United StatesThe certified B-Corp and 1% for the Planet member, Solaris Energy, announced its partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the Better Climate Challenge. It was selected as a Financial Ally for the program, in which the company will commit $40 million in funding for decarbonization projects built with solar and storage technology.
Solaris Energy captured DOE's attention with their remarkable achievements in completing two power purchase agreement (PPA) projects across 26 locations in the U.S. for another Better Climate Challenge participant, Colorado State University (CSU). Under the partnership, the company plans to make bold financial investments in energy efficiency and renewables and actively pursue new opportunities to finance projects.
"We're really proud to be backed by the DOE as a financial ally. We've been in the solar finance business for a long-time and it's nice to be recognized for the quality work we do with wonderful partners like CSU," said Alex Blackmer, Founder and CEO of Solaris Energy.
The program's goals are to mitigate the impact of climate change while creating green jobs and strengthening the clean energy economy through "challenging organizations to set ambitious, portfolio-wide, and near-term operational greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals."
As an approved Financial Ally, Solaris Energy will deploy at least $40 million over the next two years to develop distributed energy solar and storage projects for organizations and their buildings across the U.S. The majority of this funding will be provided through PPAs, leases and loans at prices at or below market electricity rates for municipality, university, school, non-profit, commercial and industrial clients.
Solaris Energy will also play a role as a contributor to DOE's online tool, Financial Navigator, which acts as a resource platform to fuel this program by streamlining and speeding up the process for organizations to find approved solutions for efficiency and renewables projects.
Solaris Energy's Vice President, Nick Perugini, will be speaking at the DOE Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit in April, where attendees can learn more about the financial commitment and how to successfully take advantage of the opportunity to benefit their organization.
