South Carolina
Solar financing in South Carolina
Which ways of paying keep the state credit, what the law allows, and how to read a loan offer.
Get Solar Options
If you have done your research and want to speak with a solar professional, HyreSolar can help you explore available options.
South Carolina solar financing options compared
| Option | Who owns the system | SC 25% credit | Notes for South Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | You | Yes | Lowest total cost; the credit then returns up to $3,500 a year |
| Solar loan | You | Yes | Check for a dealer fee inside the price; some loans assume a lump-sum paydown |
| Home equity loan | You | Yes | Secured on the home; rate set by your lender |
| HELOC | You | Yes | Variable rate in most cases; draw only what the system costs |
| Lease | Certified lessor | No | Lessor needs an ORS certificate; output belongs to you; lessor may claim §48E |
| Power purchase agreement | — | — | Not permitted in South Carolina |
South Carolina Code Title 58 Ch. 27 and §12-6-3587, retrieved 5 October 2026.
Paying cash for solar in South Carolina
Cash buyers in South Carolina avoid interest and dealer fees and claim the full 25% state credit, but not all at once: no more than $3,500 a year or half your state tax liability. A $25,000 example system yields a $6,250 credit spread over two years at best. How the credit is used.
South Carolina solar loan payment examples
Standard amortization on example inputs. The rates and terms are illustrations, not quotes or offers.
| Example | Amount financed | APR (example) | Term | Monthly payment | Total interest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shorter term | $25,000 | 6.99% | 10 years | $290.14 | $9,817 |
| Longer term | $25,000 | 6.99% | 20 years | $193.67 | $21,482 |
| Higher rate | $25,000 | 9.99% | 20 years | $241.09 | $32,862 |
| Same system, 20% dealer fee | $31,250 | 6.99% | 20 years | $242.09 | $26,852 |
HyreSolar arithmetic: payment = P × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)−n), r = APR ÷ 12, n = months.
How interest and term change the South Carolina math
Interest in South Carolina solar loans is a cost that sits beside the system price, and term multiplies it.
In the examples, doubling the term from 10 to 20 years at the same example rate lowers the payment but more than doubles the interest.
A 3-point higher example rate on a 20-year term adds more again.
Compare the monthly payment with the monthly bill saving under your own utility’s export rule, not under net metering. On Duke Energy Carolinas, net excess earns 4.19¢/kWh; on Santee Cooper, 4.15¢.
A loan payment that exceeds the saving is a cost you are choosing, which can be fine if outage backup or a fixed cost is the goal. Loan calculator.
Dealer fees and origination charges in South Carolina solar loans
Dealer fees are charged by the lender to the installer and are usually built into the system price.
In the example, a 20% fee on a $25,000 cash price raises the amount financed to $31,250. Ask every installer for the cash price and the financed price on the same page.
A higher financed price may also raise the cost you claim the state credit on; ask your tax preparer whether the fee is part of “costs incurred … in the purchase and installation”. Dealer fee calculator.
Solar leases in South Carolina
South Carolina leasing law is specific. Lessors need a certificate from the Office of Regulatory Staff, one premises per lease, and the customer owns the output.
Third-party sales of electricity from a system on your property (power purchase agreements) are not permitted. Act 62 removed the old leasing cap.
A lease avoids an up-front cost, but you give up the 25% state credit, and Santee Cooper’s Solar Home rebate excludes leased systems.
Ask for the escalator, the buyout schedule and what happens when you sell the house. Lease or buy, escalator calculator and selling a home with a loan or lease.
Why South Carolina has no solar PPAs
South Carolina’s leasing statute says it must not be read as allowing any sale of electricity “directly to any customer of any retail electric provider by the owner.”
A power purchase agreement, where you pay a company per kilowatt-hour for power from panels it owns on your roof, is that sale.
An offer framed that way in South Carolina is a reason to stop and ask the Office of Regulatory Staff.
Financing a battery in South Carolina
Batteries are usually added to the same loan. The South Carolina credit statute does not say whether storage qualifies, so do not assume 25% back on the battery line when you size the loan. Battery storage in South Carolina.
Questions to ask a South Carolina solar lender
APR includes most fees; compare like with like.
The gap is the dealer fee.
Is there a penalty, and does the payment jump if you skip a planned paydown?
Will the lender file a UCC-1 fixture filing on your home? What a UCC-1 means.
Confirm in writing that you own the system, which the state credit requires.
On a home-solicitation sale, until midnight of the third business day (SC Code §37-2-502).
South Carolina solar financing by city
Questions
Are solar PPAs legal in South Carolina?
Can I get the SC solar tax credit with a solar loan?
What is a dealer fee on a solar loan?
How long are solar loans in South Carolina?
Who owns the power from a leased system in South Carolina?
Written and audited by
HyreSolar Research
Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a sales floor. We read the statute, the tariff, the code section, the federal filing or the manufacturer data sheet ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. That rule has cost us whole sections, and it is why the rest can be checked.
- 160
- primary sources read and cited
- 228
- figures with a retrieval date
- 115
- federal and state government sources
- 66
- researched pages published
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. Statutes from the legislature’s own publishing system, federal data from the agency that collects it, code text from the adopted edition, manufacturer claims from the data sheet. We do not cite an article that cites a source; we go and read the source.
- Every figure carries its provenance. A named document and the date we retrieved it, so you can check it and so you know how old it is. Retrieval dates are not decoration: an EIA rate from May is a different fact from an EIA rate from August.
- We publish what we could not verify. Every research page carries a section naming the things we tried to establish and could not, and why. A paywalled standard, a state website that refused the request, a manufacturer that publishes no figure at all.
- We separate measurement from modeling from our own reasoning, and label which is which on the page. A laboratory measurement, an assumption inside a modeling tool and our own inference are three different kinds of claim and they are never presented as one.
- We do not sell solar, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favorable mention. Nobody buys a position on this site.
Data as of Last verified: 5 October 2026. Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.