Patagonia is helping to place solar panels on more than 1,500 residential rooftops across eight states. The company announced last week that it was working with four other companies to create a $35 million fund to finance the installations.
“I hope that other companies that are interested in having a positive impact will look at this as a model,” said Rose Marcario, Patagonia’s chief executive.
Accoring to reports, Patagonia’s foray into home energy began when Marcario was introduced to the concept of tax equity investing, a complex type of transaction that was limiting the pool of investors for clean energy development. Financiers of solar projects are entitled to a tax credit worth 30 percent of a project’s cost, but not all developers have enough profit to use it.
Some large companies have taken advantage of the approach by investing in a variety of clean energy installations, but not many companies have found a way to help families get over the financial hurdle of installing solar in their homes. Marcario decided Patagonia should try to help.
Patagonia had already created a fund called $20 Million and Change to help start-up companies focused on solving environmental and other issues. Two years ago, through $20 Million and Change, the company formed a $27 million fund with Kina’ole Capital, a solar finance company, to install 1,000 residential systems in Hawaii.
The systems will be available in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
