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Since the inception of its SMART Energy Loan last July, the National Housing Trust, NHT, has issued 275 loans to NHT contributors as financing for the procurement of renewable energy products.
Those loans were issued in a span of six months, from July to December 2024, the housing agency said
The largest block of loans, 98, went to contributors in St Catherine while Kingston and St Andrew accounted for 80. At the low end of the spectrum, parishes such as Hanover, Portland, and Manchester have only done around one to two approved projects, according to information provided by the housing agency.
Under the SMART Energy facility, homeowners can access up to $1.5 million to install energy-saving technology such as solar panels, batteries, solar water heaters, solar insulation, and other renewable energy solutions like windmills, hydropower, and biomass systems. Additionally, the loan can be used to set up rainwater harvesting and storage systems, including tanks and pumps.
Contributors can borrow at a standard interest rate of five per cent with a repayment period of up to 10 years or until the homeowner reaches the age of 70, whichever comes first. The NHT says the initiative supports climate-change resilience through advanced energy-saving technologies.
Suppliers say they are seeing a surge in business. Energy outfit Innovative Energy says the growth has caught their attention, causing the company to add residential installation as a line of business rather than rely solely on the revenue from commercial or utility-scale installations.
“We are playing in both spaces. Suffice to say some of the equipment we have is not ideal for all residential installations, but there’s big potential. We’re definitely looking at the residential along with the commercial and industrial,” said Innovative Energy Group CEO Nigel Davy.
Energy products distributor FosRich Company says the NHT loan scheme has helped to spark business.
“We’re selling a lot of residential systems, especially right now with NHT’s $1.5 million programme,” said FosRich CEO Cecil Foster.
“We have an inundation of requests, and that’s where we are focusing our attention,” he said.
Prior to the SMART loan, NHT mortgagors looking to purchase solar-energy systems financed them through the trust’s home improvement loan facility.
Now, mortgagors can pool the home-improvement loan of $3.5 million with the $1.5-million SMART Energy loan to acquire the systems. Two qualified contributors can co-apply, the NHT said.
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