Companies that shaped the initial market for solar leases included SolarCity, Sunrun and Sungevity.
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SolarCity competitors like Sungevity and SunRun also are heavily dependent on tax-equity funds to finance solar leases.
Instead they make monthly payments over a 20-year contract, and SunRun owns and maintains the solar panels.
In fact, the four largest all are headquartered in the state: Sunrun, SunPower, SolarCity and Clean Power Finance.
SunRun and its financing partners collect the local and federal subsidies, and earn revenue when the panels produce power.
SunRun works with 16 contractors in the five states where it operates, Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
SolarCity performs its own installations, while SunRun and Sungevity contract that work out.
SunRun is backed by the venture capital firms Foundation Capital and Accel Partners.
SunRun takes care of those tasks in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Massachusetts.
SunRun and its installers use solar panels made by several companies, though its biggest solar panel provider has been Suntech Power.
In the first quarter of this year, SunRun led the California market with a 17% share, followed by SolarCity at 8%.
That has driven the pell-mell growth of solar installers like SolarCity, SunRun and Sungevity even through the depths of the Great Recession.
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SunRun operates in five states, Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Along with California-based innovator SunRun, SolarCity offers homeowners a creative solution to the main obstacle facing prospective solar customers: the larger up-front investment.
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SolarCity has its own fleet of workers who install solar panels while Sunrun and Clean Power Finance contract with installers to do the work.
For a fixed monthly fee, homeowners can sign up for solar energy as a service from companies like Solar City, SunRun, or Sungevity.
"The collective credit of 10, 000 homeowners is better than a utility, " he claims, noting that SunRun signs leases only with customers that have high credit scores.
Sunrun, SolarCity and Clean Power Finance rose to prominence by raising a lot of venture capital and funds from banks and other investors to finance solar leases.
That solar lease financing innovation has spurred an explosion in residential solar installations by Sungevity and rivals such as SolarCity and SunRun even as the economy has sputtered.
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Steve serves on the board of directors of SunRun, Akiban, and Sentient Energy, and he is actively involved with eMeter, EnerNOC, and Serious Materials.
The residential solar market only took off after companies like SolarCity, Sungevity and SunRun began offering leases that let homeowners avoid the steep upfront costs of buying a solar array.
Chris DiAngelo is a securities lawyer at Katten Muchin Rosenman in New York who is working with SunRun, a San Francisco solar installer and financier that has been leading the charge for solar securitization.
In the current issue of Forbes, I write about moves by solar companies SunRun and SolarCity to bundle leases for residential photovoltaic arrays into asset-backed securities that can be sold to pension funds, insurance companies and other institutions seeking long-term investments that generate steady cash flows.
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