Much of SolarCitys leadership in the U.S. residential solar market comes down to the companys strength in finance. It has been able to raise more money to deploy distributed solar than anyone else, and in the process introduced new mechanisms for financing portfolios of solar projects.
And while todays US$227 million tax equity financing deal with John Hancock was not a novel structure, it is a continuation of that trend. Through the deal John Hancock will invest in a portfolio of residential and commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects totaling 201 MW.
This 201 MW is spread across 18 U.S. states, and SolarCity states that the mix of assets is a representative sample of its customer base. The company notes that the commercial customers include national retail brands, and SolarCity notes that the average FICO score of its residential solar customers in this portfolio is 744.
The deal is structured so that SolarCity retains ownership of the projects and services the customers, but monetizes the majority of 20-year cash flows, including the solar renewable energy credits (SRECs). SolarCity will also retain a minority share of annual cash flows through the contract term, and essentially the entire cash flows thereafter.
?Including tax equity investments, upfront rebates and pre-payments, SolarCity estimates that it has raised $3.00 per watt of financing for the projects in the portfolio.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.