Solar Installer Unlocks Energy Cost Savings for Non-Profit Medical Facility with Braggawatt’s Financing Platform
Innovative online tool democratizes access to solar power for small & medium-sized enterprises seeking cost savings through clean energy
September 12, 2017 CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Braggawatt Energy today announced that its online financing platform, a proprietary online process that delivers financing to distributed energy solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), enabled a 72 kW solar installation for a non-profit medical facility in New Jersey. Energy Solutions of New Jersey (ESNJ) tapped the platform to finance a rooftop solar project for customer Southern Jersey Family Medical Centers, Inc. (SJFMC) in Burlington, New Jersey. Braggawatt’s financing enables the ESNJ-built project to reduce the medical center’s kilowatt-hour rate by 37 percent, yielding utility cost savings of 13 percent in the initial year of operation.
SJFMC sought a clean, onsite energy solution to lower its electricity costs and reduce carbon emissions for more than two years, but struggled to access the financing crucial to bringing the project to life. SJFMC engaged ESNJ for building electrical services, and ESNJ recognized the potential to enable the project through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), which provides solar energy-as-a-service. After investigating a number of PPA financing providers, ESNJ turned to the Braggawatt platform, which proved to be the only solution able to accelerate the financing process and streamline the project through the underwriting, contracting and implementation stages.
“Braggawatt’s online financing process has finally filled the gap for our small and medium-sized commercial customers. We put Braggawatt to test and obtained, in record-time, financing terms that no other provider was able to offer,” said Energy Solutions of New Jersey President Gary DeFillippo.
“We are excited to unlock many more SME projects using Braggawatt’s free online platform, which instills great confidence in our team and customers,” added Energy Solutions of New Jersey Vice President Steven Veltri.
The Braggawatt platform provided process, profit and cash-flow certainty which made the solar integrator’s work at the medical facility seamless. Historically, SMEs have faced significant barriers and limitations when trying to secure financing for distributed energy projects, even though 99 percent of American businesses fall within the SME category. By offering an intuitive and free online financing process, milestone payments, and appealing PPA and loan rates, Braggawatt is opening up new opportunities for this underserved market.
“Being able to expand upon our existing relationship with ESNJ to cover our facility’s rooftops with solar panels is game-changing,” said Southern Jersey Medical Center, Inc. corporate CFO Ronald Kaplan. “Using clean, cost-effective energy resources to power 20 percent of our electricity load is of great benefit to our facility and the community at large, and our PPA rate is 37 percent lower than what we currently pay for electricity. This is a true win-win scenario.”
SJFMC will incur 13 percent utility cost savings in the first year following project completion, and will be protected from exponential energy price increases in the long-term.
“Our financing platform ensures process and financing certainty that empowers more SMEs, like SJFMC, and dedicated regional solar installers, like ESNJ, to focus on what they do best and rely on us for the rest. ESNJ and SJFMC have been model partners, and we look forward to enabling many more SMEs with distributed energy solutions worth bragging about,” said Braggawatt CCO and Co-Founder Oleg Popovsky.
About Braggawatt
Braggawatt is a data and analytics company whose end-to-end origination and financing platform helps integrators connect small and mid-sized distributed energy projects with smart financing options, allowing end-customers to immediately benefit from energy cost savings and investors to secure superior, risk-adjusted returns at scale. Braggawatt’s platform and process-centric approach is free to use and is built to support the value integration across the distributed energy ecosystem.
