Financing

Financing is quickly become necessary for the successful adoption of renewable energy in the United States. If you want to sell geothermal or solar projects, you need to understand finance.

Great Resources
Finance 101 for Renewable Energy Pros
Finance 101 for Solar PV Pros
Mastering Commercial Solar Finance
The Complete Guide to Geothermal Tax Credits

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 modeling for a commercial solar project from start to finish with expert guidance. The class is limited to 50 students, but there are 30 discounted seats. 

 

There are a few questions that solar EPCs and developers interested in the commercial solar market continuously ask me:

Our company’s sales are limited by finding investors for projects, but I can’t find them. How do we find investors and project finance capital for my projects?
What does a good project look like to investors? What is a creditworthy customer?
What should I focus my company’s time on, and what should the investor do?
How do I determine what I should install the project at and what is an appropriate PPA price to the customer?

The following is a 60+ minute interview with Noel Lafayette of Steep Hill Renewables. Noel runs a $20MM solar fund and is an active solar PV investor. He’s looking to finance and buy mid-market solar projects between 150kW and 1MW. Because he’s actively looking to buy projects and has deep experience in the solar industry, his insights are extremely actionable and valuable to any solar contractors looking to grow in the commercial market. He’s been developing and financing commercial solar projects since 2006. In total, he’s developed more than 50 MW of solar projects.

If you believe that selling, financing, and building projects between 100kW and 1MW is the future of your company or career, this interview is for you.

If you have a question for Noel, please leave it in the comment section of this article.

In this interview, you will learn

How most solar deals have 2, 3, or 4 “moving parts” and why investors can accept 1, maybe 2, but never 3.
Why policy should not steer property owners toward leasing but should let the market dictate the best ownership model.
Why there’s a huge opportunity and going to be a “roof grab” on roof projects between 200kW and 500kW in Massachusetts in the next 24 months.
Why you should be pricing your PPA energy price at a 20%+ discount to the customers’ current electric cost to sell projects. You might be able to sell projects at a 10%, but you’ll be able to sell much more at 20%.
A key sales strategy for dealing with more conservative or more speculative property owners. What happens when you let the customer keep their SRECs or not.
Why new EPCs should work directly with their financing partners when they’re selling projects to make sure they won’t lose money.
How to develop a relationship with a solar investor so working out the terms of a deal take 15 minutes on the phone and not weeks.

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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 a solar PV project. This could serve as a model for non-profit clients that you […]

“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 that is stopping them from financing commercial solar projects. Commercial meaning anything between 200kW and […]

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 “payback” or “return on investment” to sell commercial projects, you’re behind the ball.

This is going […]

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 immediately. Related free content:

Financing Commercial Solar Power Purchase Agreements – A 1-hour video answering eight […]