Sunseap Leasing partners with Goldman Sachs to create Singapore's Solar Lease Funding Platform
February 6, 2014
Financing transaction was completed on January 28th, 2014
Collaboration expected to initially fund more than 30MW in solar leasing projects in Singapore, and create the funding platform for many more megawatts in the pipeline above the initial target Singapore.
Sunseap Leasing, Singapore's largest solar leasing company, announced today the completion of a facility with Goldman Sachs to fund projects of an estimated generation capacity of more than 30 megawatts for corporations, businesses and residential projects.
The funding makes its possible for businesses and government organisations alike to enjoy clean power at a discount to their current utility rates without paying for the upfront installation costs of solar systems. Sunseap manages the entire process for clients from design, procurement and installation to long term monitoring, and repairs and replacement, if required.
Prior to the partnership with Goldman Sachs, Sunseap's solar leasing offer has already enabled almost 17MW of contracted capacity, which have been deployed or are in the course of being deployed. Current clients include HDB/Town Council, Singapore American School, Raffles Institution, Eagle Services Asia and Pratt & Whitney, ABB, Cambridge Industrial Trust and Jurong Health Services.
Companies and government agencies can make a green statement without any capital or operational cost commitments and yet enjoy savings at the same time. The funding with Goldman Sachs will further enable Sunseap to mass-deploy renewable power in Singapore at an accelerated pace based on its pipeline of projects, in conjunction with the Intermittent Generation Threshold being raised from 350MW to 600MW.
"We are very positive about the opportunity in distributed solar, and more so in Asia where clean and lower cost energy is needed the most," said Alex Turnbull, Executive Director, at Goldman Sachs who led the funding team. "Sunseap's offering has the potential to lower energy costs, create jobs and reduce carbon emissions all at the same time."
As more investors become familiar with the reliability and quality of solar as a technology and an asset class, it has become possible to expand the pool of available funding and offer clean technology solutions to a broader range of customers at more affordable prices. The funding platform to be set in place will enable the installation and funding of solar leasing projects on more schools, municipalities and other public and private organizations.
"The collaboration with Goldman demonstrates the long term viability of distributed solar generation which is ground breaking for the Company as well as representative of a key milestone of attracting international capital for the Singapore solar industry," said Lawrence Wu, Sunseap's Co-Founder and Director. "We are thrilled to be able to roll out our pipeline projects and encourage more business and organisations to join our cause to go green and yet be economically better off at the same time."
Sunseap recently completed solar leasing projects at Pratt & Whitney (Singapore Component Repair), Eagle Services Asia and Singapore American School. "In addition to powering via Sunseap's solar leasing offer, we were extremely pleased to be able to offer zero upfront capital expenditure and clean energy at prices discounted off standard utility rates," said Frank Phuan, Sunseap's Co-Founder and Director.
These three solar adopting organisations also received the 2013 Solar Pioneer Awards, which were presented by the Singapore Economic Development Board during the Singapore International Energy Week.
"Singapore has become the leading clean energy hub for the Asia-Pacific region which is now the largest market for solar energy. Companies can leverage Singapore's strengths in technology, ability to attract international talent, as well as sophisticated financial market to grow their regional business and develop novel business models such as solar leasing," said Mr. Goh Chee Kiong, Executive Director of Cleantech at the Singapore Economic Development Board. "We are confident that Sunseap's partnership with Goldman Sachs will increase the vibrancy of the clean energy industry ecosystem and also accelerate the pace of solar adoption in Singapore."
Businesses and organisations interested in Sunseap's energy services can contact enquires@sunseap.com.