{"id":7124,"date":"2014-05-13T13:59:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T18:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=7124"},"modified":"2014-05-13T14:00:34","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T19:00:34","slug":"the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Source:<\/a>
Source: 401kcalculator.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While no two \u201cgreen banks\u201d are exactly the same, the idea behind these government-created financial institutions is to dramatically expand the clean energy market. Rather than providing grants to stimulate clean energy investment, green banks use attractive interest rates and other incentives to leverage money from the private sector.<\/p>\n

In addition to offering attractive interest rates, loan-loss reserves, and other market supports, these innovative banks draw on deep expertise from the public and private sectors to help demonstrate the profitability of clean energy investments.<\/p>\n

By the end of the year, green banks should be up and running in Connecticut, New York, and Hawaii. We hope that California will follow soon. These states form a vanguard that has recognized the value of using a small amount of public capital to generate significant private investment in clean energy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s working in Connecticut<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2012, Connecticut created the first green bank, known as\u00a0CEFIA<\/a>, \u00a0in the United States. It did so by combining several state agencies, increasing their responsibility and funding, and leveraging a small amount of public funds to generate lots of private-sector investment. According to\u00a0CEFIA\u2019s 2013 annual report<\/a>, for every one dollar of ratepayer funds CEFIA invested, roughly $10 was invested by private sources.<\/p>\n

Connecticut\u2019s\u00a0Property Assessed Clean Energy<\/a>\u00a0program accounts for much of this investment. It lets commercial customers finance clean energy upgrades to their buildings through their property tax bill with no money down.\u00a0 Additionally, CEFIA has been able to create an innovative financing solution that is expected to dramatically expand the market for solar projects on commercial properties.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s bank focuses on business<\/strong><\/p>\n

New York\u2019s Green Bank came online late last year, but instead of operating specific programs, New York wants businesses to come to them with\u00a0clean energy investments<\/a>. The Green Bank will provide financing support for projects that meet the state\u2019s clean energy goals but can\u2019t be completed with private investment alone. This ensures that the Green Bank will expand the clean energy market by boosting private sector investment.<\/p>\n

A social justice angle in Hawaii<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hawaii has announced plans to set up a $150-million green bank called GEMS, expected to launch later this year. Hawaii has the highest electricity prices in the country as the marginal source of generation is diesel fuel.\u00a0 Homeowners with good credit can finance solar projects that significantly reduce their power costs. The Hawaii GEMS program has a social justice bent and will focus on making solar power accessible to renters and homeowners with low credit scores.<\/p>\n

Working with the legislature in California<\/strong><\/p>\n

California recently introduced a\u00a0Senate bill<\/a>\u00a0that lays the groundwork for a green bank in early 2015. While there are already many government-sponsored financing programs in the state, the newly proposed green bank would help all of these programs invest more by attracting private capital. In addition, the proposed California Green Bank will have its own money to invest in ways similar to the New York Green Bank.<\/p>\n

A different take from New Jersey<\/strong><\/p>\n

And let\u2019s not forget New Jersey, where, earlier this year, Governor Chris Christie announced plans to launch an\u00a0Energy Resilience Bank<\/a>. Though technically not a green bank, the Energy Resilience Bank has proposed using federal Superstorm Sandy funds to finance the resiliency component of infrastructure projects that strengthen the state\u2019s electricity grid during extreme weather events.<\/p>\n

With four green banks jumpstarting regional clean energy investments, and an Energy Resilience Bank planned in New Jersey, it\u2019s only a matter of time before other states join them in creating these successful public-private partnerships that create new jobs while improving the environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While no two \u201cgreen banks\u201d are exactly the same, the idea behind these government-created financial institutions is to dramatically expand the clean energy market. Rather than providing grants to stimulate clean energy investment, green banks use attractive interest rates and other incentives to leverage money from the private sector. In addition to offering attractive interest …<\/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":[42996,53091,177],"tags":[53047],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-smart-power","category-energy-financing","category-renewable-energy","tag-green-bank"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments - 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\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While no two \u201cgreen banks\u201d are exactly the same, the idea behind these government-created financial institutions is to dramatically expand the clean energy market. Rather than providing grants to stimulate clean energy investment, green banks use attractive interest rates and other incentives to leverage money from the private sector. In addition to offering attractive interest ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-13T18:59:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-13T19:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2014\/05\/money_1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Copithorne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brad Copithorne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brad Copithorne\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b54b55529547d9cf8664944294453b3b\"},\"headline\":\"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-13T18:59:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-13T19:00:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":624,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/38\\\/files\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/money_1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Green Bank\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Clean Energy\",\"Energy Financing\",\"Renewable Energy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments - Energy Exchange\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/38\\\/files\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/money_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-13T18:59:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-13T19:00:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b54b55529547d9cf8664944294453b3b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/38\\\/files\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/money_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/38\\\/files\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/money_1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/13\\\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/\",\"name\":\"Energy Exchange\",\"description\":\"Accelerating the clean energy revolution\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b54b55529547d9cf8664944294453b3b\",\"name\":\"Brad Copithorne\",\"description\":\"Financial Policy Director\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.edf.org\\\/people\\\/brad-copithorne\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/author\\\/bcopithorne\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments - Energy Exchange","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments - Energy Exchange","og_description":"While no two \u201cgreen banks\u201d are exactly the same, the idea behind these government-created financial institutions is to dramatically expand the clean energy market. Rather than providing grants to stimulate clean energy investment, green banks use attractive interest rates and other incentives to leverage money from the private sector. In addition to offering attractive interest ...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/","og_site_name":"Energy Exchange","article_published_time":"2014-05-13T18:59:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-13T19:00:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2014\/05\/money_1.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Brad Copithorne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brad Copithorne","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/"},"author":{"name":"Brad Copithorne","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/#\/schema\/person\/b54b55529547d9cf8664944294453b3b"},"headline":"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments","datePublished":"2014-05-13T18:59:20+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-13T19:00:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/"},"wordCount":624,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2014\/05\/money_1.jpg","keywords":["Green Bank"],"articleSection":["Clean Energy","Energy Financing","Renewable Energy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/","name":"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments - Energy Exchange","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2014\/05\/money_1.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-13T18:59:20+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-13T19:00:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/#\/schema\/person\/b54b55529547d9cf8664944294453b3b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2014\/05\/money_1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2014\/05\/money_1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2014\/05\/13\/the-spread-of-green-banking-paves-the-way-for-clean-energy-investments\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Spread of Green Banking Paves the Way for Clean Energy Investments"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/","name":"Energy Exchange","description":"Accelerating the clean energy revolution","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/#\/schema\/person\/b54b55529547d9cf8664944294453b3b","name":"Brad Copithorne","description":"Financial Policy Director","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.edf.org\/people\/brad-copithorne"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/author\/bcopithorne\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7124"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}