kWh Analytics is proud to announce that we are the recipient of a Department of Energy grant under their Technology to Market funding program. This award provides continued validation of the kWh Analytics approach to utilizing industry data as a means to improve the underwriting and risk management of distributed solar portfolios.

A summary of our project award, entitled Solar for the Other 35%, is found below:

About 35% of American citizens hold “non-prime” FICO scores < 680, which restricts their ability to take on a solar lease, power purchase agreement (PPA), or loan that has enabled tens of thousands of other “prime” citizens to go solar. Given the uniquely attractive nature of solar assets, kWh Analytics believes that there is a tremendous opportunity to use data analytics to prove that FICO is merely a contributing factor, rather than the only factor, that influences customer repayment. kWh Analytics will create the solar industry’s largest database of financial payment history for solar leases, PPAs, and loans, similar to what kWh Analytics has already done for solar energy production data under Incubator 8. kWh Analytics will also identify other key sources of data that could impact likelihood of repayment and integrate with those sources where possible. This data set will serve as a crucial pre-requisite for developing a statistically significant, independent understanding of how to safely underwrite solar in a way that also expands the total addressable market. Underwriting ratings and the underlying data can then be licensed to solar firms as a profitable service.

We are excited to be a part of the new cohort of innovative companies pushing the industry forward, and wish to extend congratulations to the other awardees as well! Learn more about all of the awards at the Department of Energy’s Technology to Market website.