EaaS vs. Buy-and-Own:
Total Cost of Ownership
A clear-eyed comparison of two ways to pay for off-grid power. When does Energy-as-a-Service save money? When does buying make sense? Here are the numbers.
Two Ways to Pay for Off-Grid Power
Every organization evaluating off-grid power faces the same fundamental question: should we buy the equipment and manage it ourselves, or contract a provider to deliver power as a managed service?
Both models work. The right choice depends on your fleet size, internal capabilities, and how you want to allocate capital. Here is an honest comparison.
Buy-and-Own (CapEx)
You purchase the hardware upfront and take full responsibility for installation, monitoring, maintenance, and eventual replacement.
Energy-as-a-Service (OpEx)
You pay a fixed monthly fee. The provider owns, installs, monitors, maintains, and replaces the equipment for the life of the contract.
The Hidden Costs of Buy-and-Own
The purchase price of the hardware is the number most teams focus on. But it is usually less than half of the 10-year total cost. These are the costs that show up after the purchase order is signed.
Maintenance labor
Technicians, truck rolls, diagnostic equipment, and travel time. A single remote site visit can cost $300-$1,000+ depending on location.
Battery replacements
Batteries degrade over 5-8 years. Replacing them at 100+ sites is a major capital event that buy-and-own budgets often overlook.
Monitoring platform fees
Third-party monitoring platforms charge per-device or per-site monthly fees. For large fleets, this adds up quickly.
Internal team overhead
Someone on your team needs to manage the fleet. Reviewing alerts, scheduling maintenance, ordering parts, coordinating technicians.
Downtime losses
Every hour a site is down costs revenue. Without proactive monitoring, failures are discovered late and fixed slowly.
Opportunity cost of capital
Money spent on power hardware is money not spent on network expansion, subscriber acquisition, or revenue-generating infrastructure.
10-Year TCO Comparison
Here is how the math works for a typical 100-site telecom fleet. The specific numbers will vary by region, site conditions, and equipment, but the structure of the comparison is consistent.
CapEx Model (Buy-and-Own)
OpEx Model (Energy-as-a-Service)
In most deployments Clear Blue has analyzed, the EaaS model costs 30-40% less over 10 years than buy-and-own. The savings come from three places: economies of scale in hardware procurement, lower maintenance costs through remote monitoring (fewer truck rolls), and eliminated battery replacement capital events.
Use our Solar Savings Calculator to model the comparison for your specific fleet, or contact our team for a custom TCO analysis.
Want a custom TCO analysis for your fleet?
Tell us your fleet size and site locations. We will model both approaches with real numbers.
Get a Custom AnalysisWhen Each Model Makes Sense
Neither model is universally better. Here is when each approach tends to win.
Buy-and-Own works well when:
- •You have a small number of sites (under 20) in accessible locations
- •You already have an internal team with off-grid power expertise
- •You have capital budget available and prefer asset ownership
- •Your sites are in stable environments with minimal seasonal variation
EaaS works well when:
- You manage a large or growing fleet across multiple regions
- Your sites are remote and expensive to reach for maintenance
- You prefer operating expenses over capital expenditure
- You do not have (or want) an internal power management team
- You need predictable costs for budgeting and financial planning
- You need the system to perform reliably from day one without a learning curve
Ready to Compare the Numbers for Your Fleet?
Our team will model both CapEx and OpEx scenarios using your actual site data, fleet size, and operating conditions. No obligation, just clear numbers.