Skip to main content
Donate

California Solar Company Goes Public This Week

By Chris Clarke
December 3, 2012
Support Provided By
Solar-city-12-3-12-thumb-600x372-41351

Residential rooftop solar in Pacific Palisades, CA | Photo: SolarCity

Though solar manufacturing firms are hurting these days due to competition from cheap imported solar panels, the same bargain basement panel prices make things a bit rosier for those firms who install solar panels. As evidence for this split in the solar sector, Bay Area solar leasing company SolarCity has scheduled an Initial Public Offering of its stock for this week.

Founded in 2006, the San Mateo-based company now has operations in 14 states, and is likely best known for its installations on dozens of Walmart stores across the state of California. According to the language in the firm's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,, SolarCity now has photovoltaic installations on more than 45,000 rooftops.

The company will be offering 10 million shares of stock in its IPO, and expects to raise between $130 million and $150 million in capital.

At least one analyst thinks that may be somewhat optimistic. As Eric Wesoff writes on Greentech Media,

Debra Fiakas, the Managing Director of Crystal Equity Research, writes that this is "a deal worth considering, but only after the shares get some seasoning. A $13.00 per share price puts a $932 million market value on SolarCity and implies a multiple of 8.4 times revenue. This seems a bit pricey given that the company has not been consistently profitable."

Venture investors in SolarCity are led by Draper Fisher Jurveston, which owns just over a quarter of the company's pre-IPO stock, and Space X founder Elon Musk, who owns about a third of the existing shares.

ReWire is dedicated to covering renewable energy in California. Keep in touch by liking us on Facebook, and help shape our editorial direction by taking this quick survey here.

Support Provided By
Read More
An oil pump painted white with red accents stands mid-pump on a dirt road under a blue, cloudy sky with a green, grassy slope in the background.

California’s First Carbon Capture Project: Vital Climate Tool or License to Pollute?

California’s first attempt to capture and sequester carbon involves California Resources Corp. collecting emissions at its Elk Hills Oil and Gas Field, and then inject the gases more than a mile deep into a depleted oil reservoir. The goal is to keep carbon underground and out of the atmosphere, where it traps heat and contributes to climate change. But some argue polluting industries need to cease altogether.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Inside Climate News