Accomplishments

See what our members and us have achieved.

2023 Member Accomplishments

Check out some of the achievements of our members in 2023.

'23 PSEF Year-End Letter

Highlights of PSEF’s work in 2023 from the letter:

  • Built three BIPOC-centered capacity-building programs that are thriving
  • Painstakingly crafted two vital member services (an affordable solar insurance program and a credit guarantee cost savings vehicle)
  • Movement for Solar Capacity and Leadership participants visited Minneapolis’ George Floyd Square during the September 2023 program kick-off
  • Close to sealing the deal on a new and significant capital investment from a major foundation
  • Secured substantial operating dollars to enable a bold, great leap forward in our network’s unique niche of community-owned solar
  • Submitted two applications – in coalition with allied sister organizations – for accessing some of the substantial federal climate remediation dollars that should begin flowing by next summer
Read the Letter

PSEF's 2022 Year In Review

Read 2022 Annual Report

Connecting Members to Capital
A core component of PSEF’s work involves securing capital for member projects. This includes directly connecting members to non-extractive financing partners and securing capital for PSEF to invest in projects. In 2022, PSEF assisted a member in securing sponsor equity funds for a project with a pipeline of 10 MegaWatts (MW) reaching the finance-ready or operation-ready stage. PSEF also continued to build relationships with tax-equity investors interested in investing in a portfolio of projects. However, challenges tied to the investors’ requirements and the pandemic’s interruptions of the global supply chain significantly slowed deal closures. Going forward, PSEF will continue to build partnerships with aligned investors and funders for project financing and build internal financial infrastructure for members to access some of this critical capital through PSEF.

Lending Activity & Funding Pools

Through assessing member needs, it became evident that while several members required significant pre-development loans, others were not at the stage where debt was appropriate for driving meaningful community-led project development. In these cases, funds for early-stage organizational support and community organizing were most appropriate. PSEF is working to ensure that its offerings bridge the resource gaps that often prevent projects from taking off, stagnate, or fail. To this end, a portion of the pre-development loan pool was carved out for early-stage mini-grants and an innovation fund pool will be developed to provide more flexible early-stage funds to support communities innovating in project structure, ownership models, and maximizing overall community benefit. Together with the existing pre-development loan pool, increased movement in project development is anticipated.

Loan Guarantee Pool

2022 saw the legal formation of the People’s Solar Energy Cooperative (required for investments) and the securing of a $5MM loan guarantee from the Community Investment Guarantee Program (CIGP), both vital catalysts for our members’ growth.

Shared Services and Insurance for Member Projects

In 2022, PSEF not only continued providing legal support for state-enabling legislation and technical assistance for project needs but also explored shared insurance products, resulting in the first insurance aggregation pool, benefiting 11 member projects.

Mini-Grants to Meet Early-Stage Needs

Recognizing the uphill battle of small, community members to undertake even the preliminary organizing steps prior to a pre-development loan stage, PSEF converted $50,000 of its loan capital mid-year to offer mini-grants to members, extending nearly $15,000 by the close of 2022.