Urban Energy, Financed By Scale, Closes Innovative Rooftop Community Solar in Yonkers

BROOKLYN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Urban Energy Inc. (“Urban Energy”) is announcing an exciting project to develop community solar in New York. Urban Energy’s mission is to increase clean distributed energy adoption among small-commercial and condo/cooperative residential buildings in NYC by enabling no-investment participation and maximizing system values.

This latest project is taking place at a cooperatively owned residential building in Yonkers, New York. Urban Energy will develop a 620 kW rooftop community solar system and provide a new roof for the two buildings that make up the Westgate Park Condominium, managed by Anker Management.

The solar system will provide the building with 10% off their electricity bill for the common areas and residents will be eligible for subscription to the community solar project. The common area discount will be made possible through the New York State Public Service Commission’s Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) program, which compensates those who are generating solar energy.

Scale Microgrid Solutions (“Scale”) will fully fund the project, as part of their broader commitment with Urban Energy to finance the development, construction and acquisition of community solar installation in New York.

"The closing of Urban Energy's first fully developed community solar project acquisition with Scale is a very important milestone for us and the broader NYC metro area small commercial and multifamily community solar market. It has been just under a year since Urban Energy completed its development finance facility with Scale, which has allowed us to grow and invest in larger scale community solar project portfolios in the NYC metro area. The powerhouse combination of our two organizations will position us as the largest small commercial and multifamily developer and project owner in the dense urban environment of NYC with many more project acquisitions lined up in late 2022 and 2023," says Russell Wilcox, Co-Founder and CEO of Urban Energy.

“This acquisition marks the first of many for Urban Energy and Scale as we partner to provide the simplest path for building owners to participate in clean energy projects,“ says Julian Torres, CFA, Chief Investment Officer at Scale Microgrid Solutions. “With this innovative project we are leveraging the NY-Sun program to provide community solar to residents in ConEd territory.”

The project will begin construction immediately and should be fully commissioned by the end of the year.

About Urban Energy: Urban Energy was founded in July 2017 as a solar developer, EPC, and advanced racking manufacturer. Following triple-bottom-line principles, Urban Energy makes rooftop solar viable for multifamily buildings by offering scalable and financeable solar products, including an innovative solar canopy designed specifically for underserved urban buildings. Urban Energy currently has a pipeline of 6.5 MW of contracted projects in Con Edison territory of NYC and Westchester, representing over 80 large multifamily residential and small-commercial buildings. Nearly all of Urban Energy’s serve low-and-moderate-income or public housing buildings in NYC and Westchester.

About Scale Microgrid Solutions: Scale is a vertically integrated distributed energy platform, with a core focus of designing, building, financing, owning and operating cutting-edge distributed energy assets that offer cheaper, cleaner, and more resilient power. Their team of energy and financing experts accelerate growth in distributed energy projects by providing financing to technology providers, energy developers, and OEMs, while also directly helping large energy-consuming customers ​to take charge of their energy infrastructure and future-proof their businesses.