SolarCity together with a large financial institution created a new fund that would finance solar projects worth $400 million.
According to SolarCity, the funding will be used to cover the capital cost of solar equipment and installation to allow homeowners pay less for power than the amount charged for electricity by the local utility company.
SolarCity already raised $9 billion for American solar projects
The renewable energy company already raised more than $9 billion to finance American solar projects. SolarCity is currently the leading solar energy provider and employer in the United States.
In April, SolarCity launched a Fund including an investment from Credit Suisse Group to finance over $1 billion in commercial projects including battery storage systems for businesses, schools and government agencies in the United States.
The energy company and the bank had been collaborating on a series of projects. Credit Suisse also served as structuring and book runner for SolarCity’s first securitization transaction.
In May, SolarCity and Bank of America Corp partnered in creating a $200 million tax equity fund to help smaller investors such as community banks to finance residential installations.
The energy company emphasized, “Solar project investments can deliver strong financial returns and at the same time can reduce water consumption, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. They are also tremendous drivers of domestic job creation.”
The solar industry continues to grow faster than expected, and it is creating jobs 20 times faster than the overall economy—representing 1.3% of all the jobs created in the United States, according to the National Solar Jobs Census 2014 by the Solar Foundation.
Morgan Stanley upgrades stock rating on SolarCity
Analysts at Morgan Stanley upgraded their rating on the shares of SolarCity to Buy with a $93 price target. The shares of the renewable energy company were trading $47.72 per share, up by more than 3% at the time of this writing around 11:48 AM in New York.
A recent report indicated that SolarCity aims to compete with Chinese solar providers with a combination of cheaper and more efficient modules. According to Electrek, the American renewable energy company plans to produce $0.50/watt solar modules with at least 20% efficiency. Its target would make its solar panels competitive with the existing solar modules offered by Chinese companies.
