US-based third-party ownership (TPO) PV installer Vivint Solar has secured US$200 million in two separate tax equity funds.
The company said it would use the funds to continue building residential solar installations and adding to its existing 800,000-strong customer base.
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“This new funding reinforces market confidence in our ability to expand our leadership in the residential solar space,” said Brendon Merkley, chief operations officer of Vivint Solar. “Since 2011, we have leveraged Vivint's sales and internal infrastructure to build a solar business that has exceeded our installation goals consistently each quarter.”
Vivint Solar was the second largest US residential solar installer in the first quarter of 2013, according to GTM Research.
It currently operates in California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Washington DC.
The deal underlines the extent to which TPO has become the dominant business model for residential in the US, with most of the country’s industry big names such as SolarCity and Sunrun employing this form of finance.
A GTM report earlier this year said TPO already accounted for 50% of new residential solar capacity in some states and predicted the TPO market would be worth US$5.7 billion by 2016.
