On crisp fall evenings the bleachers at Proctor Academy in Andover, NH, are filled with students and parents watching their team play. What’s different? The Proctor Hornets play under stadium lights powered by the sun.

Not far away, Nashua’s Westwood Park YMCA is turning energy savings from a 440-kilowatt rooftop array into more programs for members. And solar panels at the Hollis Montessori School churn out 70,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, keeping more than 627,000 pounds of carbon pollution out of the air.

These organizations are among the 30 schools, municipalities, community centers, churches, and other local organizations across New England that benefit from photovoltaic (PV) arrays financed by Blue Haven Solar, a solar financing entity managed by the family office.

Our Megan McCarthy caught up with Blue Haven Managing Director Kelly Escobedo and Blue Haven alum Beverly Hellner, who launched this work and continue to oversee these solar projects.

Megan: Blue Haven Solar is a great example of how family offices can make a real impact in their communities. We’ve rarely discussed this work. Can you explain how it began and why?

Beverly: In 2018, our team was introduced to ReVision Energy, an employee-owned B-Corp based in South Portland, Maine. The team had strong institutional knowledge and got us excited about helping community organizations transition to solar power in the U.S. We began working together with a shared mission to finance upfront costs of community solar installation, cut energy costs, reduce emissions, and support community resilience.

Megan: This work has ingredients of a typical Blue Haven project. It uses patient and flexible capital to unlock projects that traditional players, like banks, often overlook. We also rely on partners with specialized expertise, as well as our internal team’s operational capabilities.

Many of our peers know that Blue Haven supports clean energy access around the world, particularly in developing markets. Why focus now on solar in New England?

Kelly: Supporting local projects means a lot to us. And when you dig into the cost data, New England is one of the most expensive energy markets in the U.S., with prices that keep rising. While solar panel costs have fallen and policies in several states are favorable, many nonprofits and local groups still can’t cover the upfront costs of installation, which can run anywhere from $200,000 to $1.5 million before incentives. Meanwhile, traditional solar investors and banks won’t touch these small projects. At Blue Haven, we saw a unique opportunity to bridge this gap and cover upfront overhead so these organizations can start saving from day one.

Megan: This sounds like the “too risky for others” projects Blue Haven likes to take on. For those who are new to community solar, can you explain some of the details?

Beverly: We use solar power purchase agreements, or PPAs, a financial arrangement that calls out the who, what, and where of the contract. It allows Blue Haven Solar to own, operate, and pay to maintain a PV system. The local organization, or “off-taker,” like the YMCA, lets us install PV arrays on their property, pays little or nothing upfront, and then the agreement allows them to buy the electricity from Blue Haven Solar for a period of years at a reduced, negotiated rate.

There are positive benefits for all stakeholders: Blue Haven Solar generates income from energy sales, which we put into other impact investments, and the solar tax credits received help offset the cost of installations. When the contract ends, local organizations can buy the system at a discount and benefit from free solar power for decades. These savings can then be recycled back into the community.

Megan: That synergy is great and fills a void in the market. At Blue Haven, we rely on strong partnerships when taking on projects like this. Can you share about working with ReVision and others?

Beverly: The partnership with ReVision has been invaluable. Members of its team often live in these communities and belong to the organizations we’re partnering with, so they care about doing good work. ReVision identifies projects, installing and maintaining the systems, while Blue Haven handles financing, invoicing, and asset management.

The off-takers are partners too. We enjoy building relationships with these local groups and offering flexible payment plans when needed, as we did during the pandemic. And the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund often provides debt alongside our equity investment.

Megan: What’s your biggest takeaway so far?

Kelly: Replicability is important. Early on, we realized how complex the legal and permitting side of these projects can be, especially for nonprofits with small teams and for our small family office. So we invested the time to develop templates and legal infrastructure to streamline the process and create efficiencies that make this model easier to scale.

Megan: Tell us a little about the impact of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act?

Beverly: Our credits fall under the 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit, which, under the new policy, will have stricter requirements for eligibility and new underlying risks to think through. One example is deciding who takes on tariff risk—the developer, investor, or off-taker? This will lead to more questions when negotiating PPAs and setting unknown pricing. We only have until next summer to get certain projects across the finish line. After that, it could become more challenging. Long term, we’re excited about the promise of battery-storage technologies as a possible extension of this work.

States with strong climate goals will likely rely on communities to make real progress, and we think this model can help.

Megan: If there are other family offices curious about setting up similar projects, reach out! We’re nearly maxed out on the projects Blue Haven can support, but we’re eager to share our knowledge and templates with others.

Projects like these can also provide a great opportunity to educate the next generation of family members about clean energy. Any final words of advice for investors interested in getting involved in their communities?

Beverly: Community solar energy projects are a great example of how financial returns and public benefit can go hand in hand. We like projects with “knock-on effects” that yield positive outcomes for future generations. When schools or community centers go with solar, they don’t just save money, they become visible examples of climate action. That’s a chef’s kiss to us.

Kelly: It’s an efficient way to leverage the tax code for good. We use our tax liability to fund projects, then reinvest the returns into more impact-focused work. As Liesel and Ian often say: Real change happens one community at a time.

INVESTMENT SPOTLIGHT

Like most LPs these days, our team often hears about taking a “poly-capital” approach to impact investing—the idea that capital comes in more forms than just dollars. For us, that means harnessing many tools, including policy engagement, constructive feedback, convenings, idea sharing, and the reach of our network.

When we do this over the long term, something magical happens: The impact deepens, partnerships grow stronger, and rewards flow both ways. We’ve seen it firsthand partnering with Prime Coalition for over a decade.

Sarah Kearney founded Prime in 2014 to help philanthropists deploy catalytic capital to close funding gaps for climate innovators, starting with the “early-stage valley of death” many startups confront. Since its founding, the team has deployed $69 million of catalytic capital, mobilized $320 million into Prime-built catalytic investment programs, and unlocked more than $1.4 billion in external funding. Across its programs, Prime has supported more than 40 climate companies.

Our firm’s partnership and friendship with Sarah runs deep. Blue Haven’s financial support for Prime has included:

• Operating grants, recoverable grants, and direct equity investments into companies before Prime established its first fund

• Investment into three Prime-built catalytic funds (Prime Impact Fund I, Azolla Fund I, and Trellis Climate)

• Supporting research that resulted in the Barriers to the Timely Deployment of Climate Infrastructure report and the creation of Trellis Climate to fund first-of-a-kind infrastructure projects

Perhaps more importantly, we’ve also enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the team. Early on, Prime shared our office space in Cambridge, MA, allowing us to brainstorm as our work and teams expanded. Since then, we’ve exchanged learnings on governance, hiring, entity structuring, fundraising, and policy.

This close relationship has helped our networks grow alongside each other too. Through Prime’s field-building events, we reconnected with Rhia Ventures, which led to Blue Haven providing a design grant for a catalytic capital fund focused on women’s reproductive and maternal health. And at a Blue Haven-hosted dinner, the Prime team gained a connection at The Environmental League of Massachusetts and its action fund, resulting in a collaboration on energy legislation.

“I remember the day Liesel encouraged me to ask for both the financial resources and nonfinancial support Prime required to advance our shared mission. She said it would make her job easier and clearer if I brought two ranked lists to our meetings, one with the organization’s money needs and another with our non-money needs.

It’s a lesson I’ve carried into relationships with philanthropists of all kinds: the best aren’t just financially productive but also fun, sincere, and built on trust.” – Sarah Kearney