Clean Energy Finance Forum

Nonprofits face a unique challenge in the solar-development market. According to a report by Smart Electric Power Alliance, the demand for community-shared solar is soaring, but supply cannot catch up due to a lack of financing options.

The question of whether energy efficiency finance has finally arrived in scale was a major point of discussion at the 2014 ACEEE Energy Efficiency Finance Forum on May 11-13 in Washington, DC. Both the opening plenary and a breakout session on securitization explored this issue.

The limited availability of low-cost financing is holding back market adoption of solar photovoltaics (PV). However, securitization can make project financing more affordable than it is today, according to new research from the Open Sustainability Technology Laboratory at Michigan Technological University.