1. Banking on Solar
By Jon Abe, Chief Executive Officer
The Solworks Energy crew works to install an 80 kW solar installation on the rooftop of 145 Broadway, a commercial office building owned by Boston Properties and occupied by Akamai Technologies. The system towers 19 stories above Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA.
This is the first installment of Sunwealth’s Banking on Solar series, a series of articles in which we describe the opportunity for community banks to invest in solar tax equity and partner with Sunwealth to impact the communities we serve.
Community Banks as a Touchstone for Sunwealth
It is a simple truth that community banking is the “backbone” of prosperous and equitable communities. As a paperboy, it was my community bank that held my weekly deposits – mostly loose change – and empowered my parents to fulfill the dream of homeownership for our family of six. I have three brothers, and our community bank was there to provide us with an emergency loan when our septic system failed in dramatic fashion a few years later.
During the Great Recession, as head of the Commonwealth’s Solar program, I was proud to partner with the community bank that launched the first ever homeowner solar lending program in Massachusetts. They saw an opportunity that was profitable and impactful: customers would save more money on their electric bills than they would pay on the solar loan; and they’d do it with clean energy. At a very early stage, this community bank saw the transformative potential of the solar industry in Massachusetts, which was about $10 million per year at that time, and saw the clean energy jobs that their loans would create during those tough financial times.
Since then, many local community banks have followed their lead and offered solar loans as the industry continues to grow rapidly across the nation. I’m a committed customer: I know that my family’s savings are in good hands with our community bank and that it prudently reinvests these funds into our local economy and is providing support during challenging times.
Community Banks as Leaders and Anchors, Especially in Extraordinary Times
Sunwealth invests for a better energy future by financing and managing solar projects that benefit diverse communities through clean power, carbon reduction, cost savings and job creation. We partner with skilled local solar installers, community organizations, local businesses and investors to change who benefits from renewable energy by changing the way we invest in it.
Our work provides us with the opportunity to partner with an extraordinary community of committed local small businesses and organizations, many of which are community bank customers. Our partners include the dozens of quality small solar businesses that develop, build, and maintain our solar projects and the hundreds of businesses, organizations, houses of worship, and homeowners that host and benefit from our solar projects. Among these diverse partners, there is a common sentiment:
Access to banking and capital is extremely important, especially during this pandemic
Community banks outperformed when it came to customer service, empathy, and timely financial solutions
This sentiment is confirmed by national PPP Loan results where almost half of PPP borrowers relied on community banks for what was likely a combination of better service, access, and technology. Community banks emerged as the touchstone banking partners for our communities during this period of hardship and uncertainty.
Sunwealth Embraces Community Bank Values
Community banks are good role models. Like community banks, Sunwealth focuses on better access, service, agility, and technology to foster relationships with our partners and provide them with measurable benefits. We have learned from community bankers about the importance of building and retaining a great team that is passionate about our mission. We also embrace the diligence, love, and elbow grease that goes into knowing our diverse communities and the need for continually building our expertise around underwriting, policy, technology, and deal structuring. Like Sunwealth, community banks need to focus on new opportunities that make financial sense, are consistent with core capabilities and are scalable. Solar tax equity investing with Sunwealth is deeply aligned with community bank values and financial interests.
Read more in our next post in the Banking on Solar series: Community Banks and Sunwealth Tax Equity are a Match.
Return to the homepage to check out our other Banking on Solar blog posts.
Want to learn more about solar tax equity investing? Reach out to Darreck Mitchell at darreck@sunwealth.com.
Jon Abe is Chief Executive Officer at Sunwealth. He has over 20 years of experience developing, building and managing solar and distributed energy resources and working with community banks to finance the growing solar economy. Jon also is proud to help green and electrify his community as a member of the Belmont Light Advisory Board.