Greenbacker Development Opportunities Fund I LP, which provides flexible capital and technical guidance for growth-stage clean energy companies, has made an investment in Sunrock Distributed Generation (Sunrock DG), a financing and asset aggregation platform for commercial and industrial (C&I) solar and energy storage projects across the country.
The partnership with Greenbacker will increase Sunrock DG’s capacity to provide financing for small and medium businesses (SMBs) transitioning to solar energy. It will also enable Sunrock DG to expand its pipeline of middle-market commercial solar and storage projects. Historically, meeting the clean energy needs of SMBs has been prohibitively expensive to address.
Sunrock DG develops smaller-scale commercial solar projects that allow businesses, municipalities and nonprofits to access the financial and environmental benefits of solar power. Given challenges in achieving economies of scale, many companies have not been able to offer attractive third-party financing products to middle-market owners. Sunrock DG’s proprietary underwriting criteria and technology, novel financing sources and network of over 100 developer partners across the country allow it to offer this market segment both financing and affordable products.
“We believe distributed generation has an inherently long tail, with the best opportunities and highest yields in the smaller end of the market,” says Benjamin Baker, managing director at Greenbacker. “We’re thrilled to partner with Sunrock DG to expand our presence in C&I solar and enable Sunrock DG to accelerate its growth and meet the immense demand for low-cost clean energy solutions, particularly in light of rising power prices.”
“The solar market has been ineffective at serving middle-market commercial customers for the last 20 years,” states founder Claire Broido Johnson. “Through our collaboration with Greenbacker and our deep network of developer partners, we’re looking forward to bringing more thoughtful financing structures to this underserved segment of the market.”
Greenbacker Capital Management established the Greenbacker Development Opportunities Fund I LP in 2020 to invest in companies focused on sustainable infrastructure development.
