Solarcentury and GE team up to launch solar schools financing model

Engineering giant GE and solar energy specialist Solarcentury have today teamed up to launch a financing service designed to rapidly accelerate the rollout of solar panels to UK schools.

Under the new agreement, GE Capital, the financial services arm of GE, will cover the bulk of the cost of installing solar technology under Solarcentury's Solar4Schools programme with schools or local authorities providing a small deposit of between £1,000 and £2,000.

The school will then lease the solar panels from GE Capital for 15 years using savings on its energy bills and funds raised through the government's feed-in tariff renewable energy incentive scheme. At the end of the 15-year period the school will take ownership of the solar panels, providing it with a further 10 years of revenue from the feed-in tariff.

Solarcentury said the initiative could enable schools to save up to £840 a year on electricity bills, while generating an income of more than £3,000 a year through the feed-in tariff.

The company calculated that a typical secondary school could enjoy income and savings of about £68,000 over the 25-year period in addition to delivering sizable cuts in its carbon footprint.

A number of firms are currently offering to install solar panels for schools for nothing, but under most schemes the energy company or installer owns the system throughout its lifetime, keeping all the revenue generated through the feed-in tariff.

Solarcentury and GE said their model promised better returns for schools as they would end up owning the solar panels at the end of the lease period, providing them with 10 years of index-linked payments through the feed-in tariff.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Solarcentury chief executive Derry Newman said the partnership underlined the growing interest financing companies are showing in the solar sector.

"A lot of utility-scale solar projects have been funded by the banks, but there has been less interest in financing smaller-scale systems until now," he said. "We're bringing blue chip financing companies into the solar space and providing financing for school-scale projects."

He added that school-based projects were particularly attractive to finance firms as they are deemed relatively low risk, but hinted that other solar financing schemes were in the pipeline that could replicate the Solar4Schools model for domestic and business customers.