Frequently asked questions

It depends on the type and size of the system. As a guide, a panel-only Solar Savings system costs roughly 450 to 680 US dollars per kWp installed (kWp, kilowatt peak, is the rated output of the panels), and the price per kWp falls as systems get larger. Adding battery backup raises the price, because storage is a large part of the system.

Every system is sized to your own load and site, so the most reliable way to get a real figure is a short call with one of our engineers.

A panel-only Solar Savings system usually pays for itself in 3 to 5 years, and a system with battery backup in 5 to 8 years. The exact figure depends on how much grid and diesel power the system replaces and how many hours your site runs in daylight.

On a system that lasts 25 years or more, most commercial installations return in the range of 20 to 30 percent a year over the life of the asset. Panel-only systems give the strongest return because they carry no battery to replace.

For sites that use most of their power during the day, yes. A well-sized system replaces a large share of your daytime grid consumption at a cost that is fixed on day one, while grid tariffs tend to rise over time.

A hybrid system, where solar panels and batteries work together with your grid supply and generator, usually cuts diesel use by 60 to 80 percent across the year and by 90 percent or more during daylight hours. A full Off-Grid system can take diesel out of daily operation altogether.

We quote one fixed price for the full scope under a single contract, covering supply, shipping, customs, installation and commissioning (testing the system and handing it over). The running costs after that are cleaning and maintenance, which you can cover with an operation and maintenance (O&M) plan.

Solar PV modules are exempt from VAT in Uganda, and the 2025 tax amendments extended the exemption to deep-cycle batteries. Tax rules change from year to year, so we confirm the current position for your specific scope when we quote.

We measure before we recommend. A logger on site records how much power you actually use, usually for one to four weeks, so the design is based on real consumption rather than an estimate.

Solar output changes through the day and with the weather, and the panels also have to charge the battery, so the array is sized above your peak demand. As a rough guide, a 25 kW peak load often needs around 65 kWp of panels.

Yes, because the systems are modular. We can size the inverter (the unit that turns solar power into the power your site runs on) and the cabling for your target load now, and add panels or batteries in stages as your demand grows.

• –Solar Savings: panels only, connected to the grid. It cuts your daytime bill but gives no cover during an outage.
• –Backup: panels plus a battery. It keeps you running through outages and carries you for a set number of hours at night.
• –Off-Grid: panels plus a larger battery, which runs your site around the clock without the grid.

It depends on the size of the battery compared with your consumption. A battery sized around one day of use gives a few hours of evening cover, while running around the clock on your own needs a battery of about two and a half to three times your daily consumption.

Yes. We use three-phase hybrid inverters at 400/230 V, 50 Hz. Motors, compressors, autoclaves and variable-speed drives run normally when the system is sized for the extra power they draw as they start.

Yes, with correct sizing. A motor draws far more power as it starts than while it runs, so we size the battery inverter in kVA (its power rating) with margin to spare. Very large motors that start directly on the supply may need a soft starter or a drive.

• –Panels: Jinko Solar, Tier 1.
• –Inverters: Deye for commercial and industrial systems. Sungrow, Huawei, GoodWe and Solis on larger panel-only projects.
• –Batteries: Deye, BYD and Dyness.
• –Mounting: aluminium rail with clamp or ballast fixings.

• –Panels: 12-year product warranty, 30-year performance warranty.
• –Hybrid inverters: 5 to 10 years.
• –Batteries: 10-year product and performance warranty.
• –Our installation workmanship: 2 years from commissioning.

Yes. We use Tier 1 components as rated by BloombergNEF. Tier 1 is a measure of a manufacturer’s bankability, meaning whether banks trust its products enough to finance projects built with them, and of its track record.

Deye is widely used across East Africa and has strong local service and spare-part availability, and that support network matters as much as the hardware. We have installed more than 200 Deye inverters, and they have performed reliably in the field.

• –Panels: IEC 61215 and IEC 61730.
• –Inverters: IEC 62109 and IEEE 1547.
• –Batteries: IEC 62619.
• –Installation: IEC 62446 and the ERA wiring regulations for Uganda.

Our inverters include built-in surge protection for indirect strikes. For exposed or high-risk sites we add external DC surge arrestors. Lightning rods and earthing for the building itself stay part of the building’s own protection, and we advise on both.

From the first site survey to a signed contract usually takes 4 to 8 weeks, and from contract to commissioning about 3 to 4 months for an imported system. Most projects run 4 to 6 months from start to finish.

Payment is staged across the project: on order, on delivery of materials to site, and on commissioning. We share the exact schedule with your quote.

Yes. Shipping, customs clearance, certification by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) and transport to site are all part of our scope, so you deal with one contract for the whole project.

• –A sound, unshaded roof or ground space.
• –Access to your power connection point.
• –A contact person on site.
• –Any permits needed for installation and grid connection, which we help arrange.

No full shutdown is needed. We plan one short outage of a few hours for the final connection, at a time that suits your operation.

Yes. We arrange reference visits to our office and to client sites near Kampala, so you can see installed systems and talk to the people who run them.

• –Direct purchase: you buy the system and own it from day one.
• –Lease-to-own: a finance partner pays for the system and you pay a fixed monthly fee, and ownership passes to you at the end.
• –Bank finance: a bank funds the purchase and you repay the loan.

Equator Solar does not provide financing itself. Lease and finance structures are arranged through our finance partners, and that agreement is between you and the partner.

No. We design, supply, install and service the system, and the financing comes from our finance partners. If you choose a lease or a loan, your funding contract is with the partner rather than with Equator Solar, and we are glad to introduce you to the partners we work with.

A finance partner owns and funds the system, and you pay a fixed monthly fee, usually at a discount to your current power cost. Maintenance and insurance are typically included, and ownership transfers to you at the end of the term. The lease agreement is with the finance partner.

Under a lease you pay a fixed monthly fee, while under a power purchase agreement (PPA) you pay for each unit of electricity the system produces. In Uganda, most commercial and industrial systems are structured as a direct purchase or a lease. We recommend a legal review before signing any per-unit contract.

Most lease structures allow a buy-out, usually from a few years into the term, at a value that reduces over time. The exact terms sit in your agreement with the finance partner.

No. Payments for a direct purchase are staged across the project rather than paid in one sum, and we share the schedule with your quote.

Yes, for clients with an operation and maintenance (O&M) contract. Their systems are monitored around the clock through the manufacturer’s platform, so we see performance and alerts as they happen.

A typical maintenance plan includes:

• –Ongoing remote checks of how the system is performing.
• –Panel cleaning, scheduled to how dusty your site is.
• –An on-site inspection twice a year.
• –A full annual service with a thermographic scan, which uses a heat camera to find faulty panels and loose connections.

As a guide, full-service operation and maintenance costs about 1 to 2 percent of the system cost a year, and we scope the plan to your system and site.

A basic plan covers monitoring, alerts, phone support and one annual inspection. A premium plan adds scheduled preventive maintenance, corrective labour, travel and half-year performance reports. Clients with several sites can take a portfolio contract.

Under an O&M contract, critical faults get a response the same day or the next day, with emergency dispatch anywhere in Uganda within 48 hours. Sites in Kampala and West Nile are usually reached the same day, and routine items are handled at the next scheduled visit.

We target 98 percent uptime or better, meaning the system is working at least 98 percent of the time. For larger systems we recommend a performance-based guarantee alongside uptime, because it covers the energy the system actually produces, and that energy is what your operation runs on.

If a component fails within warranty, we diagnose it remotely or on site, fit a replacement, usually within 5 to 10 days, and return the faulty unit to the manufacturer. A valid claim costs you nothing.

Yes. At handover we train your team on operation, monitoring, safety and routine checks, with refresher sessions on request.

Most industrial and commercial roofs can. Panels and mounting add about 15 to 20 kg per square metre. At the site survey we check the roof structure, the sheet thickness and the condition of the roof, and we confirm it can carry the load before any work begins.

We check this at the survey, before the contract. If the roof needs support, we can replace sheets, add reinforcement at the fixing points, use ballasted mounting, which is held down by weight and needs no drilling, or move the array to a ground mount.

A correctly installed roof mount does not cause leaks. Every fixing is sealed with gaskets and sealant rated for the life of the system. We also record the roof condition before we start, so the baseline is clear.

As a rough guide for modern panels:

• –50 kWp: about 300 square metres.
• –100 kWp: about 600 square metres.
• –500 kWp: about 3,000 square metres.

The roof should be unshaded and sound. Where roof space is tight or unsuitable, a ground mount is an option.

Yes. A ground mount suits sites with land available, weak or damaged roofs, and larger installations. It adds some cost for the steel structure and civil works. One example is our 400 kWp ground-mount system in Wakiso.

It depends on how dusty the site is. Urban and industrial sites near Kampala or Jinja suit cleaning every two to three months. Sites near cement works, sugar mills or unpaved roads may need it monthly. Rural sites away from dust need it less often, and in the rainy season the rain does much of the work.

Yes, when they are properly engineered and installed. We build in arc-fault protection (which detects dangerous sparking in the wiring), rapid shutdown, proper isolation and earthing, and we install to international safety standards and the wiring regulations for Uganda.

A single switch drops the DC voltage on the roof, the direct current coming from the panels, to a safe level within seconds. It is a safety feature for firefighters and maintenance teams, and every commercial system we install includes it.

A Backup system switches to battery within milliseconds, so your operation keeps running with no visible interruption. A panel-only Solar Savings system shuts down during an outage for safety and starts again when the grid returns.

Yes. Every hybrid system works together with your generator, and it draws power in order of priority: solar first, then battery, then grid, with the generator only as a last resort.

Yes, much less. Most sites see generator running hours drop by 60 to 80 percent, which also makes the generator last longer. A full Off-Grid system can take the generator out of daily use.

Uganda does not offer net metering, where the utility credits you for surplus power you send back, to commercial and industrial users. Systems are therefore set to zero export, and the design makes sure you use your solar power on site.

No. With zero export set correctly, the system never pushes power back into the grid, and that is the condition utilities care about.

The batteries we use carry a 10-year product and performance warranty and typically last 12 to 15 years in service. Over a 25-year system life, plan for one battery replacement.

Draining a battery too deeply, high temperatures and hard cycling (frequent heavy charging and discharging) all age it. We set a minimum charge level the battery is never drained below, monitor temperature continuously and configure charging to protect the cells.

Yes, with a system sized to run your site around the clock on its own. This suits remote sites, places with a weak grid, health centres, lodges and farms. We size the battery to carry you through cloudy spells, with a generator as an optional backup.

A well-sized Off-Grid system carries you through two to three days of low sun. Uganda gets steady sun all year, and even in the rainy season output drops rather than stops. For longer spells we plan for a backup generator or extra battery capacity.

For a system that powers only your own site, the requirements are light. Smaller captive systems (those that supply only your own site) and off-grid systems are registered with the Electricity Regulatory Authority rather than fully licensed. We handle the registration and permits as part of our scope, and we confirm the current requirements for your project, since these can change.

Yes. A captive system for your own use, with no electricity sold to others, is allowed, and we take care of the notifications involved.

Yes. For grid-tied systems we prepare the applications for the utility and the regulator, set the system for zero export, and manage the approval process for you.

Yes. For a direct purchase, most clients add the system to their existing building or business insurance at a small premium. Under a lease, the finance partner usually arranges insurance. We can point you to brokers experienced with solar if your insurer needs it.

We quote in US dollars by default, because equipment and international warranties are priced in dollars. We accept payment in dollars, shillings or euros, and we can structure long-term contracts to suit your revenue currency.

Yes. Monitoring runs over an encrypted connection with no direct exposure to the open internet. We change default passwords and close any access that is not needed. For sensitive sites we can run monitoring in a closed mode.

Your component warranties for panels, inverters and batteries sit with the manufacturers and stay with the system, and those brands are honoured internationally. We build with standard, widely supported equipment, and we hand over all documentation, monitoring access and design files on request, so any qualified company can service the system. We have operated in East Africa since 2011.

More than 50 commercial and industrial projects across East Africa, totalling 4,074 kWp of solar and 3,923 kWh of battery storage. We have operated since 2011.

Yes. We work across Uganda, from Fort Portal and Mbale to Arua, Soroti and Jinja, and in Kenya and Tanzania. We are also delivering solar to 250 UNICEF health centres in West Nile.

From around 20 kWp for a small commercial site upwards, with no fixed upper limit, because we size every system to the load we measure on your site. The largest system we have built so far is 500 kWp at Kyamuhunga Tea Company.

We work in manufacturing, health, education, agriculture and agro-processing, hospitality, communication and humanitarian programmes. Hospitals are a particular strength, and we have a long track record of keeping their critical loads running.

Yes. We size the battery around critical loads such as theatres, ICUs and the cold chain for vaccines and medicines, and the changeover is fast enough that the equipment never sees the interruption.

Yes. They include Jesa Farm Dairy, Lubaga and Naggalama Hospitals, Corsu Rehabilitation Hospital, Spouts of Water, Kyamuhunga Tea, Radio Pacis, Total Bunamwaya, Acaki Lodge, GIZ, and 250 UNICEF health centres.

It varies with size and use. A 100 kWp system in Uganda saves in the order of 14 tonnes of CO2 a year, on top of the diesel it displaces.

Silicon panels are largely recyclable. Where local recycling is not yet available, we store equipment for return to the manufacturer or specialist recyclers, and batteries go back to their makers.

Yes. The first call takes 20 minutes and comes with no obligation, and we use it to understand your needs and suggest the next steps.