Kilowatt Financial, a leading clean energy consumer finance company, today announced that it recently closed a $200 million debt warehouse facility with Citi to finance residential solar power systems for homeowners. The transaction expands Kilowatt and Citi’s partnership to help meet the growing demand from consumers to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes.
Through Kilowatt’s lending program, consumers can own their own residential solar system with no money down and with loan terms of up to 20 years at competitive interest rates. Utilizing Kilowatt’s solar loans enables consumers to lower their monthly energy payments and offers them an attractive alternative to power purchase agreements or leases. Ultimately, Kilowatt and Citi expect to create asset-backed securities from the loans and to develop a market for institutional investors to provide long-term, low-cost capital to finance residential solar power.
Kilowatt offers solar financing across the United States, making solar ownership easier and more accessible for consumers in all of its markets, including those in which solar financing has not been widely available. By offering solar installers and homeowners the option of financing residential solar projects through loans, Kilowatt and Citi are making clean, renewable solar energy systems more affordable to more consumers in more markets.
“Kilowatt Financial’s industry leading solar loans help homeowners make the switch to solar and achieve a significantly greater return on their investment in renewable energy relative to the financing products historically available to them,” said Matt Melius, CEO of Kilowatt Financial. “We appreciate Citi’s ongoing commitment to helping us make investments in solar energy a reality for more of the consumers and communities that we both serve.”
Last year Kilowatt and Citi announced a $100 million debt warehouse facility to finance energy efficiency consumer loans to fund a broad range of upgrades, including HVAC equipment, water heaters, windows, roofing and insulation.
“We are proud to continue our support for Kilowatt Financial on its mission to help consumers run their homes with low-cost renewable energy,” said Marshal Salant, Global Head of Alternative Energy Finance at Citi. “This transaction is a great example of Citi’s commitment to sustainable growth and to financing clean energy and energy efficiency improvement projects.”
In February, Citi announced a goal to lend, invest and facilitate a total of $100 billion within the next 10 years to finance activities that reduce the impacts of climate change and create environmental solutions that benefit people and communities, Salant noted. The $200 million debt warehouse facility with Kilowatt Financial represents an important step toward Citi’s $100 billion goal.
Kilowatt Financial
Kilowatt Financial provides consumers with affordable financing choices for residential solar systems and energy-efficient home improvements so that more people can run their homes cleanly and economically. Our credit expertise makes the financing process fast, flexible and easy for our network of qualified contractors and installers. For information on how to join the Kilowatt Financial contractor network and take advantage of industry leading lending products call (952) 476-8900 or send an email to info@kilowattfinancial.com.
Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.
Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi
Contacts:
Media:
Robert Julavits, 212.816.8020
robert.w.julavits@citi.com
