Project Polo

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PROJECT SUMMARY

In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced the closing of a $289.7 loan guarantee to Sunwealth Holdco 18 LLC’s (Sunwealth) Project Polo. The loan guarantee will finance the deployment of up to 1,000 solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and battery energy storage systems (BESS) located primarily at commercial and industrial facilities and integrated across up to 27 states.

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION 

Sunwealth has partnered with SYSO Technologies of Boston, Massachusetts, to provide its distributed energy management software platform, which will allow the project to function as a virtual power plant (VPP).

VPPs can help facilitate the clean energy transition by optimizing resource utilization and coordinating demand response. VPPs aggregate electrified, grid-connected devices such as solar-plus-storage systems, grid-interactive efficient buildings, air conditioners, and electric vehicles and their associated charging infrastructure. Sunwealth’s distributed energy resources (DERs) in concert with SYSO’s software platform will store and generate significant amounts of energy. VPPs often provide energy at a lower levelized cost than traditional options, doing so more cleanly while offering consumers greater resilience during grid disruptions. The Sunwealth VPP offers advanced management of PV and BESS, enhanced forecasting of PV production and coincident peaks, and aggregation and dispatch of DERs. 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

This project is expected to create approximately 3,700 jobs, including over 1,900 solar and storage installation jobs and over 1,700 operations and maintenance jobs.

CLIMATE BENEFIT 

Sunwealth estimates the project will lead to the avoidance of up to 4.07 million metric tons of carbon over the project’s lifetime. 

COMMUNITY BENEFIT

Sunwealth provides their employees salary and benefits that target 120% of the living wage in each office location. Sunwealth has created “Sunwealth University,” a four-tier internal training program for employees to promote advancement through the company. Sunwealth University provides job-specific training, courses on project finance and development, and more. Sunwealth is also committed to building its relationships with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the National Electrical Contractors Association (both national and locals) and local solar nonprofits and trade groups to integrate them into their developer workforce. The company hosts events with local trades and provides grants to local nonprofit training organizations, such as Green City Force, Emerald Cities, and Browning the Green Space.

PROJECT STATISTICS: Project Polo

* Last Updated January 2025. Approximate amount of the loan approved at closing including principal and any capitalized interest.

** Estimated at the time of closing