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A unit of US Bancorp and privately-held SolarCity has teamed up to wire homes and businesses in California, Oregon and Arizona, with no upfront costs, while taking advantage of government tax credits. The agreement, for which no value was disclosed, allows US Bancorp Community Development Corp., a unit of US Bancorp, to take advantage of tax breaks including a solar tax credit. In return, the bank pays for the purchase and installation of solar power by SolarCity, which markets and maintains the systems. Homeowners and businesses purchase the electricity generated from their roofs. “We are able to offer a home owner or a business owner a solar financing solution that costs them less than if they bought the same amount of electricity from the utility,” said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of SolarCity, from company headquarters in Foster City, Calif. Homeowners also may choose to pay the cost of the installation, which can run to US$20,000 and has a payback period for eight to 10 years, Rive said. Darren Van’t Hof, vice president of the US Bancorp unit said in a telephone interview from St. Louis that the two companies have created a tax equity fund which finances the solar lease plan. The joint fund reaps the benefits of the tax breaks, sharing the revenue stream between the bank and SolarCity, he said. The company takes care of maintenance for 15 years, after which a homeowner can renew the plan, upgrade, buy the system or have it removed, Rive said. Rive said the company already has a six-month backlog and the agreement, signed a few days ago, will allow it to whittle away that backlog and sell more systems.

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Last weeks long awaited G20 Summit Communique lifted the hopes of the world’s investors and leaves a lot of work to be done going forward by the Group. The language of the was vague and optimistic

The Highlights:
On Resources: The G-20 announced US$50B for low-income countries, and an additional US$100B in lending for Development Banks.

On Reform: Developing countries will have greater representation in the international financial institutions and that election to World Bank/IMF leadership will be based on merit.
On Regulation: The G-20 announced regulation of illicit tax havens.

As with all world summits, the G-20, just stated the goals and heralded the agreements of the parity countries leaving the hard specific work to be done.

The powers that be need to work to ensure that money going to developing countries is given as grants, not loans that trigger another debt crisis.

There remains much work to be done on the Green Agenda in the interests of developing countries at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year.

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What the Financial Times of London described as “combative” US President Barack Obama warned last Saturday he was bracing for a fight against powerful lobbyists and special interests who sought to pick apart the US$3,550B (or US$3.55T) budget he wants to advance his agenda of reform.

Mr. Obama’s spending blueprint, with its massive US$1,170B (or US$1.17T) deficit and tax hikes on the wealthy, seeks to squeeze billions of US4s in savings out of current spending through competitive bidding among health insurers and ending subsidies and tax breaks for banks, agribusiness and oil companies. ”These steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business,” the president said in his weekly radio address.”I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak,” he said. ”My message to them is this: So am I.”

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