Over the past few years I have been seeing a number of announcements related to renewable energy from the US Department of Defence (DoD). DoD has a stated goal of 25 percent of all energy consumed by 2025 shall be supplied from renewable sources. But the latest announcement is hard to ignore for two reasons. First of all it could double the number of rooftop solar installations in the US. Secondly it is a public-private partnership (PPP) financed entirely by private capital.
The project is called SolarStrong and a private company SolarCity will install, own, and operate rooftop solar systems on 160,000 privatized military residences on 124 military bases in 33 states with a capacity for generating 371 megawatts of solar PV power. The financing is entirely from private sources with a federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Office. US Renewables Group (USRG) in partnership with Bank of America Merrill Lynch will provide $344 million in financing for the project.
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