SolarCity just changed the way clean energy projects will be financed. Will retail investors give solar a boost?
The largest solar installer in the US announced Wednesday that it is offering up to $200m in bonds to retail investors, marking the first registered public sale of solar bonds in the country. SolarCitys landmark move toward crowdfunding could democratize the way solar projects are bankrolled and grow overall investment for clean energy.
Large institutional investors (such as Google, Honda and US Bank, in the case of SolarCity projects) finance the bulk of solar projects today. While individual investors can already put money into solar projects via crowdfunding platforms such as Mosaic, SunFunder and Crowdsun.com, most of these opportunities are only available to accredited investors wealthy individuals or are limited to just one or a few states, said Tim Newell, SolarCitys vice president of financial products.
Why does SolarCity have to launch their own bonds all the way to retail services? Why arent people like Charles Schwab and others like that marketing these products? Theyre the people who have got all the distribution channels into the investors.