Launched in March 2013 and running through FY15, the CT Solar Loan was a US$10 million pilot public-private partnership between CT Green Bank and Sungage Financial, with support from ARRA funds. The partnership enabled Sungage Financial to offer the CT Solar Loan, with up to US$55,000 per loan with 15-year maturity terms and 6.49% interest rates (including 0.25% ACH payment benefit). This allowed homeowners to benefit from 30% Investment Tax Credit (ITC) accessible to those who own PV panels.
The CT Solar Loan program was possible through credit enhancements (i.e.,US $300,000 loan loss reserve and US$168,000 interest rate buy-downs from repurposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds) in combination with a US$5 million warehouse of funds and US$1 million of subordinated debt from the Connecticut Green Bank. It resulted in the first crowd-funded solar loan program in the country when US$1M of the loan portfolio was purchased by crowd-funding project finance firms Mosaic and Mission Markets and another US$2.6M was purchased by the Reinvestment Fund (a CDFI). And in late 2015, Sungage Financial graduated to a US$100 million pool of capital from the Digital Federal Credit Union, without further Green Bank support, to enable citizens to own solar PV systems installed on their homes.