Open Energy, a solar financing solutions provider, has launched the first lending exchange for commercial scale solar developers and installers.   The Open Energy Finance Exchange gives developers access to more than $5 billion of U.S. solar financing capacity – a lending pool capable of doubling the current annual commercial solar sector installed capacity. Over 60 lenders compete on Open Energy’s Finance Exchange to provide developers and their clients financing terms for their projects or portfolios. Equipped with better financing terms, developers can move faster and get more projects financed. 

Using the Open Energy Finance Exchange is made easy and straightforward via the new loan quote tool, a quick, easy and free way for developers and installers to get a financing estimate.  By using the quote tool, developers and installers gain a clearer idea of the amount of financing they can access with a PPA-based project or a direct-owned system and can plan accordingly. The quote is the first step for developers to access the Open Energy Finance Exchange and applies to power purchase agreement-based and direct owned projects from 50kW   to 50 megawatts.

“More and more lenders, particularly banks, are interested in accessing commercial solar projects,” said Graham Smith, CEO of Open Energy. “Whether in the PPA market where competition is pressing down on margins and where tax equity is still hard to source at competitive rates, or in the direct to customer market, it falls on the developer-installer to find the best deal on finance. Our Financing Exchange streamlines this process and helps developers access a large, liquid pool of low cost capital.”

Over $75 million worth of deals are already active on the Open Energy Finance Exchange, with $35 million already matched successfully. By the end of the year, Open Energy targets $250 million of solar financing matched between lenders and developers.

“We want to take the search for finance off the developer’s plate and bring the market to them,” Smith says. “The commercial solar market continues to have an immense potential but numerous obstacles, such as the time taken to source financing and a lack of financing choices, has hindered its growth. Over the last few years, we have worked hard to expand commercial solar financing and now we are taking the next step in growing the market with the Finance Exchange. With direct access to significantly more financing, we believe we can help the market truly take off.”