Arlington, VA (June 12, 2017) The National Cooperative Bank (NCB) has teamed with the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) to launch a national retail solar financing program that electric distribution cooperatives can offer to their consumer-members.
“This value-added service provides another way for electric cooperatives to engage with their consumers and support renewable initiatives,” says CFC Senior Vice President of Business and Industry Development Greg Starheim. “Through it, electric cooperatives give their members an opportunity to pay for subscriptions in a cooperative-owned community solar project or purchase behind-the-meter rooftop or backyard ground-mount distributed generation [DG] solar systems with financing provided by NCB.”
Consumers will work directly with NCB, a national financial institution that focuses on cooperatives and their members. NCB will offer both consumer loans for the community solar subscriptions and home equity loans for the purchase of rooftop or backyard solar panels.
“We are thrilled to work with CFC in launching the retail solar loan programs to help members of electric cooperatives reap the benefits of solar energy,” stated Chris Goettke, Director of Retail Lending for National Cooperative Bank. “Given our shared cooperative roots, we are especially proud to work with the nation’s electric co-ops in support of our mutual missions of building community.”
