People's Solar Energy Fund

Technical assitance/training as an intermediary non-profit loan Fund, People's Solar Energy Fund (psef) seeks to support our network of member organizations in overcoming the barriers of developing community-based and community-owned Solar projects primarily in communities of color. To do this efficiently and effectively for our members, we are closely tracking federal opportunities to share with our membership, as well as providing technical assistance to help members package their proposals and pursue federal funds. Federal funds flowing from the inflation reduction act (ira) have the potential to unlock significant opportunities for psef members to both pilot and scale projects to multiple communities. We are actively pursuing federal funds to ensure that this capital is accessible to not only current members, but future community-based Solar developers when needed. In order to maximize this opportunity and catalyze further funding for primarily bipoc communities developing projects, we are pursuing strategic partnerships with philanthropic funders and other aligned partners. We also continue to support peer consultations between our members and potential members regarding the development of their community Solar projects.

Project finance in 2022, with a pipeline of 10 megawatts (mw) of projects reaching the finance-ready or operation-ready stage, psef assisted a member secure sponsor equity funds for a project, while also continuing to build relationships with tax-equity investors interested in investing in a portfolio of projects. Challenges tied to both the investors' requirements and the pandemic's interruptions of the global supply chain significantly slowed deal closures. Going forward, psef will continue to build partnerships with aligned investors and funders for project financing, but will also build internal financial infrastructure for members to access some of this critical capital through psef.

Lending through assessing member needs, it quickly became evident that while several members required significant pre-development loans, many others were not quite at the stage where debt was appropriate in driving meaningful community-led project development. In these cases, funds for early stage organizational support, community organizing etc. Were most appropriate. Ensuring that we address the spectrum of resource gaps members face is a key focus of psef's and we are working to ensure that psef offerings bridge the resource gaps that so often prevent projects from taking off, result in them stagnating, or lead to their failure. To this end, we carved out a portion of the pre-development loan pool for early stage mini-grants and in addition, will develop an innovation Fund pool to provide more flexible early stage funds to support communities innovating in project structure and ownership models, and maximizing overall community benefit. Together with our existing pre-development loan pool, we hope to see increased movement in project development.

Membership in 2022, psef experienced growth in its membership, welcoming two new members, cooperativa hidroelctrica de la montaa and polar bear sustainable Energy co-op, to its community of 22 members. To better align its vision and goals, psef initiated a strategic planning process in the fall of 2022. This strategic planning effort culminated in the organization's first in-person membership strategic planning retreat, which took place in january 2023. The retreat served as a pivotal moment for psef's direction and future strategies. As part of its commitment to building strong relationships within its network, psef's executive leaders embarked on visits to various members and their project sites. These interactions helped strengthen the bonds and collaborations within the organization. Furthermore, psef actively managed a significant pass-through grant on behalf of one of its members. This 80,000 grant, generously provided by the kataly foundation, was directed towards supporting co-op power's community Energy Solar holding's project. Psec management/ shared sevices 2022 saw the legal formation of our for-profit entity People's Solar Energy cooperative (required for investments) and the securing of a 5m loan guarantee from cigp (the community investmentguarantee program), both vital catalysts for our members' growth. We also started shared insurance products, resulting in our first insurance aggregation pool - benefitting 11 member projects. Public outreach: as an organization committed to working collaboratively with kindred sister organizations, psef worked in 2022 to strengthen its ties to and engagement in key coalitions such as the Energy democracy project (a national coalition educating and advocating for an end to monopolistic corporate control over this fundamental human need), and the black solidarity economy Fund (a national network of black coops and project of the new economy coalition). Such partnerships enhance efforts for advocacy and field- building, and deepen our ties with allied organizations working with frontline, impacted communities. We also spoke on a panel at the opportunity finance network regarding bipoc (black, indigenous, and people of color) representation in new guarantee programs; and we helped pilot- test and offer design input into the first community-solar certification curriculum (offered by the university of new hampshire).