New council forms to improve solar industry access to investment capital

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Solar Energy Finance Association (SEFA) formed a new joint entity this week focused on lowering the cost of and expanding access to investment capital for solar industry development.

The new entity, the Solar Energy Finance Advisory Council (SEFAC), will be formed under SEIA but will be a combined effort by SEIA and SEFA.

“This is an important strategic move for us,” Mary Rottman, president of SEFA, said.  “Backed by the staff and resources from SEIA, we are very optimistic that we will achieve our mission of reducing the cost of capital and furthering growth in the solar industry.”

SEFAC will work to grow the supply of tax equity from investors, improve debt and tax equity, better communicate the financial and technical performance of solar projects to investors and create capital market opportunities through asset-backed securitizations.

“We are excited to combine with SEFA for the good of the solar industry,” interim President of SEIA Tom Kimbis said.  “Solar projects represent a high-quality source of long-term cash flows, making them great investment opportunities. Through this finance advisory council, we aim to lower the cost of capital and make solar even more cost-effective for residential, business and utility customers.”