Impact-Driving Industry Innovations

Led by Distributed Sun and DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions, the truSolar Working Group is a collaborative consortium of 16 solar companies dedicated to addressing a broad array of project risks through the development of uniform solar scoring standards. The goal of the working group is to facilitate lower transaction and capital costs and improve project finance liquidity within the commercial and industrial solar segment. truSolar is the industry’s first, uniform risk assessment methodology governed by an accreditation body. The industry-led effort to widely adopt the standardized screening and risk scoring practices can accelerate the financing and deployment of non-residential solar energy projects. truSolar was announced as a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action at the 2014 CGI America meeting and is supported by industry leaders including Rocky Mountain Institute, UL, U.S. National Labs NREL and Sandia, and many others.

DSUN created and managed a subscription free, online platform that enabled developers to fill out forms incorporating the truSolar® solar scoring standard with automated reports advising as to how to improve the project metrics and scoring results suitable for sharing with investors that also had access to the platform. beEdison was the solar industry’s first automated, commercial platform that standardizes and professionalizes the diligence process for non-residential solar. beEdison is a cloud-based software platform designed to eliminate the inefficiencies, standardize the diligence process, and uniformly assess risk. beEdison helps solar industry buyers (investors & lenders) and sellers (developers & originators) through an automated Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Diligence-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform. 

Launched in March, 2012, Distributed Solar Network provides development, workout and brokerage services to project originators, and helps project investors efficiently source projects that meet their exacting investment requirements. Using proprietary and patent-pending business intelligence tools, DSUN screens, scores and selects network projects and portfolios and matches each to the right finance partner’s risk and return requirements. DSUN engaged directly with over 300 developers to evaluate over 1,000 projects for acquisition consideration by participating investors and its own funds. During its first year of operation, 105 members registered to join the network, submitting 390 projects totaling nearly 1.5 GW across 28 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Leveraging beEdison® data collection resulting in standardized reports, data rooms and financial analysis that could be used by investors.

The Clean Energy Credit Score was a counterparty Credit Scoring-as-a-Service (CSaaS), in partnership with S&P Capital IQ. DSUN created and managed a credit screen process for counterparties with unrated credit providing S&P Capital IQ probability of default, payment history profiles, benchmarking financial ratios against industry peers and a 3-year Altman-Z score review. Clean Energy Credit Score lowers transactional soft costs for commercial clean energy projects and promotes clean energy asset securitization by the use of standardized risk scoring. The idea was selected as a Finance for Resilience (FiRe) winner in 2015 at the BNEF Summit, the leading international conference on the future of energy.

Distributed Sun and Mosaic partnered on a joint project that allowed individuals to invest in a 657 kW solar installation on a school in Colorado, and earn an estimated 5.4% annually. The solar system powered one of the largest public charter schools in Colorado while serving as an educational tool for over 2,000 students. It generated revenue by selling the electricity produced to the school and by selling the associated renewable energy credits to the local utility. The crowdsourced financing model can be scaled to include solar installers across the U.S. and has surpassed $14 billion in loans funded through its platform, while achieving the first ever AAA rating.

In May of 2023 DSUN announced a proposal for contributing $82 million over 15 years to workforce development and community reinvestment in Louisiana jobs and communities. Funding would be sourced from revenues generated under an Industrial Shared Solar pilot program.  In addition to creating meaningful training and good jobs, reinvestment funds can be used for power resiliency and pollution mitigation programs – ensuring nearby residents and community stakeholders share real benefits from clean, solar power generation in and around their communities. This project can be replicated in other states to provide carbon emissions relief and create jobs.