Antinuclear

SunPower’s solar leasing plans for Australia

Solar Insights: How Australia trails the world in big solar REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson on 6 November 2012 “…..SunPower’s plans for Australia SunPower gave some interesting insight into the solar leasing business, which it dominates in the US and which is starting to enter the Australian market. SunPower said it accounts for 40 per cent of solar leases in California – the biggest market in the US, and solar leases account for two thirds of the residential market. Amazingly, the average sized system on household rooftops is 7.9kW – that compares to 2.2kW in Australia.

CEO Tom Werner described the leasing market this way: “Leasing is really an LCOE (levellised cost of energy), or cents per kilowatt hour-based decision. Put another way, the consumer is not leasing a solar system, but buying energy over a period of time for a set price.” He believes that some of the first entrants in the solar leasing market will start securitizing their residential assets in coming quarters – a sure sign of the maturity in the industry, and the interest of the financial sector.

CFO Charles Boynton made a brief reference to the Australian market, which it sees as the most promising in Asia after Japan. “We think upside potential in Australia is rather significant,” he said. Si\unPower recently bought a major share in Australian renewable energy retailer Diamond Energy, Boynton said the size of the transaction was not significant, but the strategy was – and the purchase would enable the company to sell energy directly to customers – sort of a local variation of the US leasing model.

SunPower is also building the 250MW California Valley Solar Ranch project, and in September connected the first 22MW to the grid. So far, 150MW has been built. It is currently financing two other projects in California totaling 600MW. And to give an idea of the extent of the distributed and commercial sector in the US, tt also recently connected a 4MW system to a school district in California. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/solar-insights-how-australia-trails-the-world-in-big-solar-32446

November 6, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News