Legal Documents and Information
The cost of legal advice and agreements can be one of the biggest barriers to getting a project up and running. The legal templates, developed by Corrs Chambers Westgarth Lawyers and Kingfisher Law for the Community Solar Toolkit, are freely available to community solar organisations to help get community solar projects off the ground.
There are two types of documents available: investment project information documents and host site agreement templates.
You’ll need to create an account and be logged in to access the documents.
Investment project information documents
The purpose of these documents is to provide information about a community solar project to potential investors. These documents have been prepared for community solar organisations structured as co-operatives or special purpose vehicles.
The investment project information documents have been prepared by Kingfisher Law.
Available documents
- Disclosure statement: The disclosure statement provides information about a community solar organisation structured as a co-operative. The purpose of the disclosure statement is to enable a potential member to understand the financial requirements and liability of membership as well as members’ rights and responsibilities, prior to becoming a member.
- Share offer document: The share offer document explains the specifics of a proposed project to members of the co-operative.
- Offer memorandum: The offer memorandum provides documentation of the share offer for community solar organisations structured as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
You will need to create an account and be logged in to access the legal documents. Once you are logged in, click the button at the bottom of the page to open the page with links to downloadable documents.
How to use the co-op documents
Host site agreement templates
The purpose of these templates is for a community solar organisation to establish an agreement with the host site for a community solar project. The agreements cover the rights and responsibilities of each party in regards to ownership and maintenance of the equipment, financing details and repayments, and what happens with the equipment at the conclusion of the project. These documents have been prepared by Corrs Chambers Westgarth and are intended for community solar organisations regardless of their organisational structure.
Choosing a model to fit your project
The agreements have been developed to align with four project models:
- Solar Equipment Lease
- Power Purchase Agreement (Customer is a tenant of the site)
- Power Purchase Agreement (Customer owns the site)
- Finance (Customer owns or is a tenant of the site)
Use this flowchart to determine which model best fits your project.
Learn more about the project models and legal templates
How to use the host site agreement templates
The documents have been prepared as customisable templates for the use of community solar organisations. Each agreement template includes guidance notes that specify how to customise the documents using included optional clauses.
While in many cases these documents will be ready to use without further legal advice, groups using the templates are encouraged to seek legal advice if their projects differ from the project models, or if they choose to at their own discretion.
Legal agreement templates available
- Model 1: Solar Equipment Lease (Customer owns or is a tenant of the site)
- Model 2: Power Purchase Agreement (Customer is a tenant of the site)
- Model 2: Supporting Lease for Power Purchase Agreement (Customer is a tenant of the site)
- Model 3: Power Purchase Agreement (Customer owns the site)
- Model 4: Finance – Loan agreement type 1 – zero interest, unsecured, committed (Customer owns or is a tenant of the site)
- Model 4: Finance – Loan agreement type 2 – interest-bearing, unsecured, committed (Customer owns or is a tenant of the site)
- Model 4: Finance – Loan agreement type 3 – interest-bearing, secured, committed (Customer owns or is a tenant of the site)
The legal agreement templates have been prepared by Corrs Chambers Westgarth.
You will need to create an account and be logged in to access the legal documents. Once you are logged in, click the button below to open this page with links to downloadable documents.
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