Solar system designer and installer Borrego announced today it has secured its second funding round to finance six new solar projects worth about $36 million.
Borrego Solar recently introduced a financing model that sounds like a larger-scale version of what SunRun does for the residential solar market. The company sells solar energy to businesses through power purchase agreements (PPAs) and builds, operates and maintains the solar systems so that its customers don't have to incur the upfront capital expenditures.
Looks like that approach is working out. Last summer, Borrego closed $20 million in financing from U.S. Bank and East West Bank to kick off its PPA program. Both banks came back in the bigger, more recent financing round announced today.
Interestingly, U.S. Bank is owned by U.S. Bancorp, which alongside PG&E has provided over $300 million in project financing to SunRun for its residential solar projects. U.S. Bancorp recently extended another round of financing to SunRun.
One of the projects Borrego will build with the new financing is a 1.2 megawatt system at Madera Community Hospital in Madera, Calif. and a 1.8 megawatt system at San Diego County Water Authority, which estimates savings of nearly $1.7 million over the life of its contract with Borrego.