Renewable Energy Financing News...

Today’s post: Weds, 6-25-2008

We’ve posted before on how individuals, small businesses, & larger companies & government & other nonprofit organizations often cannot afford to lay out the capital or startup funds for installing solar or wind generation or energy efficiency upgrades – even when they would like to do so or even cut their energy & operating costs on a monthly basis by doing so.

In our area today it was announced that a large solar power installation for the new biotech campus of UCSF in San Francisco is being financed by a national company that specializes in exactly such financing.

The company is MMA Renewable Ventures & its website is:

http://www.mmarenewableventures.com/

Here is their company overview directly from their website:

“MMA Renewable Ventures coordinates the financing, installation, and operation of renewable energy systems and energy efficiency projects. As a comprehensive power solutions provider, we partner with investors, energy project developers, and customers to design and implement innovative green energy solutions. Our mission is to deliver exceptional investment opportunities while providing competitively priced renewable energy and energy efficiency products.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of MuniMae (OTC: MMAB.PK), MMA Renewable Ventures is uniquely positioned to bring considerable investment management expertise to renewable energy projects and energy efficiency solutions. Driven by MuniMae’s mission of “Integrity, Innovation and Service,” MMA Renewable Ventures’ portfolio and pipeline of projects elevate the sustainable energy and energy conservation industries to meet the rigorous investment standards of low-income housing and other tax credit funds.

In 2006, MMA Renewable Ventures closed $39 million of solar photovoltaic (“PV”) projects, capitalized 1 MW of solar PV capacity, and provided capital for 3.5 MW of solar PV capacity in two solar investment funds. Solar Funds III and IV are scheduled to close in 2007. Our growing portfolio and pipeline include $400 million of solar projects and $900 million of wind and bioenergy projects.’

They do solar, energy efficiency, wind, & bioenergy financing. And they also do financing of desirable combinations of these.

Here are some of the customer benefits to setting up a power purchase agreement with them for a solar installation.

“Advantages of a Power Purchase Agreement

No capital outlay--projects can be cash flow positive from day one

Customer only pays for power the system generates

Predictability-- features long-term fixed energy price for term of contract
Includes option to purchase system after sixth year of operation”

That is also from their website.

Let me repeat the important one for emphasis.

“No capital outlay--projects can be cash flow positive from day one“

The bad news is that the credit crunch has somewhat restricted the funds available.

The good news is that both for social benefit reasons & expected superior returns to their investors, their parent company is giving renewable energy financing priority, favored, status as a place to invest their funds.

And, the other piece of good news is that they have offices all over the United States & one in London.

In the Western half of the US, they are in San Francisco, Irvine, & Denver.

Int the East, they are in Baltimore, Boston, Tampa, New York, Atlanta, & Washington DC.

In the Mid West, they are in Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, & St Paul.

And, the following quote from their about us section reveals they very likely have coverage through their growing list of partners almost everywhere in the United States.:

I’ve put that part in bold.

“"MMA Renewable Ventures is helping to reduce dependence on fossil fuels by directing strategic, institutional investments into renewable energy and energy efficiency projects for customers using innovative financing solutions.

What sets us apart is our business model: we finance, own and operate renewable energy systems and assets. Our in-depth understanding of innovative project financing allows us to carefully manage risks and returns. And our deep technical expertise in the technologies and operations of solar, wind and other renewable energies ensure our customer projects are led by industry leading developers.

The result? MMA Renewable Ventures can help drive significant growth in alternative energy adoption while delivering sound institutional investments.

MMA Renewable Ventures partners with project developers, contractors and suppliers throughout the country to provide flexible financing solutions that can be customized and combined to meet short and long-term needs.

A wholly owned subsidiary of MuniMae, MMA Renewable Ventures is uniquely positioned to bring considerable investment management expertise to finance clean energy projects."

In my view, this company & its efforts are some of the best news I’ve seen on energy in the last ten years.

To solve global warming, we need a huge amount of renewable energy & energy efficiency development & we need it everywhere in the United States. And we need it right away.

This company looks to be a big step in that direction.