Nation’s Largest Residential Solar Project Could Fund Hundreds of Jobs, Many for U.S. Veterans
“This is the largest domestic residential rooftop solar project in history,” said Secretary Chu. “This groundbreaking project is expected to create hundreds of jobs for Americans and provide clean, renewable power to our military families. It can also be a model for other large-scale rooftop solar projects that help America regain its lead in the solar industry.”
The project, which could create up to 371 megawatts of new solar capacity, includes the installation of residential rooftop PV systems on existing privatized military family residences and other privatized buildings, such as community centers, administrative offices, maintenance buildings and storage warehouses. The project will provide low-cost, renewable electricity to privatized military housing and is expected to avoid over 250,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. The SolarStrong Project will have the added benefit of helping the Department of Defense (DOD), the single-largest energy consumer in the U.S., secure its energy needs from domestic renewable sources that are independent from the utility grid, at no additional cost to taxpayers. DOD has a stated goal that 25 percent of all energy consumed by 2025 shall be supplied from renewable sources.
The project will be rolled out over five years, starting with a four megawatt installation at Hickam Air Force base in Hawaii, with construction currently underway. SolarStrong is expected to sell electricity produced from the projects through long-term electricity sales agreements or lease solar systems through long-term lease contracts.
USRG Renewable Finance, an affiliate of US Renewables Group, is acting as lead lender in partnership with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. USRG Renewable Finance submitted the application under the Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP). In a FIPP financing, the Department of Energy guarantees up to 80 percent of a loan provided to a renewable energy project by qualified financial institutions.
For more information, please visit http://www.lpo.energy.gov.