What Installers Need to Know About Solar Loans Right Now

The loss of 25D reset the residential solar financing conversation this year, and for a lot of installers, that reset has meant looking backward to move forward. Loan products, the financing tool that built this industry before TPO and lease options scaled up, are back at the center of the kitchen table conversation.

In a recent webinar, BayWa r.e. sat down with FranklinWH and Atmos Financial to talk through what a strong loan offering actually looks like in 2026: how to position a premium battery system regardless of financing type, how credit union backed loans have evolved into something that functions like a real program instead of a slow, manual process, and how installers can use both to build a more balanced business. 

A battery built to work with whatever financing your customer picks

Dave Larson, FranklinWH’s West Coast area sales manager, opened with a walkthrough of the aPower system: 15 kWh of usable capacity, compatibility with just about any 240V generator, vehicle-to-load support for trucks with the right outlet, smart circuit shedding, and a 15-year warranty backed by a 0.2% RMA rate. But the more useful part of his talk wasn’t the spec sheet. It was how he thinks installers should sell it.

Larson’s take: the fix isn’t a new sales process, it’s a different starting point. Too many reps walk into a home with a preconceived idea of what that homeowner needs based on the driveway or the neighborhood. His advice is to ask more discovery questions instead, find out whether the customer cares more about economics, safety, or long-term flexibility, and then match the system and the financing to that answer.

That flexibility extends to compliance, too. FranklinWH will soon offer both an FEOC compliant version of its battery, priced for TPO deals, and a non-FEOC version manufactured overseas, priced lower for cash and loan customers. Same components, same warranty, different price point depending on how the project is financed. For installers who’ve been stuck with one price regardless of deal type, that split is coming, and it gives you a reason to actually price loan and TPO projects differently instead of defaulting to whichever one is easier to quote.

Credit union financing that finally moves at loan speed

Anders Alexander, who leads partnerships at Atmos Financial, spent 17 years selling solar himself, including years handing homeowners a paper application for local credit union financing and hoping it eventually closed. Atmos exists to fix that gap: it’s a fintech layer on top of credit unions, community banks, and CDFIs that turns their financing into something that behaves like a TPO program, with contractor specific links, a portal to track applications, and direct pay support through BayWa r.e.

A few details worth knowing if you’re evaluating it for your business:

• Atmos underwrites solar, storage, HVAC, smart panels, and EV chargers as standalone products rather than bundling them into one price cap, which means adding a battery or a charger later doesn’t force a homeowner to refinance the whole system.
• Loan terms are matched to the expected life of the equipment, not stretched out to lower the payment, so terms will sometimes run shorter than what you’d see from other lenders.
• The company operates in all 50 states through a national lender and is actively expanding lending capacity, so it has room to bring on more installer partners right now.
• PTO is still required for final payment, a holdover Atmos keeps because its underlying financial institutions are highly regulated and expect it.

Alexander’s advice for the sales conversation mirrors Larson’s: don’t lead with the first month’s payment. Walk the homeowner through the full loan term, how long they plan to stay in the home, and when they’ll likely need a re-roof, then let them compare that full picture against whatever else they’re considering.

Why a 50/50 mix tends to be the healthier business

Both speakers landed on the same point from different angles. Larson said installers who lean too hard into either TPO or cash/loan, in either direction, tend to run less healthy businesses than the ones sitting closer to a 50/50 split. Alexander framed it as ownership: cash and loan customers are more fully owned by the installer, with more room to upsell, service, and expand the system later, while TPO has its own advantages installers already know well.

Neither of them argued for abandoning TPO. The point was optionality. When you can offer a homeowner a well positioned loan alongside a TPO option, you’re not steering them toward the product that’s easiest for you to close, you’re giving them a real choice, and that choice is increasingly a differentiator in markets where other installers only offer one path.

Where BayWa r.e. fits

Betsy Cluck, BayWa r.e.’s finance program specialist, closed the session by tying it back to something every one of these conversations comes back to: control. Forecasting, dedicated account management, and financing collaborations all exist so you’re not scrambling to figure out pricing or availability mid-deal. On the Atmos side specifically, BayWa r.e. supports direct pay from Atmos for financed equipment, which cuts down on the administrative overhead of chasing payment on a loan-funded job.

Key takeaways

• FranklinWH’s aPower system will be available in both FEOC and non-FEOC versions later this year, with pricing that reflects financing type.
• Atmos Financial underwrites solar, storage, HVAC, EVs, and smart panels as separate standalone loans, so adding equipment later doesn’t require restructuring the whole loan.
• Atmos operates nationwide and has room for more installer partners right now.
• A consultative sale, built on discovery questions rather than assumptions, works the same way whether you’re presenting a loan, a lease, or TPO.
• BayWa r.e. supports direct pay for Atmos financed projects to help simplify your admin.

Have questions about setting up FranklinWH pricing or getting started with Atmos Financial? Reach out to your BayWa r.e. sales rep, or watch the full webinar recording for the complete Q&A.