Buying solar power provides a wide array of benefits. Not only will you able to increase renewable energy generation and tout your environmental responsibility to investors, but it just makes financial sense.
Energy buyers are recognizing that solar energy production prices have dropped considerably1 (and is at parity with fossil fuels) and thus are able to provide lower rates to their customers. Solar is produced during peak energy usage and coupled with storage, will extend the solar production into the evening.
Using renewable energy over fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, reduces the overall greenhouse gas emissions which not only helps our environment but also reduces public health issues.2 Depending on the megawatt hours (MWh) produced by a renewable energy facility, one will offset thousands of metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated.3
7X offers a variety of purchasing options for energy buyers.
- Daisy Chung, Research Manager, SEPA
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The 7X team has successfully financed multiple utility-scale renewable energy projects and raised over $6 billion of capital since 2011.
7X looks for win-win solutions and we offer innovative buying choices ranging from traditional power purchase agreements (PPA), virtual PPAs, retail “sleeves”, tax equity investment, green tariffs, fixed blocks, and other evolving structures. There are different purchasing models (new types of agreements as well as product structures) and we understand that there is no one-size-fits-all model nowadays. The purchasing structures and agreements 7X offers provide:
Working in both regulated and deregulated markets, 7X can offer firm power or sell solar to energy buyers directly or through utilities, retail energy providers, or brokers, and deliver complete energy solutions with utility-scale solar and/or storage to best meet your needs.
A solar power purchase agreement (PPA) is a financial agreement usually between a developer, who arranges the design, permitting, financing for a project, and a customer who purchases the power at a fixed or escalating rate over 10 years or more. As more electricity customers are demanding renewable energy, new procurement strategies have been developed to align with a client’s attributes.
Some PPA structures include:
7X offers flexible structures and agreements to meet your specific needs. We have a lean cost structure, and we pass the resulting financial efficiency on to our clients in the form of highly competitive PPA pricing.
While the physical PPA and VPPA are currently the most common ways to procure solar power, there are other types of structures in which you can achieve your renewable energy goals. 7X works with each client to find the right solution to meet a client’s risk appetite, geography, goals, credit rating, and etc.
Some other alternative power purchasing solutions include Utility Renewable Energy Program (aka Green Tariff), Retail “sleeve”, and Tax Equity Investment.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), utility Green Tariffs are “optional programs in regulated electricity markets offered by utilities that allow larger commercial and industrial customers to buy bundled renewable electricity from a specific project through a special utility tariff rate.” This allows clients, in regulated electricity markets, to purchase bundled renewable energy through their utility at a long-term price.
Similar to a Green Tariff, a “retail sleeve” involves a direct PPA between a retail energy provider (REP) and the solar project owner as well as a retail electricity agreement between the REP and its customer to deliver solar to the customer. The REP takes on the responsibility of being the PPA offtaker, while the customer receives solar power to meet its financial and sustainability goals via a simple retail agreement.
More clients are looking at Tax Equity Investment in solar power as the benefits of the investment will be based on the stable, long-term cash flow of the project, federal tax benefits like the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), and accelerated depreciation deductions.
Facebook will be the sole tax-equity investor for the Prospero project, saying “its investment could provide a new model for corporations investigating renewables procurement.”
“We hope such investments can be a new avenue of meaningfully engaging with projects, which might be easier for some companies than a long-term power-purchase agreement, thereby unlocking new options for more organizations to meet their goals and grow the market,” said Peter Freed, Facebook’s energy strategy manager.
