What are the business models for residential PV technology
Various business models exist, mainly for grid-connected residential PV installations. A short overview is given below:
| Business model | Description |
| Self-consumption | Residential owners produce electricity from solar PV and decrease their electricity costs; they become less reliant on utilities and can sell the excess electricity. |
| Feed-in based | System owners get paid feed-in tariffs for all of the generated electricity or for the excess amount that is fed into the public grid. An extra power meter to measure the outflow of electricity independently is usually required. |
| Net metering | System owners reduce their electricity costs by the amount of solar PV power fed into the grid. Therefore, meters that are able to count backwards are needed. |
| PPA with spatially related consumption | The system owner and the potential end-user are not the same legal entity spatially related. The solar PV- generated power will not be fed into the grid but instead sold directly to the end user. |
| Leasing | The end-user offers the space for the installation, and the solar PV-generated electricity can either be remunerated at a leasing rate, or a leasing rate is paid and the end- user will be supplied with solar PV-generated electricity. |
| Micro grid integration | Residential installations offer electricity to a micro grid with several consumers, mostly in remote regions. Costs of solar PV-generated electricity could be lower than electricity from diesel generators or installation of a new grid connection. |