Sawa Energy's Bellavista proposal (competitor benchmark)
What Sawa Energy offered Bellavista Apartments (Pearl Marina) for solar and storage, and what NFE took from it for the Commercial RPM. Bellavista is also in NFE's pipeline (see Potential Customers). Based on Sawa's proposal document "Bellavista (576kW) Proposal_Lease to Own_Battery", reviewed 18 Sep 2026. Owner: Aaron Tushabe.
Sawa's offer
| Item | Sawa's Bellavista proposal |
|---|---|
| Solar | 576 kWp |
| Battery | 691 kWh (about 2 hours) |
| Ground area | 3,200 m² |
| Stated system value | UGX 4.762 billion |
| Upfront cost to the customer | None |
| Monthly lease | USD 17,038 (operating lease USD 13,068 + O&M USD 3,970) |
| Term | 25 years |
| Security deposit | 3 months (USD 51,113) |
| Ownership | Optional purchase from year 3 at a declining, predefined price; transfer for USD 1 after 25 years |
| Share of consumption covered | 43% overall; 85% of daytime consumption |
| Included | Monitoring, maintenance, insurance, warranty management, panel washing and repairs, with inverter replacement about every 7 years and battery replacement about every 10 years ("set it and forget it") |
| Sizing | Subject to validation by logging actual consumption |
The lease comes to about USD 204,000 a year, or about USD 5.1m over 25 years before escalation or discounting. Bellavista pays it whether it uses a little electricity or a lot.
How it compares with a Commercial RPM
| Sawa (lease-to-own) | NFE Commercial RPM | |
|---|---|---|
| Customer pays for | Equipment: a fixed monthly lease | Electricity used, per kWh at the utility tariff, with a 50% minimum |
| Who carries volume risk | The customer | Mostly NFE, above the 50% floor |
| Reliability | Comes with the equipment | Part of the service and included in the price |
| Proposal is built around | The asset (kWp, kWh, system value) | The service (the power stays on at the same price) |
| Capital | The full system up front | In phases: measure first, then build what the data supports |
| Ownership | From year 3; USD 1 at year 25 | Optional purchase from year 5 |
What NFE adopted
- "Set it and forget it" risk allocation. NFE owns, monitors, maintains, repairs, insures and replaces the equipment for as long as it runs the system, all covered by the energy price.
- A predefined buyout schedule agreed at signing, so the customer always has a path to ownership at a known price.
- An onboarding sequence: data logging → credit assessment → site assessment → final design → contract → deployment. Sawa asks for corporate documents, utility bills or audited statements, credit references and site or roof information.
What NFE does differently, on purpose
- Bills for energy, not for equipment.
- Leads proposals with the service, with the hardware list secondary.
- Deploys capital in phases as consumption is proven, rather than financing the whole system on day one.
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