Solar power makes sound financial sense for many businesses. Here's why:

• Solar reduces or eliminates your electric bill. Rising energy costs can quickly erode profit margins.  Once you choose solar, you no longer have to budget for rate increases in the future. After your system has paid for itself, all of the savings become direct profits. The more the utility rates rise, the more money you save, and the more valuable your system will become.

• Solar systems offer a fast return on investment. The ROI on a solar system comes from the avoided cost of utility bills that would have been assessed in place of solar power. Most companies see returns of 12-17% on their solar investments; in areas such as Arizona, where grid electricity costs have consistently risen by more than 3-5% per year, the ROI is exceptional. The cost of a solar installation can usually be recovered within 5-7 years; depending on where your business is located and how much electricity you use, it can be even sooner.
• Solar is rewarded with government rebates and incentives. Federal, state, and local governments currently offer tremendous financial incentives to motivate businesses to switch to solar. Current rebates can cover 50-70% of the total system cost for commercial systems.
• Solar systems are virtually maintenance-free. Since solar panels are flat and have no moving parts, they rarely break and require little or no maintenance. All Gilbert Power installed systems have live monitoring which provides you with continual updates to ensure that your system is operating at peak performance. 

When you switch to solar power, your Gilbert Power installed system will work in perfect unison with your APS or SRP utility grid, enabling you to take advantage of the energy storage benefits that the grid provides. After we help you enter into an agreement with your local utility, you will not have to do anything to switch back and forth; everything happens seamlessly without any effort on your part. Your new solar energy system will generate electricity during daylight hours with excess electricity being sold to the utility at high rates; during nighttime hours, you may need to draw from the utility grid at low rates.

Until this point, your utility company has been billing you in one of the following ways:

• Tiered Rates: Most traditional electric companies bill their customers on a tiered rate plan. The plan begins with a baseline allocation of power; the more "units" of electricity you consume above that baseline, the more you pay per unit. Solar power replaces the higher-tiered power first, allowing you to experience immediate significant savings.
• Time-of-Use: When you switch to solar, we help you convert to a time-of-use billing system (if you aren't on it already) in which rates are higher during peak hours than during off-peak hours. Your solar system will produce power throughout the day; any power in excess of what you use can often be sold back to the utility grid at retail prices. You may then draw from the grid at night, at off-peak prices. During the spring and summer months, you will likely accrue credits that can then be used to offset the energy you use during the darker winter months.