The Green Bank shepherded the two towns through the process, including finding a contractor to build the solar installations and a way to finance the projects. The solar development company Greenskies Clean Focus, based out of North Haven, won the construction contract after a competitive bid. Although the Green Bank used a competitive bidding process for building the solar installations in both towns, they did no such bidding process for financing the project through a PPA. Instead, the Green Bank awarded the 20-year financing contract to Inclusive Prosperity Capital, a non-profit started by the Greenbank in 2018 with seven of the Greenbank’s employees, with no competitive bidding process at all. Financing a solar project through a PPA works like this: The company pays for the construction and installation costs and then recoups its money over time through selling the electricity generated by the solar panels back to the municipality with a few cents tacked on to the cost per kilowatt hour. The rate depends on the size of the project and how much money the finance company wants to make. Over the life of a 20-year contract, those few cents per kilowatt hour can add up quickly.
Connecticut Green Bank awards no-bid contracts to nonprofit it created