HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sunnova Energy International, Inc. (Sunnova) (NYSE: NOVA), a leading Energy as a Service (EaaS) provider, today announced a conditional commitment by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) to provide an up to $3.0 billion partial loan guarantee, which equates to a 90% guarantee of up to $3.3 billion of financing to support loans originated by Sunnova under a new solar loan channel named “Project Hestia.”
Project Hestia would provide disadvantaged individuals and communities with increased access to Sunnova services by indirectly and partially guaranteeing the cash flows associated with those consumers’ loans. To be eligible, each energy system must be outfitted with Sunnova’s purpose-built technology, accessible by smart phone or other personal electronic device. The technology is designed to improve customer insights regarding their power usage and will facilitate demand response behavior. Sunnova believes this approach is expected to expand access to Sunnova’s EaaS offerings, lay the foundation for future virtual power plant (VPP) activities, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and increase the demand response impact of residential power systems.
“Project Hestia would make possible a historic private sector investment in disadvantaged American communities and energy infrastructure,” said William J. (John) Berger, Chief Executive Officer of Sunnova. “The DOE financing would accelerate the adoption of solar and storage, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and expand the availability of reliable, clean, and affordable energy to those communities who benefit the most from low-cost energy.”
If issued, the DOE loan guarantee would support the origination of Sunnova loans associated with solar, storage, or other Sunnova Adaptive Home™ technologies that utilize Sunnova’s purpose-built demand response and VPP enabling software. Sunnova anticipates the DOE loan guarantee will support up to $4.0 - $5.0 billion in Sunnova loan originations, reduce the company’s weighted average cost of capital, and generate interest savings.
“DOE’s conditional commitment is expected to support grid reliability, improve access to clean energy, and enhance ratings and advance rates on our senior bonds,” said Robert Lane, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Sunnova. “This financing would allow Sunnova to realize issuance spreads commensurate with the expected credit uplift and introduce new, investment-grade investors to Sunnova’s long-term strategy.”
The DOE loan guarantee would be issued pursuant to Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Project Hestia is designed to accelerate the deployment of new digital engagement and behavior modification technologies. The Sunnova app and portal aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance the integration of load controllers and smart appliances, and support grid stability by giving consumers near real-time insight into their residential energy system and quantifying the location-specific emissions impact of changes in consumer behavior.
Sunnova has agreed to provide monthly servicing reports supplemented by hardware and software deployment information to DOE. Sunnova has also agreed to measure the reduction in greenhouse gases associated with Project Hestia. To advance economic and environmental benefits for disadvantaged communities, Sunnova would also be required to deliver collateral pools that realize agreed criteria related to FICO distributions, and certain concentrations of customers located in disadvantaged communities.
While this conditional commitment demonstrates LPO’s intent to support the project, several steps remain for Project Hestia to reach critical milestones, and certain conditions must be satisfied before the DOE loan guarantee is issued, including finalization of definitive financing documents.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2023. Sunnova plans to issue its first securitization under the program in 1H 2023.
Sunnova was advised by ATLAS SP Partners and Citi on the transaction. Baker Botts acted as legal advisor to Sunnova and Kramer Levin acted as legal advisor to the financial advisors.
About Sunnova
Sunnova Energy International Inc. (NYSE: NOVA) is a leading Energy as a Service (“EaaS”) provider with customers across the U.S. and its territories. Sunnova's goal is to be the source of clean, affordable, and reliable energy with a simple mission: to power energy independence so that home and business owners have the freedom to live life uninterrupted®. For more information, please visit sunnova.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Sunnova’s future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “going to,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplates,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Sunnova’s expectations, strategy, priorities, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the benefits and impact of the financing guarantee and Sunnova’s current and future product offerings to consumers including any deployments under the Hestia program, timing of the transaction and the issuance of any asset-backed securities. Sunnova’s expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including risks regarding our ability to forecast our business due to our limited operating history, results of operations and financial position, our competition, changes in regulations applicable to our business, fluctuations in the solar and home-building markets, availability of capital, supply chain uncertainty, our ability to attract and retain dealers and customers and our dealer and strategic partner relationships. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Sunnova’s filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Sunnova as of the date hereof, and Sunnova disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
