Date: Friday, June 17, 2011, 3:29pm PDT
Tioga Energy is a pioneer in the complicated world of renewable energy finance.
Tioga finances, owns and operates commercial and municipal solar projects and sells the energy produced back to its customers. To drive more sales, Tioga has helped pioneer some new financing structures, this year piecing together state incentives, federal tax credits and municipal bonds to fund county-wide solar projects in New Jersey.
While the model relies on a lot of disparate incentives and programs to come together, “in theory it can be replicated,” said Tioga CEO Paul Detering. “We’re looking at ways to replicate it.”
Tioga’s ability to structure solar deals in a way that limits upfront costs for municipal and commercial solar customers has boosted Tioga’s business. The San Francisco-based firm said its business will triple this year compared to last year.
“We view this as a very powerful tool that creates a win-win for the facilities or schools and for the counties to get a lower cost of electricity,” Detering said.
Tioga’s also helping the industry grow, this year making its power purchase agreement — the legal contract between the power generator and the customer buying the power — available to anyone online. The “Open Source PPA”, as Tioga calls it, is meant to help other project developers or financiers reduce costs associated with poorly crafted power purchase agreements, and ultimately should help more solar projects reach completion.
Tioga was founded in 2007 and raised $20 million in December 2009 from MEMC Electronic Materials, NGEN Partners, Nth Power, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Cycad Group, DFJ Frontier, Entegris, Gas Research Institute, Kirlan Venture Capital, MG Industries, and RockPort Capital Partners.
