SunEdison announced last week that it has closed a private equity round of investment with Goldman Sachs as the lead investor. MissionPoint Capital Partners and Allco Finance Group also invested in this round, according to VentureWire. Goldman announced a US$60 million equity line for SunEdison a year ago.

"Solar will be cost-effective without rebates in 2016."
--Jigar Shah, CEO, SunEdison

The company claims to provide solar generated energy at or below current retail utility rates. It offers feasibility analysis, sales, financing, installation and maintenance of photovoltaic systems. In an April 2006 article, "Solar Sacramento," Sacramento News and Review reporter Ralph Brave explains the model:

"SunEdison gets businesses and government buildings to agree to have solar electric systems placed on their rooftops, with SunEdison owning the system and selling the solar electricity at a set price to that business or government. The price is always lower than the local utility price and has a guaranteed low inflation rate. SunEdison then passes the financial rebates and tax incentives on to its investors."

Rebates and incentives are important for companies like SunEdison, and no state does incentives like California. But the company's CEO Jigar Shah put a timeline on solar break-even, telling SNR that “the costs of solar electric systems are coming down at a fairly regular, predictable, 5 percent per year, and utility rates are going up at an average of about 3 to 4 percent per year on a long-term basis. So, my feeling is that similar to California’s timeline, solar will be cost-effective without rebates in 2016.”

SunEdison's release did not disclose the amount of this private equity round, and Red Herring simply reported it to be at least $10 million, based on Shah's statement that “it’s eight digits.”