A client will ask you questions about the contract before they ask you about the panels. They’re signing up to something that runs for two or three decades, so it’s normal. A good client wants to understand what they’re agreeing to before they commit. You don’t need to be able to draft the contract yourself, but knowing the mechanics well enough to explain the contract confidently is what makes that conversation go smoothly rather than stall.
For a full overview of how the consultant partnership model works and what makes solar a strong addition to an energy proposition, see How Energy Brokers Add a Solar PPA to Their Proposition.
Contract length
UrbanVolt PPAs run from 10 to 30 years, and the term isn’t fixed in advance – it’s set to fit the client’s situation. A business with a long freehold or a lease well beyond the contract length has room to go for a longer term and lock in a lower rate for longer. A business with a shorter lease, or a specific reason to want a tighter commitment, can work within a shorter one.
This is worth explaining early, because clients sometimes hear “up to 30 years” and assume that’s the only option on the table. It isn’t. The length is a variable that gets set around the client’s circumstances, rather than any set-in-stone term.
How the client pays
The client isn’t taking on debt or making a capital purchase. There’s no upfront cost and nothing added to their balance sheet – the first payment is for the first month’s consumption. What they’re signing up to is an agreement to buy the electricity they consume from the solar system, at a rate fixed typically 30-40% below their current grid price.
That’s a useful frame to give clients who are used to thinking about solar as a capital decision. It isn’t one under this model – it’s closer to switching part of their electricity supply to a cheaper, fixed-rate source, with none of the ownership responsibilities that would normally come with installing solar.
Lease alignment
For a client who leases their premises rather than owning them, the contract term and the lease term need to work together. This gets sorted before anything is signed, not left as a loose end. If the lease has plenty of runway left, that’s straightforward. If it’s shorter, the PPA term can often be structured to match it, so the client isn’t left holding a contract that outlasts their tenancy.
It’s worth raising this early in any conversation with a leasehold client, simply because it’s one less thing to untangle later if it’s already been factored in from the start.
What happens if circumstances change
Clients understandably want to know what happens if they move, sell the building, or their business changes shape entirely. If a site is sold, the agreement can typically be transferred to the new owner or occupier. This is an attractive feature for a buyer, given it comes with electricity at a discount already locked in. If a client’s circumstances change in a way that means the contract no longer fits, that’s a conversation UrbanVolt will have directly with them to find the right outcome.
This is one of the most common hesitations clients raise before signing, and it’s worth being able to answer with confidence rather than passing the question along unanswered.
What happens at the end of the term
The end of a PPA isn’t a cliff edge. A system at the end of its term still has meaningful useful life left in it, and clients typically have a choice of what happens next: extend the agreement at a significantly reduced rate, upgrade to newer equipment, take ownership of the system outright for a nominal fee, or have it removed if they’d prefer.
Most clients don’t need the detail on this at the point of signing, but knowing it exists, and that it’s a decision made well in advance rather than sprung on them at the last minute, tends to remove a lingering question before it’s asked.
What this means for the conversation
None of this requires you to become a contracts specialist. What it does is let you answer the questions that arise – length, cost structure, what happens if things change, what happens at the end – without having to say “let me check” every time. Clients read that confidence as competence, and it keeps the conversation moving.
And of course, Urbanvolt detail these options to the client in your white-labelled desktop proposal.
Interested in partnering with UrbanVolt? Take a look at our partner page, or contact us to talk through the process.
