SolarCity Corp., America’s no. 1 solar power provider, raised $345 million in tax equity from four separate partners in June and July to finance new solar projects. The financing facilities cover the capital cost of new equipment and installations, and make it possible for customers to pay less for solar power than they pay for utility power.
In addition to the $345 million in new funds, SolarCity also expanded its existing debt aggregation facility to $760 million, an increase of $110 million. SolarCity added two new lenders to the facility, which accounted for $70 million of the $110 million upsize. SolarCity also expanded its solar renewable energy credit (SREC) financing facility to accept five years of hedged SRECs, significantly lowering its cost of financing for SRECs and drawing more capital from the facility.
SolarCity’s capital markets team has raised more than $1.5 billion in project financing to date in 2016. The company has now created funds and facilities to finance projects with more than 30 different banks and corporate partners. Investment in rooftop and other small-scale solar is expected to attract $3.4 trillion over the next 25 years, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s New Energy Outlook 2016 report.
This comes on top of the recent announcement of the its collaboration with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to demonstrate how the coordinated use of solar smart inverters and behind the meter energy storage could provide enhanced benefits to the grid. In particular, the installation of the smart inverters and battery storage systems for residential rooftop solar customers will evaluate how the stability and power quality of the grid can be enhanced and solar generation and power-flow management optimized through the coordinated use of distributed energy resources like solar using smart inverters and battery storage.
SolarCity provides clean energy. The company has disrupted the century-old energy industry by providing renewable electricity directly to homeowners, businesses and government organizations for less than they spend on utility bills; in the process claiming to give customers control of their energy costs to protect them from rising rates. The company makes solar energy easy by taking care of everything from design and permitting to monitoring and maintenance.