In the past, at New York Energy Week, we’ve paid close attention to the solar revolution. We’ve discussed the regulatory constraints involved previously on our blog.
And in 2014, we hosted a Solar Breakfast focused on how New York and the Northeast could increase their solar output and the necessary technologies to ensure that outcome. You can find highlights from the event here.
In the past several years, financing for solar projects has made huge strides. Even in recent days, we’ve seen exciting news, both domestically and abroad.
SolarCity raised $227 million in new financing through John Hancock Financial. But it did so through a unique mechanism known as “cash equity,” where the company sold its future cash flow and tax benefits that it expects to generate over the next 20 years. Analysts predict that SolarCity will need to raise upward of $1.2 billion in financing to meet its solar generating capacity this year. This method not only helps the company get one step closer to that goal, but it also diversifies its long-term financing options for solar assets.
Elsewhere, Australia recently issued its first “green bonds” that will help provide cheaper financing options for solar. FlexiGroup, an Australian based credit finance group, raised $50 million through green asset-backed securities, which effectively introduced rooftop solar into the country’s mainstream bond market. In a market that experiences abundant sunshine, these bonds present a strong potential for growth in rooftop solar in Australia. The issue is considered the world’s first “Climate Bond certified securitized Green Bond” and could usher a period where we see the issuing of new green bonds in the near future.
And recent developments out of India further demonstrate solar’s continued upward trajectory. Finland utility Fortum OYJ, the country’s richest company, is planning to invest upward of $455 million in Indian solar projects, which is expected to drop electricity prices to a record low. This is a step forward for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans to boost renewable energy production, with a goal of 100 gigawatts of solar power by 2020, which is equivalent to the generating capacity of about 100 nuclear reactors.
With solar financing making leaps and bounds both here and across the globe, this year’s New York Energy Week will include a Solar Breakfast entitled “Bending the Sun Curve: Future Pathways for Financing Distributed Solar.” Our moderator, Ronald Borod, Senior Counsel at DLA Piper LLP, will lead the conversation. He’ll be supported by a fantastic panel of speakers, including: Benjamin Cohen, Bert Hunter, Katrina Niehaus, Andrianne Payson, and Jigar Shah. These speakers are innovators and leaders in the rapidly evolving and exciting field of solar financing, who will surely share new ideas and spark a lively dialogue.
