Overall solar market movement

According to research, the global solar energy market was valued at over $50 bullion in 2018. However the overall global solar energy market will exceed $220 billion in the next five years.

As more government incentives are coming online and the photovoltaic (PV) technology continues to mature, both residential and commercial solar sector will continue to grow.

With the recent war in Ukraine and the artificial supply chain constraints on Russian oil imports, both US and the European Union are looking to boost their own energy production and alternatively, accelerate their initiatives to be less fossil fuel dependent.

The price of PV systems drop, in the U.S. along, the solar market is to grow 40% from 2021. To facilitate the growth, greater access to capital marketings, e.g. financing is needed.

There are some major solar system financing firms out there that are looking to expand. But more importantly, there are vertical integration plays by large solar installers as well as manufactures that would love to denominate the market.

Solar system installers are building out full solutions.

For solar system installers, they are looking to own the entire experience from selling the system to home owners or small businesses to financing the work all together. 

What does solar system installers need to own the entire customer experience? A bank sponsorship, capital markets and software that works with their existing sells tool to manage the onboarding, underwriting and loan servicing process.

Sponsor banks are beginning to look at solar as a great asset class to expand into that’s save and secure. Capital marketings are looking at solar as a great way to deploy capital in a safe and responsible manner.

Most recently Cross River Bank and Sunstone credit announced a solar financing partnership that will enable Sunstone to lend to small to mid size businesses in conjunction with financing partners such as Forbright Bank.

There are many more banks as well as capital markets that’s dedicated their charter and their funds for fossil fuel free renewable energy solutions such as solar.

Can underwriting be completely automated?

Underwriting residential consumers and small business and their owners is not an easy feat. And to automate the credit decisioning process, you need a piece of software that can automatically verify the owners identity, access to their credit profile and detect any signs of trouble. 

To underwrite the small businesses credit worthiness, you have to also look at their cashflow and their ability to carry this additional debt. 

Even though the energy bill will be swapped out with the new financing options, that is to say, the residential customer or the small businesses don’t spend anymore money than they already are, net net. Lenders should still conduct a thorough research on the viability of the homeowner and the small businesses’s credit worthiness.

CRM and sales tool connectivity?

Most of the solar installers already have a fairly robust system to sell to their customers. From roof top design to installation contracts, the financing solution should work seamlessly with their existing CRM tool.

To certain extends, most solar installers already have financing solutions dovetailed into their design or sales tools. 

Today, many of these solar financing companies offer APIs and embedded iframe experiences that allows installers to port over client data and return a decision with in seconds.

But what if installers would like to get into the financing business? Building your own financing solution doesn’t necessarily replace all of your existing financing partners. You can simply offer your financing solution along side of your current financing partners. 

Sometimes your in-house solutions wins because you have an integrated experience and can easily buy down the rates internally, but sometimes your current financing partners might be the best solution.

Are there SaaS solutions for in house solar financing options?

The answer is yes. Alchemy has spent the past few years working with various solar installers to launch in-house financing options. We’ve build various solar financing originations process where residential owners and small business owners can complete the applications themselves or have a sales staff complete it alongside their clients.

The Alchemy Solar Financing SaaS solution also includes connectivity to various credit bureaus to underwriting residential and commercial solar clients.

Our decision engine can automatically underwriting clients and generate offers instantly through a user interface or through an API to easily integrate into your current CRM solution that may have other financing solutions already plugged in.

The Alchemy system also has a seamless loan management system that can disperse payments to equipment manufacturers and collect payments from residential and/or commercial clients alike.

Maximize your conversion rate!

The more lenders you have plugged into your sales tool, the better of a chance for your customers to be financed. You’ve already spend the time and money to generate the lead and completing the sale, the nail biter has always been the financing options.

Imagine that you can create your own funding facility to fund those deals that your existing financing solutions turn down. What if you can table fund some of these deals and after a few payments, you can then sell it to the secondary market? 

With your own software, it is now possible to maximize your conversion rate and give everyone a chance to be financed and get solar installed.

Why solar SaaS financing software?

The biggest reason is cost. Instead of spending millions building a in house solution that you need to spend millions more to maintain, using a fully customizable software solution will save you ton of money and leave you time to create an awesome customer experience. At Alchemy, we offer a fixed, unlimited usage SaaS subscription fee so you know what to expect on your bottom line. We never want to inhibit your success and growth.

Another big reason to go with a SaaS solution is timing, building custom software always require a lengthy planning session, hiring the right engineering staff and support staff. With a SaaS solution, you can goto market with minimal customization.

The third reason is security and compliance. Running a compliant system takes years to perfect. From SOC2 Type 1, Type 2 security fencing that all your bank partners need to see to PCI and Penetration Testing, these are now table-stake must haves for any financing platform. Security audits alone could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, annually.

The last and final reason is expertise. At Alchemy, we have solar and software experts that can help you strategize the best approach to build your own in-house solar financing solution that works along side of your current financing solution. Alchemy has full time support staff around the global that can quickly answer your questions or address issues in real time.

We have dedicated development and support teams that works with your staff to create the best customer experience. 

You have to ask yourself, would it be nice to offer an embedded solar financing solutions to all of your clients right inside of your current sales tool?

Please contact us for a demo of our solar financing system. We would love to help you launch your in-house solar financing program.

Team Alchemy Solar Team