Solar Finance & Solar Rental
Commercial solar on a monthly rental, funded in-house by DaisyFin. R0 deposit options for qualifying businesses and approval in 48 business hours.
Solar & EnergyWhy SA businesses choose Daisy for Solar & Energy
Most South African businesses that should have solar do not have it for one reason: the capital. A commercial installation is a significant upfront number, and it competes for the same budget as stock, vehicles and staff. So the decision gets deferred, usually into next year's capital cycle, while the electricity bill keeps climbing.
Solar finance removes that barrier. The system is installed now and you pay a fixed monthly rental, out of operating expenditure rather than capital. Daisy funds the agreement in-house through DaisyFin, our own finance division. DaisyFin is not a bank and not a third-party financier: we fund the agreement directly, which is unusual in the South African market, where most solar installers have to send you to a lender that does not understand solar.
A solar system should do more than look good on a sustainability report. It should make financial sense.
Jaques du Plessis, Solar Director, Daisy
Why this matters more every year
Electricity is now 177% more expensive than it was ten years ago. A business that has never lost a single hour to an outage is still losing money every month it stays fully grid dependent. The outage is the visible problem. The cost curve is the one almost nobody is building a strategy around, because the fix has historically required capital that was never going to be approved.
The payback maths
Cashflow positive in year one is the point worth sitting with. It means the monthly rental is lower than the electricity saving the system produces, so it pays its way from the first month rather than after a payback period. Whether that holds for your site depends on your consumption, your tariff and your roof, which is what the assessment establishes.
How solar finance works
- 01
Energy assessment
We analyse your actual consumption, your tariff, your site constraints and what is most at risk during an outage. This is what determines whether the numbers work, before anything is quoted.
- 02
System design
The right combination of solar, battery and generator capacity for what actually needs protecting, sized to real consumption rather than to a package.
- 03
Your monthly rental, approved in-house
DaisyFin handles credit and approval directly. No bank, no broker, no third-party lender. Decisions in 48 business hours with a clear term sheet that states the monthly amount and the term.
- 04
Install and commission
Handled end to end by our team from procurement through commissioning, with a Certificate of Compliance issued under SANS 10142-1.
- 05
Monitor and maintain
Real-time production and consumption data, with maintenance included rather than billed as a separate call-out, for the life of the agreement.
What the monthly rental covers
R0 deposit options
R0 deposit options for qualifying businesses, so the system can go in without drawing on working capital.
Approval in 48 business hours
DaisyFin runs credit and approval in-house. There is no bank in the middle, which is why the turnaround is days rather than weeks.
The whole installation
Panels, inverters, battery backup, generator capacity and the Daisy CUBE can all sit inside one agreement, not just the panels.
Maintenance included
Monitoring and maintenance are part of the offering rather than a separate call-out cost, so the monthly figure is the whole figure.
From R15,000 upwards
The same finance facility covers technology, print, security and energy assets, so a solar agreement can sit alongside the rest of your infrastructure.
One invoice
If Daisy already supplies your connectivity, IT, print or security, the energy rental consolidates onto the same monthly invoice.
Monthly rental, or buy outright
Neither is automatically right. It depends on what your capital is worth to you.
Buying outright
Monthly rental through DaisyFin
Full system cost committed upfront, competing with stock, vehicles and hiring
Paid monthly from operating expenditure, with R0 deposit options for qualifying businesses
Payback period of roughly 2 to 5 years before the investment is recovered
Typically cashflow positive within the first year, because the saving covers the rental
Capital tied up in an asset for a 25 year design life
Working capital stays available for the business
Maintenance and monitoring usually quoted separately
Maintenance and monitoring included in the agreement
Bank or third-party finance if you need to fund it, on their timeline
Funded in-house by DaisyFin, decision in 48 business hours
Capital purchase
Full system cost committed upfront, competing with stock, vehicles and hiring
Monthly rental
Paid monthly from operating expenditure, with R0 deposit options for qualifying businesses
Capital purchase
Payback period of roughly 2 to 5 years before the investment is recovered
Monthly rental
Typically cashflow positive within the first year, because the saving covers the rental
Capital purchase
Capital tied up in an asset for a 25 year design life
Monthly rental
Working capital stays available for the business
Capital purchase
Maintenance and monitoring usually quoted separately
Monthly rental
Maintenance and monitoring included in the agreement
Capital purchase
Bank or third-party finance if you need to fund it, on their timeline
Monthly rental
Funded in-house by DaisyFin, decision in 48 business hours
Who this suits
A monthly solar rental tends to make most sense for businesses that are absorbing real losses from rising electricity costs but cannot justify the capital outlay to fix it: manufacturers running multiple shifts, cold chain and food operations, agriculture, retail groups with many sites, and any operation where the tariff has become one of the larger lines on the income statement.
It suits multi-site operators particularly well, because each site can be assessed and structured on its own numbers rather than requiring one large capital decision across the whole estate.
Common questions
Is this a loan?
No. It is a rental agreement. DaisyFin is our own finance division, not a bank, and we fund the agreement directly. You pay a fixed monthly rental for the system rather than repaying borrowed capital.
How long is the term?
The term is structured around the system size and what the site can support monthly, so it is set during the assessment rather than offered as a fixed product. Your term sheet states it in writing before you sign anything.
What happens at the end of the term?
That is agreed upfront and written into your term sheet. Because DaisyFin is the financier rather than a broker, the end-of-term arrangement is agreed directly with us rather than dictated by a third party.
Do we need to own the building?
This is worth raising at the assessment. Roof ownership, lease length and landlord consent all affect how a solar agreement can be structured, and it is better to establish that at the start than after a design has been done.
Does the rental keep the asset off our balance sheet?
Rental structures can. How that applies to your reporting is a question for your auditors, not for us, and we are happy to talk them through the structure.
What if we only need backup power, not full solar?
Then say so. The assessment establishes whether you are mainly solving for outage protection or for the cost of grid electricity. Often it is both, but it will tell you honestly which matters more rather than defaulting to the bigger sale.
Get the numbers for your site
There is nothing to quote until we understand your consumption and your tariff. Book an energy assessment and we will model what a monthly solar rental would actually cost you against what it would save, and tell you honestly if the numbers do not work for your site.
Related: Solar solutions · Generators · UPS and backup power · DaisyFin asset finance
“Awesome ENERGY and a positive attitude. Ayanda gave A class service.. very impressed”
Mpumelelo Masinga
Pietermaritzburg
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