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Solar energy is harder than most people think, although its popularity has increased over the past 10 years.
Hayes Barnard wants to make solar energy easier. Barnard was the SolarCity revenue manager, a position he held when the solar installer acquired his company, Paramount Solar, in 2013. A few months after the transaction, Barnard created a non-profit organization in the solar energy sector, affiliated with SolarCity. During the merger of Tesla and Solar City in 2016, Barnard split the non-profit organization before the merger and continues to run the organization.
Called GivePower, it facilitates solar projects in places where the energy drawn from the sun is low. This week, the organization announced that it had helped the Sioux nation develop a 300-kilowatt solar farm in North Dakota, in the Standing Rock Reserve, not far from the controversial Dakota Access pipeline and the heart of the fracturing country. The solar farm is the first in North Dakota.
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"It will provide 50% of all solar energy in the state," Barnard said in an interview with Business Insider. "It's an innovative gesture in North Dakota."
The energy generated by the system, which belongs to the tribe, will go to a community center of the Sioux nation and a veterans center. The tribe will devote half of its revenue to running a scholarship fund to preserve its language.
GivePower has delivered the project at this stage, having managed the development, secured the field, supervised the construction engineering and even hired a member of the Sioux tribe – who is now gone to start his own development company solar.
When Barnard does not work on GivePower, he runs Loanpal, a solar finance company that is trying to solve what he thinks is another challenge for the industry.
"The whole idea was that I want to say yes more often," he said. "Millions call, all we do is say no."
The "no's" are the fruit of the time lost in the process of financing solar energy. Customers wanted to own, rather than rent, solar panel systems, but when they sought to know what it took to get panels on their roofs, they encountered thousands of dollars in upfront costs – a "litany of upgrades," said Barnard.
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Trying to cover financing through the traditional ways of the house was ultimately too expensive, he said. And many buyers could not claim the funding available.
"We have studied this meticulously to understand the disqualification rate," he added.
The solution was a separate loan that did not require mortgage refinancing. Homeowners also have the option of refinancing their home later, absorbing the cost of the solar loan.
"A key part of what we did was educate the big banks," Barnard said. "It has been well received by the market, and solar energy entrepreneurs say it's great."
According to the company's data, LoanPal has organized a $ 27 billion financing for 125,000 customers, 80% of the top 50 solar installations using its platform. So, if Barnard succeeds, solar energy should become much easier to take into account for homeowners, banks to finance and installers to access the roofs.
"I want to be in the ecosystem of the industry where I can help everyone," he said, from Loanpal and GivePower. "You can all get a" Yes. "
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