New York--You can't buy the sun. But one company is trying to get you to finance its rays.

SunPower (SPWR), a San Jose, Calif., maker of solar panels, is offering financing on the equipment, similar to how you would pay your mortgage or car monthly. While only available in California, the company expects to offer more residential financing opportunities in other states in the coming months.

“It’s not unlike financing ownership of a car," said Julie Blunden, vice president of corporate communications, public policy, at SunPower. “We work with a bank to offer financing comparable to the length of the warranty on the solar panels, which is 25 years.”  

That means homeowners wouldn’t have to come up with the money up front to install the systems, which can cost as much as $30,000. SunPower officials said the financing is based on the prime rate, which is currently around 8%.
 
SunPower has been offering commercial financing for some time, and last year started to offer it to its California residential customers. Blunden said the company is eyeing New York, New Jersey and Colorado as states it wants to roll-out financing options with its banking partners. SunPower currently does business in 26 states and expects financing to be available in all its markets down the road.

Given that solar energy is an emerging market for home heating, Blunden said it’s taking time for services around it to become available.

“As markets grow, all of the services will follow,’’ said Blunden. “We’re definitely seeing interest from some folks on the financial side.”
 
SunPower is betting the ability to finance the installation of solar panels will drive more adoption in the residential market. While the cost savings and government rebates surrounding solar panels help, they haven't been enough to make this a big consumer market. Cost for the systems have and will continue to be a big deterrent.

Nevertheless, Blunden said the financing option has driven corporate adoption of solar panels and should do the same with consumers. “There’s no doubt it will expand the customer base,’’ she said. “There are residential customers out there that have solar panels that wouldn’t be able to have them if they had the capital cost upfront. If people had to pay upfront for a car, they wouldn’t be driving around in a BMW.”

Paul Clegg, an analyst at Jefferies & Co., said being able to finance the installation of solar panels could aid in growth of the burgeoning market.

“When you’re looking at spending an extra $30,000 to put a solar module on you roof, it's kind of a shock," said Clegg. “Having the offer part of a package by the same people that are installing the modules on the roof does facilitate the process.’’

According to Clegg, without the current government subsidies, solar panels would be too costly for most of the U.S. So, anything that spreads out the cost would be welcome, he said. He said that other solar panel companies are also offering financing.  

As to if solar panel companies like SunPower will eventually open their own financing businesses, similar to how the car makers do it, Clegg said it’s not likely to happen in the near term. After all, any capital companies like SunPower have would be better spent on the technology -- not to mention banks are better equipped to act as lenders to consumers.

“We’re not a bank,’’ noted Blunden at SunPower when asked if the company would consider opening a finance unit. “We’re a Silicon Valley technology company.”