Climatize Facilitates Community Solar Projects in Minnesota and Illinois with Pre-Construction Financing

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Community solar is awesome. Talk about a feel-good story. The savings from community solar can be enjoyed by renters and homeowners alike, whether they have a roof of their own to mount solar panels to or not. People can “subscribe” to a community solar project, which can be located somewhere nearby and generate enough power for a lot of homes. By pooling money, people help create community solar projects, and then they can enjoy lower electric bills as well as being part of the solution for years to come.

Community solar had a banner year in 2024, increasing 35% from 2023 and adding 1.7 GW of capacity in the US alone.

One of CleanTechnica’s sponsors, Climatize, is a crowdfunding platform that allows people to invest in community solar projects. I love the “idea” of this, but to be honest, didn’t know how it worked in a nuts and bolts kind of way. So I interviewed Steve Chan, one of the founders of Enterprise Energy, a community solar developer doing projects across the US.

Enterprise Energy has worked with Climatize to launch a number of community solar projects, raising over $600,000 from Climatize’s investors. They’ve launched 3 projects in Illinois and 5 in Minnesota, ranging from 6–30 soccer fields in size.

As a developer, Enterprise is incentivized to find customers in the Low and Moderate Income (LMI) space in IL and MN, as they earn a higher rate if they can help LMI customers get stable, reliable power with prices that will be lower than fossil power for many years to come. Illinois and Minnesota have these laws, as do many states you might expect to have them, to help make their economies more resilient. You see, if those same customers had to deal with fast rising utility rates, they’d be more challenged financially than rich folks who own their own home. Thus, these progressive laws in these states help make the state more economically and socially resilient for years to come.

The utility buys the solar power being produced by these community solar projects, puts that solar on the grid, and the “subscribers” of a community solar project lock in a rate. The utility is really just the transmission, in essence. Minnesota’s LMI program is called the Low- and Moderate-Income Accessible CSG Program. In Illinois, it’s called Illinois Shines. Minnesota was the first in the nation to pass such a progressive law. Go Minnesota! 

Enterprise & Climatize

Enterprise got some critical funding from Climatize investors, that helped these projects become reality. It was pre construction development expenses – permitting costs, enviro diligence reports, and the like – which are hard to get traditional financing for, and typically cost the developers a lot more (due to the higher risk of an earlier stage project). Climatize got Enterprise a rate that was closer to 10% on this financing, where a traditional lender might have cost more than double that. If the design, permitting, etc., is done, typically community solar is a great and very safe investment, and typically has about a 7% financing rate.

Enterprise is a leading community solar developer, with 3 co-founders with 25 yrs experience. Their mission is to improve lives of Americans by giving them access to cheap, clean, abundant solar. They’ll be raising more money for more community solar projects through Climatize soon. Chan says Enterprise has a saying, “A Lannister always pays his debts”. Enterprise, he says, wants to be known as a company that has the ability to find a good project and the ability to pay back loans and they want Climatize investors to feel confident in their projects going forward. They’ve raised $650K from Climatize so far. They will be raising another $4M soon on Climatize, for sponsor equity (skin in the game) for some new projects. Would be paid back in about 12 months (on the Commercial Operation Date), with maybe a range of ~7%.

Climatize is awesome. Yes, they’re a sponsor of CleanTechnica (no this article is not sponsored, though… I just think they’re the sh*t). What other platform do you know of where someone can pitch in some money and that money directly puts solar in play? For as little as $10, people can invest in community solar projects and help them get built AND potentially make a good return on your investment. (Investment risks ALWAYS apply, of course, and people can lose all the money they invest and should use their discretion and seek professional advice and so on and so forth… the usual lawyer-speak).

Check out www.Climatize.Earth for more info.