By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
The new Solar Finance Council will continue to work on lowering the cost of capital and expand the investor base so more solar can be deployed in more places.
Financing is often the most difficult part of getting a solar deal done, and lower the costs of capital is one of the keys to unlocking solar’s full potential. To that end, one man with experience in researching the problem has created a new working group to address just those issues.
Called the Solar Finance Council (SFC), the group is being headed by Mike Mendelsohn as executive director.Mendelsohn previously led the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) work in project finance and capital markets. Prior to SEIA, he established the Solar Access to Public Capital (SAPC) working group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Unlike his previous endeavors, however, the SFC will remain independent.
Membership and advisory board participation is open to all industry stakeholders. If you are interested in participating, please contact us at mike@solarfinancecouncil.org.
“To date, investment for solar project development has come from a small number of banks and financial entities, largely those that play in the ‘tax-equity’ arena,” Mendelsohn said. “To meet the climate challenge before us, solar will need to scale rapidly while government support through the investment tax credit will decline to very low levels, starting in 2020.
“Accordingly, the industry needs to find new and larger sources of capital, and to do so, improve investor confidence that solar assets produce energy and long-term cash flows as originally projected,” Mendelsohn added.
To facilitate its mission, SFC will research, analyze and distribute high-quality data and other industry content targeting the investment community and will convene industry members to solve challenges to broader investment in underserved sectors of the economy such as commercial real estate, low and moderate-income households, and untapped geographic markets.