Project Title: Solar for the Other 35%
Funding Opportunity: SunShot Technology to Market (Incubator 10)
SunShot Subprogram: Technology to Market
Location:  San Francisco, CA
Amount Awarded: $599,974
Awardee Cost Share:  $600,022
Project Investigator: Chun Wei Yuan

About 35% of American citizens hold “non-prime” FICO scores that are less than 680, which restricts their ability to take on a solar lease, power purchase agreement (PPA), or loan that has enabled tens of thousands of other “prime” citizens to go solar. kWh Analytics believes that there is a tremendous opportunity to use data analytics to prove that FICO is merely a contributing factor, rather than the only factor, that influences customer repayment.

kWh Analytics will create the solar industry’s largest database of financial payment history for solar financing contracts. This data set would serve as a crucial pre-requisite for developing a statistically significant, independent understanding of how to safely underwrite solar in a way that also expands the total addressable market. Given the uniquely attractive nature of solar assets (e.g. customer energy savings), kWh Analytics believes that there is a tremendous opportunity to use data analytics to grow the solar customer base.

This project will develop statistically-significant results for how various solar and non-solar performance indicators impact the probability of delinquency and/or default of solar contracts. This project will utilize machine learning and rigorous statistical analyses to unlock currently underserved segments of the market and enable better risk-based pricing approaches by solar lenders.