Clearloop celebrated the groundbreaking of its 1-MW solar farm in Jackson, Tennessee, a utility-scale solar farm in the United States directly financed by solar offsets. Clearloop’s solar farm will provide enough clean energy to power 200 homes, helping to clean up the Sun Belt’s fossil-fuel-dependent grid where less than 1% of electricity is currently sourced from solar power.
Clearloop is working with companies big and small to reclaim their carbon footprint by expanding access to clean energy and spurring economic development in the community. Each of Clearloop’s partners will receive carbon credits in exchange for financing their portion of the array. Rather than a PPA, Clearloop’s model allows smaller companies to make a simple, one-time payment that is tied directly to how much carbon they want to reclaim, measured in watts of new solar capacity.
The Jackson solar farm will be financed by companies including Intuit, Vista Equity Partners, Coolperx, Dropps, Impact Snacks, Hello Bello, Patch, Aether Diamonds, Material Bank and individuals like singer-songwriter Jason Isbell and children’s book author Stacy Clark.
“Clearloop’s multi-dimensional approach to bring both immediate impact and long-term economic growth to communities throughout the United States is why Intuit is so excited to support their project in Jackson today, and help them accelerate efforts across the country,” said Intuit global sustainability leader Sean Kinghorn. “Our support for Clearloop extends beyond financial investment to ensure continued innovation in the areas of climate change, corporate responsibility, and community development — all which benefit our shared values and a healthier planet overall.”
News item from Clearloop
“Rather than a PPA, Clearloop’s model allows smaller companies to make a simple, one-time payment that is tied directly to how much carbon they want to reclaim, measured in watts of new solar capacity.”
O.K., makes sense, paying it forward and buying RECs for future offsets.
“The Jackson solar farm will be financed by companies including Intuit, Vista Equity Partners, Coolperx, Dropps, Impact Snacks, Hello Bello, Patch, Aether Diamonds, Material Bank and individuals like singer-songwriter Jason Isbell and children’s book author Stacy Clark.”
Now comes the ‘rub’, say an F3 tornado rips through this solar PV farm, (who) is responsible for the clean up and repair of the site? Will it be these REC benefactors or the community? Is there insurance, who pays it, the community or the benefactors pay for this, then what happens to the insurance after this massive replacement event? LCOE has to be better than the toss of a coin.