Buy solar panels or take out an energy subscription?

Buying solar panels means you tie up capital, own the panels and take the whole profit, but also that wear and market risk land on you. An energy subscription turns that around. Elvy owns and optimises the whole system for a fixed monthly price. No investment, no risk, but no upside of your own either.

Which one is right depends on whether you want an asset to manage or a bill you can forget. Below we cover what you actually take on when you buy, what the subscription lifts off you, who each one fits, and what comes out cheapest over time.

You pay for the whole system at once, or borrow for it, and then you own it. The panels become a fixture that follows the house when you sell. You take the whole surplus and the whole rise in value, and you decide over everything yourself. That's the big advantage of buying.

Ownership brings the running of it too. You keep track of warranties, book service when something plays up, and replace the inverter, the system's brain, at some point in the panels' lifetime, because it wears out faster than they do. You sell your surplus to the grid yourself, and you carry the risk if the electricity price or the payment for sold power comes in lower than you hoped.

The whole system and everything around it. Elvy installs solar panels, a heat pump and a battery, owns the equipment and optimises it against the electricity price. Choosing the system, coordinating the roof work, chasing warranties, replacing the inverter when it wears out and selling the surplus, all of it sits with Elvy. Your part is a signature.

If something breaks, it's Elvy's job to fix it at no extra cost. You pay a fixed amount a month, the same in January as in July, with no upfront cost and no loan for the hardware. The price stays fixed for 15 years and is adjusted once a year by the consumer price index, never by the spot price. Elvy owns the electricity and trades it, and that upside goes to Elvy. It's part of how a fixed cost adds up.

Someone with the money, a genuine interest in the technology and a wish to own their roof. If you want to choose the components yourself, follow the production hour by hour and optimise the system on your own, you should probably buy. You take the whole upside too, and that's a reasonable thing to want.

Most everyone else. The person who wants a warm house, a predictable bill and to not become an energy expert in their spare time. You care that the electricity works, not who owns the inverter. Then a fixed amount and zero responsibility is worth more than a surplus you weren't going to manage anyway.

Honest answer: buying can be cheaper on paper. If you have the capital, do the homework and look after the system well, you take the whole surplus and pay no one to carry the risk for you. No middleman takes a cut. Over many years that can land lower than a fixed monthly cost.

But that assumes the sums hold. The electricity price, the payment for sold power, an inverter that fails earlier than planned, a year with little sun: all of it lands on you when you own. The subscription swaps that uncertainty for a known amount. You don't necessarily pay less, you pay the same every month and skip the arithmetic. What's worth most depends on how much you enjoy doing the maths.

Ask yourself what you actually want: an asset to manage, or a bill you can forget. Want to own and optimise, buy. Want it to just work, subscribe. There's no right answer, only two different things to want.

Elvy is available today for villas and houses across Sweden, but not yet for flats. The price is set individually from an energy analysis of your house, because a list price would just be a guess. If you want to know what it comes to for your particular roof, the analysis has the answer, not this article.