CleanView Capital announced the launch of its special 10-year Government Finance Program for municipal, county and state entities and their subdivisions, such as schools, universities and water departments as well as their community renewable energy projects.

Transaction sizes may range from $300,000 to $5 million.

These customers will be very familiar with this special type of financing known in the industry as a “municipal lease” because it has been used for decades as a way for them to obtain a variety of equipment, such as police cars, fire trucks, computers and school furniture.

Now available for solar, microgrids and other energy projects through CleanView Capital, the municipal lease is not debt.  It is off-balance sheet financing, the company said. Key benefits of the program include customers keeping all energy savings, local and state incentive payments, and renewable energy credits.

This tax-exempt lease will have an initial term through the end of the municipality’s current fiscal year, followed by one-year renewal terms through the end of the 10th year, and then a $1 purchase option.

A “non-appropriation” provision in the lease allows the municipality to cancel the lease and return the equipment at its expense if funding for the next year’s lease payments is not included in next year’s fiscal budget. However, customers will want to use this type of lease as a de facto method of financing their ownership of long-lived energy equipment.

To help customers conserve cash, funding will be into escrow with lease payments starting at a future date after utility permission to operate.  Payments may be set up monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.  A 90-day rate lock from the date of credit approval to the date of funding is also available.  Payments will be fixed at funding with no escalation over the 10-year period.