Story by Sara Carbone, CollectiveSun Content Marketing Manager
2020 has been quite a year! It has seen countrywide protests, rampant wildfires, the economic recession and, of course, a pandemic that brought significant upheaval to the solar industry and the world.
Thankfully, all sectors of the renewables industry rallied through innovation and resourcefulness, resulting in a year with record residential installations, continued growth in the commercial and utility markets and an unprecedented boom in the energy storage sector. The year also closed with the rollout of a vaccine and a new presidency on the horizon poised to bring about a significant shift towards clean energy friendly policies.
In the face of all the change in 2020, we at CollectiveSun continued our mission to make solar a reality for nonprofits across the country. More than ever, we saw the need for financial sustainability at nonprofit organizations, given how vital they proved to be for so many communities impacted by the challenges brought in 2020.
“In the face of all the change in 2020, we at CollectiveSun continued our mission to make solar a reality for as many of the U.S. nonprofits as possible.“
CollectiveSun Projects
We are proud to report that this past year was filled with ongoing action around helping to make solar projects a reality for our nonprofit partners. Since creating the Solar Power Agreement (SPA) in 2017, we have served over 140 nonprofits, totaling over $50M in projects across 19 states.
Partnerships and Programs
2020 also saw several new partner relationships and programs launched that meant even more options around solar funding for our nonprofit partners. Working with a premier group of strategic partners helped us stretch our impact even further.
We are proud to have worked with the following partners in 2020:
- The BQuest Foundation
- CALSSA
- SEIA
- Energy Toolbase
- EnergySage
- Interfaith Power and Light
- California Interfaith Power and Light
- Greenworks Lending
One of our proudest achievements in 2020 was the launch of our newest program, the SunForAll Solar Fund, a fund created with the BQuest Foundation and other investors. SunForAll allows qualifying organizations to receive 100% funding to go solar through a hybrid grant and low interest loan. The fund awarded two rounds of funding to seven San Diego area nonprofits for a total of $5,694,394.
Despite a year of considerable change for the solar industry and beyond, CollectiveSun was honored to make renewable energy goals a reality for dozens of nonprofits across the country.
We look forward to achieving even more in 2021!
