Capital Purchase
Own the asset outright. Keep every pound of saving — and every commercial advantage that comes with full ownership.
Capital Purchase (CAPEX) means your business funds the energy system upfront from its own balance sheet. You own the asset on day one, capitalise it, claim full capital allowances, and retain 100% of generation, savings and grid-revenue benefits for the 25–30 year life of the system.
- Profitable UK businesses with surplus cash or undeployed reserves
- Owner-occupiers with a 10+ year horizon at the site
- Boards prioritising long-term NPV and full control over operating assets
The capital purchase model, step by step.
- Step 1
Engineered design
We size the system from your half-hourly data, building consent and grid position — not a generic kWp/m² rule.
- Step 2
Staged payment plan
Costs are released against design, procurement, installation and commissioning milestones, not paid in one lump.
- Step 3
Capitalise on balance sheet
The asset is depreciated; capital allowances are claimed in-year; savings flow through your P&L from commissioning.
- Step 4
Operate for 25+ years
An O&M contract protects yield. Monitoring keeps performance reportable to the board in commercial terms.
Typical scenarios where Capital Purchase fits.
- A profitable trading business with cash that would otherwise sit at low return
- An owner-occupied site with a long operational horizon
- An estate-wide solar rollout where total NPV outweighs financing flexibility
- A board that values asset ownership over off-balance-sheet treatment
- Capital tied up that could be deployed in core revenue-generating investment
- Asset risk and warranty management sit fully with the business
- Lease, sale or relocation needs to be considered in any 25-year ownership case
- Internal capacity required to procure, contract and manage delivery
A balanced view — what to weigh before you choose.
No commercial model is universally right. Below is an honest read of the trade-offs we walk clients through before structuring a deal.
- Highest lifetime NPV of any funding route — no margin paid away
- 100% of generation savings, REGOs and any grid-service revenue retained
- Capital allowances or full expensing reduce the effective cost
- Total flexibility over O&M, monitoring and future system extensions
- Asset can be revalued, refinanced or transferred at any point
- Capital is committed up front — opportunity cost vs. core investment matters
- Performance, warranty and obsolescence risk sit with the asset owner
- Requires a credible O&M strategy or yield slips silently after year 3
- Lease tenure, dilapidations and sale clauses need to be reviewed before commit
- Less attractive where off-balance-sheet treatment is required by group policy
How Capital Purchase applies to each technology.
Solar PV
The strongest fit. Long economic life and predictable yield make outright ownership the highest-NPV route for solar.
Battery Storage
Works well when storage is paired with on-site generation; standalone battery cases need careful revenue-stack modelling.
EV Charging
Sensible where charging is core to the business model and utilisation is forecastable across the asset life.
Energy Management
Monitoring, controls and load-management hardware are typically funded as part of the wider capital project.
Let's have a strategic conversation about your energy position.
An assessment, a benchmark, a roadmap — whichever is most useful. A short conversation with engineers who run commercial energy every day, not a sales call.