Simon Phelan’s Hometree signs €297m debt financing deal with Barclays

The move, Mr Phelan said, is the UK’s first ever residential renewable securitisation using low-cost bonds to fund the growth of residential solar, batteries and heat pumps.

Hometree lets household customers pay over the lifetime of the energy systems. The company says it hopes that financing for sustainable home energy systems will follow the path of low-cost car finance for new motor vehicles.

Mr Phelan, a Dubliner who founded the company in 2016, is a former private equity executive with listed venture capital firm Better Capital.

Earlier this year, Hometree announced it received backing from financial giant Blackrock to acquire the UK-based renewable energy installation companies Geowarmth and The Little Green Energy Company.

“Many homeowners naturally want to invest in renewable technologies but are put off by the extraordinarily high upfront costs,” said Mr Phelan.

“That’s why we’re focused on removing barriers to help more households take control of their energy bills and carbon emissions. We’re delighted to be working with Barclays to help us develop and scale flexible finance solutions with all-inclusive cover built-in, to enable homeowners to make the switch to clean, green energy with confidence.”

He said that such private sector financing bonds could bridge the gap between state-backed schemes, such as the €500m energy efficiency scheme launched by the Irish government and the European Investment Bank in April, and a more advanced state of decarbonisation in the home energy sector.

Last year, Hometree raised $46m (€43m) and acquired the ‘green’ financing platform BeWarm.

The average price to install home solar and battery systems is typically over €10,000, with air source and ground source heat pumps often a multiple of that cost.