Key Equipment Finance funds major solar energy scheme

The funding was made available to a project run by Clean Energy Collective (CEC), the nation’s leading community solar solutions provider, and Engie, a global clean energy developer.

Using financing from Key Equipment Finance, CEC and Engie will own and operate the community solar projects and sell the energy to utilities, creating savings on electric bills for commercial, municipal, non-profit and residential customers.

The combined CEC and Engie projects are adding 22.1 megawatts of clean capacity, which is equivalent to fully offsetting energy for 3,700 residential homes.

Luis Gutierrez, vice-president of energy finance for Key Equipment Finance’s Energy Solutions team, which provides leases tailored to the energy market, said: “Engie and CEC are industry leaders, using Key Equipment Finance’s financing solutions to bring a broad expansion of community solar to customers across Massachusetts.

“Customized financing plays a vital role in bringing the benefits of community solar to more customers, which contributes to Key’s broader sustainability goals.”

The 16 community solar projects in Massachusetts are interconnected, and will serve customers in the Eversource and National Grid utility territories.

They include solar arrays in the towns of Sutton, Williamsburg, Orange, Goshen, Phillipston, Uxbridge, West Bridgewater, Kingston, North Adams, Clarksburg, and Wareham.

Tom Sweeney, CEC’s president of renewables, said: “Key Equipment Finance’s partnership has allowed CEC to bring its RooflessSolar community solar options to more Massachusetts customers, giving them greater choice in how they meet their power needs.

“Funding community solar projects can be a very complicated and capital-intensive process, and we are proud to be collaborating with Key Equipment Finance and Engie to ‘uncomplicate’ clean energy access and sustain the growing energy movement in Massachusetts.”

The 25-year lifespan of the systems will produce solar energy output equivalent to reducing 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide, planting 1.5 million trees or eliminating 1.1 billion miles of driving.

Vikram Kulkarni, vice president, Engie renewables, said: “This collaborative project adds much-needed renewable energy to the grid while providing the serving utilities with reliable power; ultimately contributing to a lower-carbon future.”

Key Equipment Finance manages approximately $12 billion in assets and originates more than $4.5 billion of equipment financing annually.

It is an affiliate of KeyCorp, one of the country’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $134.5 billion.