Small business solar in Kentucky: read the bill before the brochure

Small business solar in Kentucky starts with your rate schedule

Small business solar in Kentucky can pay off, but the payback in a brochure usually treats your whole bill as if solar could shrink it. It can’t. Before anyone sizes an array, find out which parts of your bill move when your kilowatt-hours drop and which don’t. For many shops, offices, and restaurants, that one exercise changes the answer.

We’re independent and fee-only. We don’t sell or install equipment, and no installer pays us. We read the tariff, run your numbers, and tell you plainly what solar can reach.

Three kinds of charges

Charge	What drives it	Can solar reduce it?
Energy (per kWh)	Total electricity used	Yes, for power used on site; exports earn a lower credit
Demand (per kW)	Your highest short interval of use in the month	Sometimes, if the peak lands in strong sun
Basic service	A fixed monthly amount	No

Smaller accounts often pay only energy and fixed charges. Larger ones add a demand charge, and that’s where proposals tend to overpromise. Picture a restaurant whose monthly peak arrives at 6:30 p.m., when ovens, fryers, and dining-room HVAC all run at once. A rooftop array produces little at that hour, so the demand charge barely moves. The same array on a print shop that peaks at 1 p.m. on clear days may do noticeably better.

The 45 kW line

Kentucky’s net metering statute covers systems with a rated capacity up to 45 kW. Under that size, a PSC-regulated utility credits exported energy at a dollar rate the Public Service Commission sets. Above it, the system falls outside the statute, and exports are usually handled under the utility’s separate terms for small power producers. Neither path is automatically better. A 60 kW system that rarely exports can beat a 45 kW system that exports a lot. We model both before you commit.

Solar on a building you don’t own

Most small businesses rent. A long solar contract on a building with a short lease raises practical questions:

• Does the lease require written landlord consent for roof or electrical work?
• Who pays if the roof needs replacing in year eight?
• Who owns the system when your lease ends, and can it move with you?
• Does the landlord’s lender or insurer need to sign off?

Bill credits also stay put. Kentucky’s net metering statute doesn’t let them transfer to another address or customer, so a move can strand them. We organize these questions for you, your landlord, and your attorney. We don’t draft or interpret leases.

What we deliver

A Commercial Feasibility Study tests the project against your actual bills and rate schedule. Already holding a quote? A Proposal Second Opinion checks it in five business days. Several bids that don’t line up? Installer RFP & Bid Leveling puts them on one page. When you move ahead, we coordinate the interconnection paperwork with your installer and utility and track it to permission to operate.