New Haven Community Solar

What New Haven Community Solar does

New Haven Community Solar (NHCS) is a privately held, for-profit community solar project finance company founded in 2018 and headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut. NHCS acquires, installs, and operates small-scale rooftop solar PV arrays on properties owned by Columbus House, a nonprofit serving homeless and at-risk populations, and sells the generated electricity to those housing units at a discount. The company has two operating assets totaling 20.48 kW of installed capacity: the Button Street Project (9.24 kW, 2018) and the Plymouth Street Project (11.24 kW, 2019). Both installations are integrated with the Yale School of Architecture's Jim Vlock First Year Building Project, which has designed and built affordable housing in New Haven each year since 1967. Connecticut's residential utility prices are roughly double the national average, which materially amplifies the household-level impact of even modest solar bill reductions.

The company's business model is a special-purpose vehicle structure that raises equity capital from non-accredited individual investors via Regulation CF crowdfunding campaigns on Mainvest and StartEngine. Investors become owners of specific solar projects and receive annual dividend payments from predictable cash flows generated by long-term discounted electricity supply to Columbus House. Capital deployment is paired with project origination through the annual Jim Vlock pipeline, where Yale architecture students design and build the housing and NHCS finances the rooftop solar component. The model won the 2018 Aetna Foundation Prize for Health Equity Innovation, and the company has been covered by Forbes, the New Haven Independent, the New Haven Register, the Yale Daily News, and Daily Nutmeg.

NHCS operates with a team of 1-10, is led by three co-founders (CEO Franz Hochstrasser, COO Matthew Moroney, CMO Kwasi Ansu) who are recent Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies graduates, and is supported by an advisory board including Yale-affiliated figures. All projects are located in New Haven, Connecticut; there is no evidence of geographic expansion beyond this footprint, and revenue is generated exclusively through electricity sales to a single offtake counterparty. The company uses no paid marketing, relying on earned media, Yale ecosystem relationships, and crowdfunding platform distribution.

Name

New Haven Community Solar

Legal name

New Haven Community Solar

Website

https://newhavencommunitysolar.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

New Haven Community Solar is a community solar project finance company that owns and operates two small rooftop solar arrays in New Haven, Connecticut, delivering discounted electricity to Columbus House's transitional housing and financing projects via Regulation CF crowdfunding for non-accredited impact investors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Solar Project Finance

NAICS

Solar Electric Power Generation (221114), Electric Power Generation (22111)

akta.pro primary industry

Community Solar Development & Subscription Management (EUAMAJAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Distributed Generation (DG) Solar & Small Wind (EUAMAJAD)

Keywords

• Community solar finance
• Rooftop solar installations
• Affordable housing energy
• Solar crowdfunding
• Low-income solar projects

Headquarters

HQ city

New Haven

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Solar electricity revenue: NHCS owns and operates rooftop solar arrays on Columbus House properties. The arrays generate electricity sold at a discount to Columbus House tenants, producing predictable cash flows used to pay dividends to crowdinvestors. The model reduces electricity bills for residents in a state where residential utility prices are double the national average.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

New Haven Community Solar (NHCS) is an inclusive growth project finance company that finances, owns, and operates rooftop solar PV arrays on affordable and transitional housing properties in New Haven, Connecticut. The company structures each project as a special purpose vehicle and raises capital from non-accredited individual investors via Regulation CF crowdfunding offerings on Mainvest and StartEngine. The electricity generated is sold at a discount to housing operated by Columbus House, with predictable cash flows distributed as dividends to crowdinvestors.

Product overview

New Haven Community Solar is an inclusive growth project finance company that owns and operates community solar installations in New Haven, Connecticut. The company operates two solar projects: the Button Street Project (9.24 kW, installed 2018) and the Plymouth Street Project (11.24 kW, installed 2019). Both projects provide discounted electricity to low-income housing operated by Columbus House in partnership with the Yale School of Architecture's Jim Vlock First Year Building Project. The business model enables crowd-investors to participate in green private equity investments for non-accredited investors through Regulation CF crowdfunding offerings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Button Street Project A 9.24 kW rooftop solar PV array installed and operated by NHCS on Button Street in New Haven, CT, supplying discounted electricity for two affordable housing units operated by Columbus House. The project is financed through an SPV and delivers bill savings to residents in a state where residential utility prices are double the national average.
• Plymouth Street Project An 11.24 kW rooftop solar PV array installed and operated by NHCS on a Plymouth Street triplex in New Haven, CT, providing discounted electricity for three housing units serving recently homeless residents. The project was crowdfunded through a Regulation CF offering on Mainvest and is integrated with the Yale School of Architecture's Jim Vlock First Year Building Project.

Quantifiable outcome

• Residential utility prices in Connecticut are double the national average, making solar bill savings particularly impactful for low-income residents.

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Yale School of ArchitecturecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Yale School of Architecture runs the annual Jim Vlock First Year Building Project (mandatory for all first-year grad students since 1967), which designs and builds houses for low-income neighborhoods in New Haven. NHCS has partnered with the project for two consecutive years to finance and install rooftop solar arrays on the built houses, integrating renewable energy into the architecture curriculum and enabling the completed buildings to receive discounted electricity.
• Columbus HousecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerColumbus House is a New Haven nonprofit serving people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. NHCS installs rooftop solar on Columbus House-owned properties, providing the nonprofit and its residents with low-cost renewable electricity. Both the Button Street (2018) and Plymouth Street (2019) projects serve Columbus House's mission of shelter, housing, and fostering personal independence.
• Jim Vlock First Year Building ProjectcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe annual building project is a partnership between Yale School of Architecture and Columbus House, established in 1967. NHCS serves as the special purpose vehicle financing solar on the houses designed and built by Yale students each year, creating an ongoing pipeline of solar project opportunities aligned with the program's social mission.
• MainvestcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMainvest is the primary crowdfunding platform used by NHCS to list its Reg CF investment offerings to non-accredited individual investors. Investors access NHCS offerings through the Mainvest portal, where they can review deal details and invest online. Mainvest provides the regulatory and investor interface infrastructure.
• StartEngineminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorStartEngine is an additional crowdfunding platform where NHCS has listed investment offerings, expanding access to non-accredited investors beyond the Mainvest platform.
• Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at YaleminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNHCS advisor Onyeka Obiocha is the Associate Director of the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking (Tsai CITY) at Yale, which is charged with building a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. The connection provides NHCS with access to Yale innovation resources and community connections.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Sunrun: Sunrun is a large national residential rooftop solar installer with lease/PPAs and an affordable solar program — a broad incumbent that overlaps with NHCS's rooftop solar + residential bill-savings model, though at vastly different scale.

Direct peers

• PosiGen: PosiGen is a residential solar and energy efficiency company focused on low- and moderate-income homeowners, combining rooftop solar with financing — directly comparable to NHCS's mission of bringing solar bill savings to underserved households.
• Dimension Energy: Dimension Energy develops community solar projects in multiple U.S. states with a focus on LMI subscribers, providing a comparable community solar project finance and development model at larger scale.
• GRID Alternatives: GRID Alternatives is a nonprofit that installs solar on affordable housing and community buildings for low-income communities, sharing NHCS's nonprofit/affordable-housing customer segment and social-equity thesis.
• Ampion: Ampion aggregates subscribers for community solar projects across multiple states with a strong LMI focus, similar to NHCS's approach of using community solar to deliver bill savings to underserved customers.
• RE-volv: RE-volv is a nonprofit that crowdfunds solar installations for community-serving nonprofits through a 'Solar Ambassador' model — directly comparable in combining crowdfunding finance with solar for nonprofit hosts.
• Arcadia: Arcadia operates a community solar subscription platform and clean energy data infrastructure, comparable to NHCS's community solar development and subscription-style model serving residential customers.
• Solstice: Solstice is a community solar marketplace that connects customers, particularly LMI households, to local community solar projects — comparable as a community solar developer focused on expanding access to underserved customers.

Others

• Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA): CESA is a coalition of state clean energy funds that convenes stakeholders on community solar and LMI solar policy — adjacent ecosystem participant that shapes the regulatory environment NHCS depends on in Connecticut.

Emerging players

• Collective Energy: Collective Energy is an emerging community solar platform focused on bringing clean energy access to renters and LMI households, sharing NHCS's mission of expanding community solar to underserved residential customers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/haven_solar
• Facebookfacebook.com/newhavencommunitysolar

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about New Haven Community Solar