Transforming Solar Financing
Sol-REIT, LLC (“Sol-REIT”) offers one-stop financing of construction loans and flexible mortgage loans for small to mid-sized solar project developers underserved in the market today. Sol-REIT is not a bank. We understand your business - our founders are solar developers, not bankers, and the program has been developed by REIT and solar project development experts.
Solar Debt
Project developers in the solar market often need to sell their projects to aggregators due to the difficulty of obtaining construction, debt, long-term debt and tax equity. Sol-REIT will be a go-to source of all a developer’s capital needs, with zero to minimal sponsor equity requirement, for the full term of the project. This allows developers to build their business and own their projects, typically doubling their fees or facilitating their long term ownership.
Traditional financing is typically “mini-perm” debt and often includes high upfront fees, onerous debt service coverage ratios, friction costs and other barriers. Large project developers and aggregators have an easier time finding a solution that works with these terms, but small to mid-size developers cannot. Solar projects often include 15 to 20 year contracts, which means that the standard mini-perm bank loans available to developers are not in line with the operational life of a project, resulting in insufficient debt service and requiring large expensive equity contributions.
Originations
Sol-REIT will be the first firm to bring the proven mortgage REIT model to the solar industry. Small and midsize project developers that do not have the balance sheet or institutional partners to secure optimal financing in today’s market will especially benefit from a solar mortgage REIT.
Sol-REIT will focus on two key areas: new project funding and refinancing short-term bank debt. Both developers of new projects and owners of existing solar assets looking to refinance can consider Sol-REIT’s offerings.
Solar developers capture more value from projects they originate, if they can move them along the development process through construction. Sol-REIT eliminates the capital constraints for these developers, enabling them to sell at later stages and capture more value from long-term ownership, while retaining positive cash flows for their business. A Sol-REIT case study of a 2.50 MW project illustrates the options to developers and the benefits Sol-REIT financing offers.
Approach
At Sol-REIT, we strive to deliver a different form of solar financing. We recognize there is a significant, untapped opportunity in the solar industry because existing debt options do not effectively serve many developers, especially those that specialize in small- to midsize projects.
Solar projects are like real estate investments: long-term, passive and secure. Sol-REIT’s financing offerings have been developed with this framework in mind.
How does “solar as real estate work” in practice? With our solar mortgage REIT, there are no upfront fees and our financing terms and debt repayment schedules match the terms of your current power purchase agreement (PPA) or lease agreement. Our approach also offers better a debt service coverage ratio and more credit for uncontracted SRECs.
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