SunPower and Wells Fargo have joined together in a new collaborative effort to fund as much as $100 million in SunPower commercial-scale solar photovoltaic systems. Under the financing program, the partners say that SunPower will sign power purchase agreements (PPAs) with qualified customers, and the bank will finance the PV systems, which will be designed, built, operated, and maintained by the solar company.
Customers hosting the systems will buy the electricity from SunPower at prices that are competitive with retail rates, providing them with what the companies describe as a long-term hedge against rising power prices and the ability to take advantage of the environmental and financial benefits of solar power with no initial capital investment.
The first projects financed under the program include a 1.1MW system for the University of California, Merced, and a 1MW array for the Western Riverside County (CA) Regional Wastewater Authority. Both installations, which are scheduled for completion by year end, will be ground-mounted systems using SunPower’s T20 Tracker technology.
