CleanTechnica
By James Ayre January 17th, 2015
Elon Musk’s rooftop solar (and soon manufacturing) company SolarCity has secured a $200 million non-recourse financing facility with Credit Suisse — to be used to support the company’s relatively new MyPower loan program.
This program is based on the idea of allowing customers to pay for “MyPower” in a similar way to the way that a solar power purchase agreement (PPA) is paid for — that is to say, based on the amount of power that the system produces via the sun. Importantly, of course, in this case ownership is retained.
The MyPower program/product has so far shown itself to be a success — with over ~8,000 customers having signed up so far, just ~3 months after MyPower’s introduction (back in October).
“MyPower is America’s most affordable solar loan, with a lower cost than PPAs in many locations,” stated Brad Buss, SolarCity’s chief financial officer. “The new facility is the first of its kind, and offers the lowest interest rate of any solar financing facility we’ve seen. We expect it to be the first of a large array of financing we create this year to support MyPower’s growth.”
With regard to the specifics of the financing facility, Credit Suisse is acting as the sole structuring agent and administrative agent, and US Bank is serving as the Trustee. SolarCity is, reportedly, expecting to refinance the facility in the securitization market after the new MyPower systems (the ones being financed by the Credit Suisse facility) are fully deployed.
Interesting news. I have to admit I find this side of Elon Musk’s ventures to be far more interesting (and likely to bear substantial fruit) than some of those that get far more coverage — particularly, the space-oriented ones.
Here’s to hoping SolarCity continues to see good growth into the future. Click for full article.