Dallas, TX - The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a conditional commitment to provide up to $3bn to Sunnova, the Dallas-based residential solar and battery provider.
The funding will back loans to help bring solar-battery systems to low-income communities, a move aimed at balancing the grid. Sunnova's plan, known as Project Hestia, is to use the federal loan guarantee to back up between $4bn and $5bn in consumer loans. The loan guarantee will enable Sunnova to lower the cost of capital and reduce the interest rates for low-income customers who might otherwise struggle to afford rooftop solar and battery systems. The DOE believes the funding could support solar-battery installations for 75,000 to 115,000 homeowners in US states and Puerto Rico and deliver 568 MW of solar and batteries over the next 25 years.
The new funding is intended to help reduce the cost of entry for lower-income customers to enable disadvantaged communities to participate in the energy-saving and grid-resilience benefits of virtual power plants (VPPs). Research from the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has shown that solar adoption rates tend to be lower for households and neighborhoods with lower-than-average incomes.
Source: canarymedia.com