top of page

Tanzania-Based Off-Grid Solar Financier Creates Solar Fund

  • Justin Guay & Stephen Lacey
  • Apr 25, 2016
  • 1 min read

Off-grid solar financier SunFunder just closed a "beyond-the-grid" solar fund worth $15 million. The company has plans to grow the fund to $50 million.

The round was capitalized with $15 million from the U.S. government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

SunFunder is a company based in Tanzania and San Francisco that provides project finance loans and short-term inventory loans to solar companies deploying off-grid projects in Africa, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. The money will be used to finance a combination of solar PV, lithium-ion batteries and LED bulbs -- technologies that could add up to a $3 billion market by 2020, according to BNEF.

"The project is expected to have a highly developmental impact by expanding the availability of debt financing to growing off-grid solar companies, the majority of which will be located in sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 95% of those living without electricity are in sub-Saharan Africa, and off-grid solar solutions are often the cheapest and fastest way to extend energy access," wrote OPIC in its summary of the deal.

h080

 
 
 

Like what you read? Donate now and help DRP implement more projects that help communities adapt to the effects of climate change.

Donate with PayPal

© 2017 by Developing Radio Partners.

bottom of page