Community Solar 101 There’s been a lot of buzz about community solar lately. While the amount of investment in community solar projects is a fraction of the investment of the entire solar industry, there are a few leaders who recognize the incredible potential… Continue reading “Community Solar 101”
How to Handle Unknown Risk to Increase Solar Project Success Image: Universe of Issues, Risks, and Challenges This is a guest article from Chris Lord, Managing Director at CapIron, Inc. He’s a former lawyer with extensive banking experience who now consults with solar developers and investors. I’ve never met anyone… Continue reading “How to Handle Unknown Risk to Increase Solar Project Success”
The Most Common Solar PPA Modeling Mistake, The Fix, and a Free Tool This article will address the most common error that developers and EPCs make when modeling commercial solar PPAs. The video below will discuss the problem, the solution, and provide a free tool you can download so you can work through… Continue reading “The Most Common Solar PPA Modeling Mistake, The Fix, and a Free Tool”
Interview with Cory Honeyman, GTM Research Solar Analyst, on Emerging Trends in Residential and Commercial Solar In this interview, GTM Research Solar Analyst Cory Honeyman provides some background on the U.S. Solar Market Insight Report and discusses trends in residential and commercial solar, including hard costs, important skills for salespeople, state incentives, common misconceptions, and financing.… Continue reading “Interview with Cory Honeyman, GTM Research Solar Analyst, on Emerging Trends in Residential and Commercial Solar”
How to Price the Risk of Cash Equity vs Tax Equity Positions in Solar Partnership Flips This article is part of a series common topics and questions that professionals have about financing commercial solar projects. Chris Lord of CapIron provided some insights into pricing certain types of investor risk in partnership flips. Chris is a co-teacher… Continue reading “How to Price the Risk of Cash Equity vs Tax Equity Positions in Solar Partnership Flips”
How to Calculate the Buyout Price for Commercial Solar PPAs This article is part of a series tutorials, interviews and definitions around commercial solar financing that is leading up to the start of our next Solar MBA that starts on Monday September 15th. In the Solar MBA students will complete financial… Continue reading “How to Calculate the Buyout Price for Commercial Solar PPAs”
[Interview] How to Provide Solar Financing to Any Non-Profit Solar Project Larger Than 50kW Lee Barken and his team at Collective Sun have figured out the holy grail of commercial solar financing. Collective Sun can provide solar financing to non-profit solar projects from 50kW and up. Currently, they’re offering their product in California but… Continue reading “[Interview] How to Provide Solar Financing to Any Non-Profit Solar Project Larger Than 50kW”
[30 Minute Interview] Why SREC Markets Will Grow in a Post-ITC Solar World + Other Trends in Commercial Solar Finance All eyes are on the reduction or expiration of the 30 percent federal solar tax credit (ITC). While it’s the prime goal of SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association) to maintain the federal ITC, some have argued explicitly that it’s time to… Continue reading “[30 Minute Interview] Why SREC Markets Will Grow in a Post-ITC Solar World + Other Trends in Commercial Solar Finance”
50 Minutes of Video Answering 5 Questions on Finding, Pitching, Managing Solar Tax Equity Investors This event has already happened. Please scroll down to see the recording and read the answers to the questions. This week our focus has turned to a question that everyone wants answered. Investors, investor, investors! Everyone needs more capital for projects,… Continue reading “50 Minutes of Video Answering 5 Questions on Finding, Pitching, Managing Solar Tax Equity Investors”
Advice from a $20MM Solar PV Investor for Commercial Solar Installers = Focus on a Niche, Be Fast, and Standardize your Operations This article is part of a series of tutorials, interviews and definitions around commercial solar financing. If you need to learn more about solar finance, click here to test drive our Solar MBA. In the Solar MBA students will complete financial… Continue reading “Advice from a $20MM Solar PV Investor for Commercial Solar Installers = Focus on a Niche, Be Fast, and Standardize your Operations”
How We Financed a 13kW Solar Project on a Church in Massachusetts The following is a guest post by Fred Paris, the instructor of our Solar PV Installer Boot Camp Training + NABCEP Entry Level Exam Prep. Fred tells the story of how he worked with members of a church to finance… Continue reading “How We Financed a 13kW Solar Project on a Church in Massachusetts”
“If Banks Only Understood Solar, My Commercial Solar Business Would Grow” We’ve had over 800 people download our commercial solar PV finance model. If you haven’t, you can download the Commercial Solar Model here. When our readers, students and alumni download it, we ask them what the is the #1 obstalce… Continue reading ““If Banks Only Understood Solar, My Commercial Solar Business Would Grow””
The Impact of SREC Value Assumptions on Commercial Solar PV Project IRRs Calculating the the un-levered (no debt), internal rate of return (IRR) of a commercial solar PV project is key to selling the project to the property owner, or gain investors on board for financing. If you’re still using the term… Continue reading “The Impact of SREC Value Assumptions on Commercial Solar PV Project IRRs”
Preview of Powerful Commercial Solar Project Finance Model included in Solar Executive MBA Course If you are involved in selling or financing commercial solar projects and need a robust proven tool to value those projects, this model (which is included in our Solar Executive MBA course) will be useful to you and your business… Continue reading “Preview of Powerful Commercial Solar Project Finance Model included in Solar Executive MBA Course”
Guide to Bridge Financing For Solar EPC Contractors Over the past month, I’ve seen a pick up in the amount of companies that are offering ‘bridge financing’ to small and middle size solar PV contractors. So, I thought I would put together a short post and a free… Continue reading “Guide to Bridge Financing For Solar EPC Contractors”
Betting on the Decline of Residential Solar PV Financing Here is a crazy thought: we will know that solar pv has become mainstream when 3rd party financiers are no longer needed. I’m very bullish on the ability of 3rd financiers to be able to compete with the general trend of the… Continue reading “Betting on the Decline of Residential Solar PV Financing”
Finance 101 for Solar Thermal Pros In this article, I’ll go through the basic step-by-step process of how to evaluate, understand and communicate the financial benefits of investing in a solar thermal system. The analysis will be on the client side, but obviously it’s critical for… Continue reading “Finance 101 for Solar Thermal Pros”
Finance 101 For Geothermal Pros (Image using LoopLink Geothermal Design Software) The only thing that the geothermal industry needs to worry about is sales. We need more sales. For the most part, we have talented enough engineers and tradespeople to install any project that we… Continue reading “Finance 101 For Geothermal Pros”
[Interview] 5 Key Lessons Learned about a Homeowner’s Solar Buying Process I’ve been doing a lot of interviews with companies that are selling renewable energy services, but what I’m really interested in learning about is how property owners are making their purchasing decisions. If we can better understand the customer, it will… Continue reading “[Interview] 5 Key Lessons Learned about a Homeowner’s Solar Buying Process”
Large Installers and Financiers DOMINATE the MASS Residential Solar Market, with 76% and 74% Market Share Respectively, and Other Interesting Data The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has made data on the number of project funded through the Commonwealth solar grant available public. Find the on MA CEC’s website or download it here in excel format. The data is very detailed and… Continue reading “Large Installers and Financiers DOMINATE the MASS Residential Solar Market, with 76% and 74% Market Share Respectively, and Other Interesting Data”