DOE hosted the "Big & Small Ideas: How to Lower Solar Financing Costs" breakout session during the SunShot Grand Challenge Summit and Technology Forum. This session explored a range of solutions for making scalable, low-cost financing more available to the growing solar energy market. The intent was to generate new ideas, build connections, and accelerate innovation to effectively lower the cost of capital for large and small solar installations.

Finance ideas were solicited in advance so the solar program could select a wide range of concepts from a number of different perspectives. More than 15 ideas were presented, including:

• Quality ratings for PV to lower the risk for investment capital
• Master limited partnerships for renewable energy (a federal act is currently in committee)
• Insurance products to increase the number of participants in the tax equity market.

Read the "American Idol Eat Your Heart Out" blog post written about this event on the Rocky Mountain Institute's website.