Solar energy rental requires no sign-up and promises up to 15% savings on your electricity bill in MS

Have you ever heard of subscription solar energy? The modality promises savings of 10% to 15% on your energy bill without having to worry about installing solar panels. O Midiamax Newspaper checked the services offered by companies in Mato Grosso do Sul.

Currently, consumers who want to save on their energy bills using solar generation need to pay for the purchase and installation of solar panels on their property, as well as the maintenance of these systems.

The cost of installing this alternative will depend on the amount of energy used monthly in the property, however, it can be between R$15,000 and R$20,000 in the case of a residence occupied by a family of four people.

This is the case in Mato Grosso do Sul. A household that spends an average of R$500 a month on its electricity bill would need to invest around R$15,000 in installing a system on the roof of the house, according to Portal Solar. The price varies according to the Brazilian region where the panel will be installed.

How rent works

In the case of “renting” solar energy, this investment is not made in installing panels on the property itself. Using the customer’s consumption history, the company that carries out this solar energy “lease” calculates the ideal amount of energy that the customer needs to contract in the subscription plan.

The energy in the subscription plan is generated in solar farms, also called plants, and sent to the local concessionaire which, in the case of Mato Grosso do Sul, is Energisa.

The customer’s Energisa electricity bill will contain the term “injected energy”, which corresponds to the amount of energy generated by the subscription plan, and applied to the bill. In other words, solar energy credits generated on farms are sent to Energisa, which offsets these credits on the electricity bill of the consumer who contracted the service.

This credit generated by the subscription plan results in an average discount of 10% on the electricity bill. If in any month the energy available in the subscription is greater than the amount consumed by the customer, the difference remains as a balance for the customer to use in the future.

Who can use the service

Among the companies that offer this service in Mato Grosso do Sul are Órigo Energia, (re)Energisa, Desperta Energia, MS Energia Solar, Tangisa and Nextron. They all act in the same way, providing a portion of the solar energy obtained from solar farms and generating discounts (credits) for the end customer, which will be offset directly on the electricity bill.

The service can be used by both individuals and companies, in residential or commercial properties. However, the customer’s monthly electricity cost must be greater than R$500.00 so that a portion of this energy is solar energy and can be injected into the conventional distribution network.

Energy sufficiency

Mato Grosso do Sul currently has 100,393 solar energy generation plants, which are solar modules and other equipment that make up the solar system installed in homes, companies, buildings, among others, according to ABGD (Brazilian Association of Distributed Generation).

This places the State in 10th place among the Brazilian states with the highest installed solar energy capacity. In March 2024, the state reached more than 1 GW (gigawatt) of installed power in its own solar energy generation, according to Absolar (Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy).

The majority of this photovoltaic energy generation, 80%, is installed in residential properties. Commercial properties hold 9.1% of solar energy installed in the State and rural properties hold 9%, according to data from Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency) compiled by ABGD.

However, according to the ABGD, the segment where the use of solar energy grows the most in the State is the rural sector, “largely due to the use for irrigation and various uses in modern and precision agriculture”, analyzes Aurélio Souza, advisor and director of Special Projects for the association.

For him, this type of energy can grow even more. “There is room for further growth in distributed generation in Mato Grosso do Sul and throughout the national territory. Increasing awareness about the benefits of solar energy, together with incentive policies and technological advances, can stimulate the emergence of more companies and market growth”, he concludes.