The largest barrier to replicating Solar for Humanity installations is financing the upfront costs of the project. RREAL was grateful to the financial supporters of this project, but they also knew that they needed to find other ways to sustain these projects in the future.
To explore those opportunities, RREAL worked with the University of Minnesota Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnership and two Humphrey School of Public Policy graduate students on a report to find innovative finance mechanisms and recommendations for expanding the Solar for Humanity projects across Minnesota.
Specifically, they engaged Humphrey faculty member Dr. Gabriel Chan and graduate research assistants Jordan Morgan and Ryan Streitz on an analysis of nonprofit solar partnerships with Habitat for Humanity. They analyzed 56 case studies of partnerships between solar nonprofits and Habitat for Humanity around the nation—including RREAL’s—to assess the nature of current Habitat for Humanity solar partnerships and their advantages and disadvantages.
The authors then identified five different (current and potential) models of financing that vary in complexity and in the allocation of costs and benefits among homeowners, the nonprofit solar organization, and the Habitat for Humanity affiliate. They also examined possible financing tools, including internal funds and donations, outside private investors, debt financing, and programs such as Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), the Community Reinvestment Act, and Minnesota’s Conservation Improvement Program.
They concluded that a “highly flexible model design can allow for greater tailoring of approaches. All approaches have inherent tradeoffs, and the best solution in a particular context may depend on stakeholder and community characteristics.”
You can download the full report, Solar for Humanity: Nonprofit Solar Partnerships with Habitat for Humanity.
