The use of solar panels for military housing across the United States has received a big boost after the announcement of US Renewables Group (USRG) to provide $344 million financing for the project led by SolarCity.

In a statement, USRG said its debt financing affiliate, USRG Renewable Finance, will serve as lender for Project SolarStrong, a multi-year project valued at more than $1 billion under which SolarCity will install, own, and operate rooftop solar systems on up to 160,000 privatized military residences on as many as 124 military bases across 33 states.

The project would double the current number of residential rooftop solar systems in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Energy has offered a conditional commitment for a partial loan guarantee to USRG Renewable Finance for the project, based on an application submitted to the DOE's Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP).

Through that program, the DOE guarantees up to 80 percent of a loan provided to a qualifying renewable energy project. USRG Renewable Finance will provide the financing in partnership with BofA Merrill Lynch.

"This will be the first time that long term debt has been successfully deployed to finance a residential distributed generation project at such a large scale, resulting in a lowered cost of capital for the project that will enable an unprecedented expansion of U.S. residential solar power," said Ed Feo, Managing Partner of US Renewable Finance.

"We are extremely pleased to be partnering with BofA Merrill Lynch on this groundbreaking transaction," Feo said.

Financed entirely by private capital, the project plan calls for a installing a total of 371 MW of solar PV systems on military housing.

At each military base, SolarCity will seek to hire and train veterans and/or family members of active duty military service members to install and maintain the solar systems.

"Through Project SolarStrong, we're financing the largest deployment of residential rooftop solar panels in U.S. history while building secure domestic renewable energy sources for our country's military bases," said Tim Newell, Managing Director of USRG Renewable Finance.

"We are particularly proud that this project will provide a much-need investment in military communities hard hit by the economy and troop deployments – while providing jobs to veterans and military family members," added Newell.

"This wouldn't have been possible without the leadership and support of the U.S. Department of Energy through its Loan Guarantee Program," he said.

SolarCity said in a separate statement that the SolarStrong projects will likely include installing solar on other privatized buildings on military bases, such as community centers, administrative offices, maintenance buildings and storage warehouses.

“We’re extremely grateful to the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, in addition to our partners, U.S. Renewables Group and BofA Merrill Lynch. Without this group, we would not have been able to make the economics of this project work,” said Lyndon Rive, SolarCity’s CEO.

“Now the solar industry has a debt model that can make distributed generation affordable on a massive scale,” Rive said.

USRG is one of the largest U.S. private equity firms focused exclusively on the renewable energy industry. Founded in 2003, USRG invests in the renewable power, biofuels, and renewable infrastructure sectors.

SolarCity, on the other hand, is a leader in solar power design, financing, installation, monitoring and energy efficiency services in the U.S.