Solar Inspiration / Working with Investors

From Ruth, the board member with the most hands-on experience with financing solar:

Financing solar is the most emotionally rewarding thing I have ever done with my money. I find when I donate to non-profits, even the most deserving, I rarely have any tangible results that I experience personally. Also, you never really know where your money is going. When I finance solar on a deserving non-profit or family business, and meet with the owner, I feel like Santa Claus. The joy of the owner in having clean energy that they never would have imagined they could afford, and in knowing they can be an example for their community and everyone who visits their site, is wonderful to be a part of. I have very much enjoyed this part of my life, and I would like to help others have that same feeling.

One activity of our non-profit will be to work with investors and help them find this same joy. The beauties of installing solar for me are:

• You know you are doing something good

• You get to see the concrete result, visit the solar you put up, and see the renewable kWh of energy being created every day (via an online platform)

• You get to meet the folks getting the solar, and share in their happiness in having renewable energy put on their roof, that possibly helped them achieve their plans of becoming more sustainable

• You get your money back, with a small profit – which I find more satisfying than giving it away

• You can then use the money you get back, if you wish, to roll into more solar, and be Santa Claus for even more people

• You can pick what kind of organization you want to do this for – maybe your focus is schools, or churches, or pet shelters, or low-income homes – you can do this for any organization that is important to you

As far as the nuts and bolts, if you want to do this, our non-profit will help you through every step:

• Deciding if you want to do this as an LLC (or you may have an existing business you want to use for this activity)

• Doing the registration for the LLC with the IRS and the SCC

• Helping you determine where you would like to put solar

• Developing a Power Purchase Agreement and working through the payoff with you to decide the terms you want in the agreement

• Developing a contract with a solar installer

• Once the solar is installed and operating, developing the method for invoicing the site for the solar generated

• Signing the system up for extra income in the form of SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Credits)

The experience of our board includes more than two dozen PPAs and solar contracts, of all types – homes, businesses, and non-profits, from all over Virginia.

We would love to help you install solar with whatever amount of your money you would like. This is something you can do with a small part of your net worth – some part that you will be OK with getting back in a few years (60% in the first year, the rest steadily coming back in the following years so you are paid up by of the end of the 10th year). You can start small, with a home or small non-profit, with something like $20K. Or you can install on a larger non-profit or business for any amount you want up to $2M (above that amount for a single solar install, other rules will apply that we are not experienced with).