Recently, Entergy New Orleans has been fielding a lot more applications for solar than it used to. And it looks like that number’s going to continue to increase, at least if Green Grants has anything to do about it. The company is helping low- and mid-income residents go solar, by taking care of the complex incentive applications and matching homeowners with financing options.

New applications for solar installations are booming.

Already, Entergy has received more than 500 applications in 2012, according to WSDU New Orleans. The station reported that the number of applications is significantly higher than the 300 consumers that were using solar in its service area at the end of 2011.

And Green Grants is trying to keep the utility busy this year.

The company started offering financing with third-party ownership (TPO) late last year.

“That was more figuring out the process, getting the transaction right and getting the right vendors to work with us,” said co-founder Tom Neyhart.

Already they’ve helped about 300 homeowners go solar. This year they plan to help 3,000 homeowners go solar in the region. The company has secured its project financing from a number of sources both national and local.

Neyhart and co-founder Aaron Dirks realized that low- and moderate-income homeowners weren’t able to pay the full costs of a system up front.

“Post-Katrina there are a lot of programs available through state that customers are eligible for,” Neyhart said. But the application for incentives was difficult since they required state, federal and local applications.

“The working class doesn’t have the time to negotiate the process,” Neyhart said.

They also lack the upfront money required to install a system while they wait to recoup the incentives.

The company buys the solar system, contracts with local installers, finances the credits for the customers and leases them the system for less than what they’d pay for electricity, much like companies like SunRun and Sungevity.

“What we found is we went to the customers with the package that financed those for them. Then it made sense to them financially and environmentally. We thought the biggest attraction would be the savings over time. But homeowners had a desire to have an impact on the environment,” he said.

The company was able to get its products underway thanks to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) administration, according to Dirks.

The state is offering a 50 percent rebate for qualified costs of solar systems, a big improvement from the earlier program.

“Previously structures were too complicated to overcome and benefitted those that could wait until next year,” he said. The administration made it easier to get those benefits.