How Pay-As-You-Go solar works

Pay-As-You-Go solar takes the single biggest obstacle to clean power — the upfront cost — and removes it. You don't buy the system. You pay for the energy it gives you, a little at a time, the same way you top up airtime.

Solar works. The reason more homes and businesses don't have it isn't doubt about the technology — it's the price of getting started. A good solar-and-battery system is a serious upfront investment, and that wall stops a lot of people before they begin. Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) is the model built to take that wall down.

What PAYG solar is — and isn't

With PAYG solar, a provider installs a complete system at your home or business and keeps ownership of it. Instead of buying the equipment, you pay for the electricity you use through a smart prepaid meter. It isn't a loan you're slowly repaying on hardware you'll own; it's a service — power, delivered and maintained, that you pay for as you go.

The parts of the system

A typical Bice setup brings together five things that work as one:

• Solar panels — generate electricity from sunlight during the day.
• A battery — stores energy so you have power at night and during outages.
• An inverter — converts and manages the power so your appliances run normally.
• A smart prepaid meter — measures what you use and manages your credit.
• An app and secure connection — so you can top up, track usage and we can support the system remotely.

How you actually pay

This is the part that feels familiar: you top up. Buy credit through your phone, and that credit covers the energy you use. When it runs low, you top up again — exactly like airtime or data. No surprise quarterly bill, no estimated readings. You can see what you've used and what's left, and you stay in control of your spending.

You don't buy the system. You buy the power — a little at a time, like topping up your phone.

Who owns it and who fixes it

Because the provider owns the system, the provider maintains it. If something needs servicing or repair, that's our responsibility, not a bill that lands on you. The smart meter and secure connection let us monitor the system and often spot and resolve issues remotely, before they interrupt your power.

What happens at night or on cloudy days

The battery is the answer. During the day, the panels run your home and charge the battery; at night, the battery takes over. A system is sized to your actual usage — which is why the audit matters — so it's built to carry you through the hours when the sun isn't working.

Getting started