Solar Financing Calculator
Work out the instalment on a financed system – and then the question that actually decides it: does the saving on your electricity bill cover the payment? If it does, the system funds itself from the first month and your down payment is the only real outlay.
What would it cost on instalments?
And would the saving cover the payment?
Enter the system cost and a tenure to see the instalment.
The only comparison that matters
Most financing calculators stop at the instalment. That number on its own tells you very little, because solar is not an ordinary purchase – it generates the money that pays for it.
The question is not “can I afford Rs 23,000 a month”. It is “is Rs 23,000 a month more or less than what solar takes off my bill”.
If your saving is larger, you are better off in cash terms from the first bill, and you are better off by the whole saving once the instalment ends. If it is smaller, you are funding part of the system out of pocket for the tenure and then keeping the full saving afterwards. Both can be sensible decisions – but they are different decisions, and you should know which one you are making.
Enter your expected monthly saving in the third row above and the calculator tells you which side of that line you fall on. Take the saving figure from the savings calculator rather than from an installer, so the number is conservative rather than optimistic.
Tenure changes the answer more than you expect
The same system, financed over three years instead of five, often flips from paying for itself to not.
Take a Rs 12 lakh system with Rs 3 lakh down, so Rs 9 lakh financed, against a monthly saving of Rs 25,000.
The rates, as notified for CY 2026
These are the GoP Applicable Uniform rates for A-1 Residential, taken from Annex-C of NEPRA’s Decision of the Authority dated 12 January 2026. NEPRA now determines consumer-end tariffs on a calendar-year cycle, so this schedule runs through 2026.
Markup rate | 3-year instalment | Covered by saving? | 5-year instalment | Covered by saving? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
6% | Rs 27,380 | No – Rs 2,380 short | Rs 17,400 | Yes – Rs 7,600 spare |
12% | Rs 29,893 | No – Rs 4,893 short | Rs 20,020 | Yes – Rs 4,980 spare |
18% | Rs 32,537 | No – Rs 7,537 short | Rs 22,854 | Yes – Rs 2,146 spare |
22% | Rs 34,371 | No – Rs 9,371 short | Rs 24,857 | Yes – Rs 143 spare |
At three years, nothing covers itself. At five years, everything does — even at 22%.
That is worth sitting with. The instalment is what determines whether the system is self-funding, and tenure moves the instalment far more than the rate does. But stretching the tenure is not free.
What a longer tenure actually costs
Lower instalments come out of the same borrowing, so the money has to come from somewhere. It comes from markup.
On that same Rs 9 lakh at 18%, three years costs about Rs 2.7 lakh in markup. Five years costs about Rs 4.7 lakh. You have bought a comfortable monthly payment for an extra two lakh.
Whether that is worth it depends on what you would otherwise do with the cash. If the shorter tenure means eating into savings every month, the longer one is buying you room. If you can comfortably cover the shorter instalment, the longer one is just an expensive way to feel relaxed.
The calculator shows total markup and total paid alongside the instalment for exactly this reason. Look at all three before choosing a tenure – the instalment is the number people decide on, and the total is the number they regret.
We do not assume a markup rate
Most calculators fill this field in for you. This one leaves it blank, and that is deliberate.
Rates for solar financing in Pakistan span a wide range – subsidised refinance schemes at one end, ordinary commercial terms at the other. On the Rs 9 lakh example above, the total markup over five years runs from about Rs 1.4 lakh at 6% to about Rs 5.9 lakh at 22%. Same system, same borrowing, more than four lakh of difference.
Any default we picked would be wrong for most people while looking authoritative. So the field asks your bank instead. If you have not been quoted yet, run it at two or three rates to see how much the answer moves – that spread is itself worth knowing before you start negotiating.
What the rate does not tell you
The advertised rate is not the cost of the loan. Ask for the total cost of credit in writing, and check for these:
Processing and documentation fees, usually a percentage of the financed amount, charged upfront.
Insurance, which is often mandatory on financed equipment and priced annually against the declining value.
Security deposit or margin requirements held for the tenure.
Early settlement terms. If you may want to clear the balance early – and with solar many people do, once they see the saving — find out now whether that carries a penalty.
Whether the rate is fixed or floating. A floating rate tied to a benchmark can move considerably over five years, and the instalment moves with it.
None of these are in the calculator above, because none of them are standard. All of them are in your total.
Before you finance, check the price
Financing an overpriced system is worse than paying cash for a fair one. The markup applies to whatever number you started with, so a quote that is two lakh too high costs you considerably more than two lakh over five years.
Check the quote against catalogue prices first, then finance the number you are satisfied with.
Next step
Financing an overpriced system is worse than paying cash for a fair one. The markup applies to whatever number you started with, so a quote that is two lakh too high costs you considerably more than two lakh over five years.
Check the quote against catalogue prices first, then finance the number you are satisfied with.