This Social Housing Project In Sunderland Uk Offers Tenants Free Solar Energy And Is Still Profitable

* As discussed before, innovative financial models like "solar leasing" are a driving force behind the exponential growth of rooftop solar energy. With solar leasing, home-owners get a solar system at no up-front costs and sign a 20-year lease where the energy savings offset the monthly lease payment. * Some companies feel that not only home "owners", but also "tenants" of homes should be able to "go solar". * Last week, a company in the UK secured a lb10.1 million investment which will provide thousands of social housing tenants in the north east of England to get free (!) solar energy. * Empower Community received a 20-year loan from a large institutional pension investor, which it will use to buy solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. * Roughly 2,300 homes owned by a social housing provider (Gentoo Group) as well as six corporate buildings in the Sunderland area will get a solar energy system. * The initiative will be able to realize profits from selling the extra electricity (that is not consumed by the tenants) to the National Grid under the government's guaranteed Feed-in Tariff. * The investor will get an annual return and the social housing provider will use cash from the deal to install PV panels on another 3,000 homes in Sunderland. * For the renters, the free daytime energy reduces bills by up to 40% and cuts carbon emissions. * For the institutional investor, this business model enables them to invest in projects with a social cause while still achieving market rate returns. Source: UnLtd. The post This social housing project in Sunderland (UK) offers tenants free solar energy, and is still profitable appeared first on Greenzone.