Every day PG&E, California’s largest utility, earns income as 15 million California residents purchase their energy. Starting today, California residents can earn income as PG&E purchases energy from a solar installation in northern California.
This 322-kW solar installation on dual-use farmlands, developed by Pristine Sun, a leading developer of small utility scale projects in California, is offered to investors by Mosaic, an online marketplace that connects investors with high quality solar projects. Mosaic has sold out 75 percent of its solar project investments within one week of posting them.
Today, California residents can invest as little as $25 in this $140,725 offering. Investors will earn an estimated 5.5 percent annually over a 10-year period — double the current return on a 10-year US Treasury bill.
The solar project will generate revenue by selling clean energy produced to PG&E, one of the largest investment-grade utilities in the country, under a 20-year Purchase Power Agreement. The panel installer, Panasonic, has provided the project with a 12-year production guarantee. This means that if the solar projects fail to generate an expected minimum, Panasonic will cover the shortfall in associated revenue.
This partnership between Mosaic and Pristine Sun launches a series of similar solar investment opportunities with competitive returns. Pristine Sun is the leading integrator for PG&E’s Feed-in-Tariff program, and is developing 50 MW of solar power plants in California, enough to power 50,000 homes, to be sold to utilities under 20-year Power Purchase Agreements.
“Small utility-scale solar projects like this– complete with a low-risk purchase contract with PG&E and top quality components by Panasonic– are the future of utility-scale solar in America,” said Troy Helming, CEO of Pristine Sun, “As a Mosaic investor, I’m excited to be making our projects available through their innovative and successful platform.”
“California contains nearly a third of the entire solar capacity of the United States, but 75% of Californians can’t install solar directly on their homes,” said Billy Parish, President of Mosaic. “We’re thrilled to work with Pristine Sun to provide these opportunities for all residents (over 18) to participate and earn 5.5% returns.”
— Solar Builder magazine
[source: http://www.solarbuildermag.com/news/california-residents-earn-5-5-returns-pge-ppa/]
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