{"id":6388,"date":"2014-03-06T23:02:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T23:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=6388"},"modified":"2014-03-06T23:04:50","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T23:04:50","slug":"funding-the-future-with-a-california-green-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/03\/06\/funding-the-future-with-a-california-green-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Funding the Future with a California Green Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rp_Brad_Copithorne-199x300.jpg\"<\/a>Two weeks ago, State Senator Kevin de Le\u00f3n\u00a0introduced a bill<\/a>\u00a0to establish the first \u201cGreen Bank\u201d in California, a bold proposal that would unleash low-cost financing opportunities for clean energy projects throughout the Golden State.<\/p>\n

I recently had the opportunity to testify at a hearing on the bill to discuss the best practices for green banks across the country and how the program would work in California.<\/p>\n

First, a bit more on Green Banks:<\/p>\n

At its core, the program is a clean energy finance bank set up by the state, designed to enable increased investment in clean energy projects and companies by working closely with the private sector to remove financial or structural barriers.\u00a0\u00a0 The goal is simple: increase the amount of clean energy at a low-cost and encourage private investment by reducing the overall risk of clean energy projects.<\/p>\n

While the concept is new to California, Green Banks have already taken root in other states.\u00a0Connecticut established the first program<\/a>\u00a0in 2012,\u00a0New York\u2019s version<\/a>\u00a0launched a few weeks ago, and Hawaii is expected to come online this summer.<\/p>\n

All three Green Banks plan to use limited amounts of public capital to induce substantial private investment.\u00a0 In many cases, the public capital is expected to be quickly recycled as the investments are securitized or otherwise sold to private investors.<\/p>\n

Each of the programs has hired a team with broad experience in both the public and private sectors.\u00a0 The banks each maintain strong public oversight but also have the ability to contract quickly and efficiently with private investors.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Dan Adler<\/a>, Managing Director of CalCEF and President of CalCEF Ventures testified, a Green bank should use the market discipline of requiring private investment alongside any public dollars in order to insure market discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the hearing,\u00a0Bryan Garcia<\/a>, President and CEO of Connecticut\u2019s green bank, described two transactions they used to increase investment in solar for homeowners and energy efficiency for businesses.\u00a0 The first was a solar investment fund that used a small amount of public capital to attract funding from local banks and other investors.\u00a0 In exchange, the private investors agreed to work closely with local installers to fund projects for Connecticut homeowners that might not otherwise qualify for funding.<\/p>\n

The second transaction was a set of loans to commercial properties for energy efficiency retrofits.\u00a0 The loans were secured with property tax assessments in a structure known as Property Assessed Clean Energy, or\u00a0PACE<\/a>, and are in the process of being sold to a private investor which will allow the bank to quickly recycle their capital.<\/p>\n

Twelve stakeholders in all \u2013 from the public and private sectors \u2013 testified how a California Green Bank could meaningfully increase private clean energy investment in the state.\u00a0 We look forward to working with Senators de Le\u00f3n and Jim Beall to develop a successful Green Bank for California \u2013 and one that will be the envy of other states.<\/p>\n

This commentary originally appeared on our California Dream 2.0 blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, State Senator Kevin de Le\u00f3n\u00a0introduced a bill\u00a0to establish the first \u201cGreen Bank\u201d in California, a bold proposal that would unleash low-cost financing opportunities for clean energy projects throughout the Golden State. I recently had the opportunity to testify at a hearing on the bill to discuss the best practices for green banks …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6407,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,42996,254,53091,177],"tags":[53106],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california","category-smart-power","category-energy-efficiency","category-energy-financing","category-renewable-energy","tag-green-banks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFunding the Future with a California Green Bank - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/03\/06\/funding-the-future-with-a-california-green-bank\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Funding the Future with a California Green Bank - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two weeks ago, State Senator Kevin de Le\u00f3n\u00a0introduced a bill\u00a0to establish the first \u201cGreen Bank\u201d in California, a bold proposal that would unleash low-cost financing opportunities for clean energy projects throughout the Golden State. 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