Clean Energy Financing Advisory Council:

Kick-off Event

Free Webinar and Live Event
4760 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA 92117

Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Webinar: 8.30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (PST)
Live Event: 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. (PST)
Complimentary hot breakfast starting at 7:30 a.m.

The Clean Energy Financing Advisory Council is an impartial forum focused on enhancing awareness, education and innovation of energy project financing throughout California to help stimulate the clean energy marketplace.

This first in a series of traveling events will explore current and future financing models that enable residential and commercial property decision-makers to successfully upgrade their buildings and infrastructure with energy improvement projects. Throughout 2016-2017, the council will explore a variety of topics and themes that connect financial institutions with industry and government stakeholders to explore how financing can remove many of the barriers holding back consumer participation in energy improvement projects in California.

These events are for local government officials, financial experts, energy improvement contractors, real estate professionals and others interested in collaborating across sectors.

Megan Campbell, Project Director, Opinion Dynamics, will give an overview of the supply and demand for energy efficiency financing products including the lending volume to date, characteristics of each product, contractor’s support and perspective on financing, and the customer demand for energy-related upgrades and financing. She manages the statewide impact evaluation of California’s first ratepayer-funded energy efficiency financing programs and recently completed a baseline market characterization of the California residential energy efficiency financing market.
David M. Cohen, Manager of Programs and Partnerships, Energy Upgrade California®, will cover the tools and resources recently launched on the Go Green Financing website, along with an introduction to the “State of Saving” campaign, which will launch in February. He is currently managing the implementation of statewide financial initiatives designed to increase the uptake of financing for energy efficiency and demand response projects in the single-family residential, multifamily, small business and medium-to-large nonresidential sectors.

For more information, email ryan.carney@energycenter.org or call (858) 429-5136.

Well, sometimes you schedule a blog post for 6:00 a.m. and then you spend all morning wondering why there is no post. Then you realize in the haze of birthday cake that you scheduled for the wrong day. Darn!

Here is Dee's first Money Monday post on Green Banks that you were supposed to get this morning. Sorry! -Courtney

I’ve heard of a Piggy bank and I’ve heard of breaking the bank, but have you ever heard of the concept of a Green Bank? Well, according to the Clean Energy Finance Center, the development of state-level “greenbanks” are one of the most promising emerging ideas in clean energy financing.

Apparently, this quasi-governmental organization brings together public and private sector capital to finance energy efficiency, small-scale renewable energy, and other clean energy projects. Federal loans and loan guarantees are critical for all three clean energy sources (wind, solar and nuclear projects). Building efficiency improvements unlikely to accelerate without federal financing support is fueling a unique financing mechanism.

A principal aim of the green bank would be purchasing old coal plants from utilities and generators, and then scrapping them. The coalition estimates that 100,000 megawatts of coal plants could be retired in this way, opening room for investments in new clean energy generation.

Limited public sector capital is the main advantage of a green bank which uses public capital to leverage private sector investment. In June 2011 Connecticut passed a landmark energy bill that included the establishment of the first green bank in the country called Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority (CEFIA). The CEFIA will be able to borrow money and aggregate new and existing capital sources, and will have the flexibility to fund many clean energy project types, including electric and natural gas vehicle infrastructure, electricity storage, renewable energy, and energy efficiency.

Aimed at providing low-cost financing for clean energy and efficiency projects the new entity offers Washington and other states a workable model for promoting investment in clean energy at a time of growing concern about the serious finance problems surrounding clean energy deployment.

CEFIA framework demonstrates how a green bank can combine several existing sources of funding without impacting the state budget. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is helping to finance the development of CEFIA financing programs. If done right, CEFIA will serve as a model for green banks that can be applied to other states.

For more information see:

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/05/10/10climatewire-when-clean-energy-grants-run-out-will-a-gree-85696.html?pagewanted=all

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/06/09/240624/connecticut-passes-america%E2%80%99s-first-full-%E2%80%98green-bank%E2%80%99-proving-clean-energy-is-a-bipartisan-issue/?mobile=nc

Clean Energy Financing Advisory Council: Kick-Off Event

Money Monday: Green Banks