SolarCity Unveils Plan to Double
the Total Number of Residential Solar Installations
in the U.S. Through Installation of Solar Power on
160,000 Military Homes
Sept. 7, 2011 - solarcity.com
SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 7, 2011—SolarCity
took a major step today in an initiative that could
double the number of residential solar photovoltaic
installations in the United States. U.S. Energy Secretary
Steven Chu today announced the offer of a conditional
commitment for a partial guarantee of a $344 million
loan to help secure financing for SolarCity’s “SolarStrong™” project.
As part of the project, SolarCity plans to partner
with the country’s leading military housing-privatization
developers to install, own and operate up to 160,000
rooftop solar installations on as many as 124 military
housing developments across 33 U.S. states. The project
is expected to create more than $1 billion in solar
projects and 371 megawatts of new solar generation
capacity. USRG Renewable Finance, a subsidiary of
U.S. Renewables Group, will serve as the lead lender
for the project in partnership with BofA Merrill
Lynch.
“
We’re extremely grateful to the Department
of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, in addition
to our partners, U.S. Renewables Group and BofA Merrill
Lynch. Without this group, we would not have been
able to make the economics of this project work,” said
Lyndon Rive, SolarCity’s CEO. “Now the
solar industry has a debt model that can make distributed
generation affordable on a massive scale.”
SolarCity, which currently employs more than 1,200
people in 11 states, will create new jobs and help
jumpstart the renewable energy industry in up to
22 additional states, some of which have very little
solar generation capacity today. According to the
National Renewable Energy Laboratories’ (NREL)
Jobs and Economic Development Impact model, the SolarStrong
installations would be expected to create nearly
6,000 direct job-years related to the installation
and ongoing maintenance of the systems. SolarCity
hopes to fill as many of the jobs as possible with
U.S. veterans and military family members.
The SolarStrong projects will likely include installing
solar on other privatized buildings on military bases,
such as community centers, administrative offices,
maintenance buildings and storage warehouses. The
first SolarStrong-eligible project—a coordinated
effort between real estate developer Lend Lease and
SolarCity—is already underway at Hickam Communities
at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. When
completed, that project alone will provide renewable
power to more than 2,000 military family homes.
“
Thanks to the Energy Department’s leadership
and resolve, we can now bring an unprecedented opportunity
to privatized military housing across the U.S.,” said
Aaron Gillmore, SolarCity’s vice president
of solar development. “We believe the SolarStrong
model will deliver the most affordable solar option
available to military housing, and provide a template
for financing large-scale residential solar projects
well into the future.”
The SolarStrong project will help the Department
of Defense (DOD), the single-largest energy consumer
in the U.S., secure its energy needs from renewable
sources operated in parallel with the utility grid.
DOD has a stated goal to migrate to greater than
25 percent renewable energy generation by the year
2025.
About SolarCity
SolarCity®, a national leader in solar power
design, financing, installation, monitoring and energy
efficiency services, was founded with the mission
to help millions of homeowners and businesses adopt
clean power, protect themselves from rising gas and
electricity costs and protect their environment from
polluting power sources. The company’s SolarLease® and
Power Purchase Agreement (SolarPPA™) options
can make it possible for homeowners and businesses
to switch to clean, solar power for less money than
they currently pay for electricity. Additional information
about the company is available on the Web at www.solarcity.com.
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