Key Equipment Finance announced it is providing $6.5 million in solar equipment financing for Safeguard Storage Properties LLC (“Safeguard Self Storage”). The financing is enabling Safeguard Self Storage to go green at 25 facilities, where the solar installations will generate more than 2.6 megawatt hours of clean, renewable electricity and meet as much as 95% of some facilities’ energy needs and nearly two-thirds of all the facilities’ energy needs.
“With a total equipment financing solution, Safeguard Self Storage is installing 25 individual solar arrays and realizing a triple benefit of energy cost savings, positive environmental impact on local communities, and removal of the uncertainties of energy rate increases,” said Doug Beebe, vice president, energy finance, for Key Equipment Finance. “Green energy financing enables green-minded businesses to reduce energy costs and participate in the clean energy economy.”
The investment is expected to yield about $8.4 million (present value) in energy savings and $14.7 million cumulatively over the 25-year life of the systems.
“When Safeguard Self Storage decided to invest in green energy, we needed a reliable and flexible financing partner from conception to completion, and we’ve found that in Key Equipment Finance,” said Mark B. Rinder, executive vice president and chief financial officer. “With Key’s help, we are completing a significant investment in our company’s future while preserving money for other important business needs.”
Trinity Solar, a major retailer and installer of solar power systems in the northeastern United States, designed and is installing the systems, which should be completed in early 2015.
“By working with a knowledgeable financing partner such as Key Equipment Finance, we are able to provide turnkey energy solutions on a larger scale to green-minded companies like Safeguard Self Storage,” said Tom Pollock, Trinity Solar president. “It is a team effort that makes solar installations a possibility for more businesses.”
“We take pride in providing sustainable energy solutions to companies such as Safeguard Self Storage so the company can reduce its electric bills and its carbon footprints at the same time,” said Jim DeCicco, vice president of commercial sales and finance for Trinity Solar.