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The sudden collapse of the Silicon Valley bank sent shock waves through the entire financial sector and marked the biggest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis.
As the only publicly traded bank focused on Silicon Valley and startups for 4 decades, the rapid crash has rattled the venture capital community and left climate tech startups in crisis.
SVB has been well-known in the renewable energy world for its critical role in supporting small projects, including community solar projects, that have shunned other institutions because of the onerous legal and tax paperwork required to make their loans.
While demand for residential solar has rebounded in recent years as more Americans try to play their part in mitigating climate change, the harsh reality is that not everyone can get solar on their roofs.
Fortunately, community solar holds the promise of making solar energy affordable to nearly every one of the 130 million households in America, according to Oil Price.
Community solar projects allow families who are unable to install their own rooftop solar panels to buy power from local solar farms, which helps lower their electricity bills.
For decades, residential energy customers who wanted to switch to solar power were limited to two options: install their own solar panels or purchase off-grid solar power from their local utility.
Rooftop solar panels provide a lot of savings for the average homeowner.
Unfortunately, installation costs remain high with average system costs around $13,000 following tax credits.
Only regarding 23% of American households have easy access to rooftop solar.
Customers who choose to purchase solar power directly from their utilities or retail energy suppliers do not enjoy the full benefits of lower renewable energy costs.
While solar and wind power are often the cheapest source of electricity in most places, most of these cost savings do not pass through to the customer but end up in the pockets of the retailers.
Community Solar has introduced a simple model that promises to deliver clean power to anyone connected to the main grid for less than their current utility bill.
There is no national standard yet for what constitutes a community solar program, but the basic premise is that customers buy stakes in a new solar farm in their service area, which developers build, and the electricity generated flows into the main grid. These subscribers then receive credits that reduce utility bills by 10%.
Community solar provides flexible contracts that save energy through the construction of large-scale solar arrays. Developers are signing up customers months ahead of schedule with many solar projects completed in a year or less. Many plans allow customers to cancel with a few weeks or months’ notice.
Despite being 10 years old, the concept of community solar power has only recently begun to emerge.
Currently, community solar accounts for 5.6 GW of the 97.2 GW of installed solar capacity in the United States, and is set to double in the next five years.
Community solar power is available in 40 states although only 20 states and the District of Columbia have passed community solar legislation.
The average utility price discount in the community solar market is regarding 10% but is as high as 20% in New York thanks to a more mature and competitive market.
According to BloombergNEF, it is not yet clear how much funding the SVB has provided for community solar developers. However, SVB says it has committed $3.2 billion to innovative clean energy projects, leads or participates in 62% of the funding in US developments, and has more than 1,550 clients in the broader climate technology and sustainability sector.
BloombergNEF estimated that between 2020 and 2022, Silicon Valley Bank financed approximately $357 million in residential solar, excluding community solar.
Regional banks and other types of debt investors are now expected to step in to fix the gap, but it will not be without some rough corrections.
“Other financiers will step in, but the pipelines will stall for some time as those new relationships settle,” said Kiran Bhattraju, CEO of Arcadia Power Inc.
Bhatraju described SVB as a “trusted partner” for approximately 60% of the community’s solar industry.
