The Startup That Helps Green Startups Clinch Deals
The silhouette of a worker is seen walking on a roof during a SolarCity Corp. residential installation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S., on Monday, Feb. 8, 2016. SolarCity is scheduled to release earnings figures on February 9.
Photographer: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg
Why buy when you can lease? Over the years, makers of everything from sewing machines to SUVs have relied on this type of pay-as-you-go financing to spur sales. The entrepreneur who pioneered the no-money-down formula for rooftop solar systems now wants to help spread it to other cleantech industries.
SunEdison founder Jigar Shah believes the key to unlocking the $1 trillion a year he estimates is needed over the next decade to wean the world from fossil fuels will be millions of projects worth $1 million, rather than thousands of $1 billion ones. Shah’s latest startup, Generate Capital, is financing on-site battery storage systems from a company called Stem at about 70 locations of the hotel chain Extended Stay America. It also funded the deployment of fuel-cell-powered forklifts made by Plug Power, whose customers include Walmart, Lowe’s, and Ikea.