Damn, Commercial Solar Is Hard

This week on The Interchange, a listener tries to convince his office building owner to install solar: "he's open to the idea, but we're struggling with the question of who pays," says Daniel from Menlo Park, California.

This conundrum gets to the heart of C&I solar's complexity. We'll address the landlord-tenant split that plagues commercial solar — and the broad range of financing and policy solutions.

Later in the show, we'll talk with two of our senior solar analysts at GTM Research, Michelle Davis and Allison Mond. Both residential installers and commercial developers have customer acquisition problems — only they’re the exact opposite problems.

Residential installers now have more attractive loan options for ownership, but it’s getting harder to find the next tier of customers who want PV on their roofs; meanwhile, commercial solar developers are seeing more demand for third-party ownership, but projects are still bespoke and complicated.

Davis and Mond unpack the latest financing and customer acquisition trends in residential and commercial PV.

This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.

This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.

Recommended reading:

• GTM Research: Commercial Solar Consumer Finance Trends
• GTM Research: U.S. Residential Solar Finance Update: H1 2018
• DOE Better Buildings (PDF): Promoting Solar PV on Leased Buildings Guide
• Kacie Peters: But What If I Sell My Building? Transferability in Commercial Solar

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