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Tag:

PACE

What’s Unique about the Texas PACE-in-a-Box Toolkit

What’s Unique about the Texas PACE-in-a-Box Toolkit

written by Kat Friedrich

Texas faces an unusual scenario when it seeks to advance property-assessed clean energy (PACE). The state has a tradition of seeking private-sector solutions and streamlining government activities. This means PACE methods adopted in other states – such as Connecticut – would not work in Texas.

Also, Texas’s private sector is massive. The state’s businesses – and their environmental footprint – are growing rapidly. In a Nov. 18 webinar called “PACE in Texas 101,” Charlene Heydinger, executive director of Keeping PACE in Texas, said Texas uses 19 percent of the industrial energy consumed in the United States.

“Texas leads the nation in energy consumption, accounting for 12 percent of the nation’s energy use,” Heydinger said. “Water is even more of a challenge.”

“All of this is being exacerbated by tremendous growth in Texas,” Heydinger said. “More than 1,000 people move to Texas every day.”

“PACE can help,” Heydinger said.

PACE, as Texas defines it, includes loans for energy efficiency, renewable energy, distributed generation, and water conservation. It covers commercial, industrial and multifamily properties.

Loans for all of these projects are created via voluntary county or municipal property assessments. These loans are considered high-priority compared to other debts, are passed on to new property owners, and survive defaults and foreclosures.

These terms are very favorable for lenders, since they make repayment quite reliable.

As Texas faces water shortages and grid reliability issues, its need for both clean energy and water efficiency are growing rapidly. Heydinger presented a graph showing the large scope of the current drought. This drought impacts industrial enterprises and other businesses and affects many communities.

Expanding PACE

The convergence of all of these factors has created momentum in Texas’s private sector and government to develop PACE programs that cover both water and energy. More than 100 stakeholders have built a toolkit in a unique response to this challenge. It is aptly titled “PACE-in-a-Box.”

“What is really wonderful about PACE-in-a-Box is that it’s the first program in the United States that has been designed by the stakeholders who are going to use it,” Heydinger said. “We were highly motivated with several goals that reflect the Texas economy and Texas mindset.”

Many potential PACE projects have already been proposed in Austin, Amarillo, and other cities – even though the programs do not exist yet.

When Gov. Rick Perry signed PACE legislation in 2013, the proposal was relatively flexible. It left a great deal of room for local municipalities and counties to interpret how to implement PACE.

But stakeholders recognized that such a high degree of flexibility would doom PACE to failure in smaller and more rural communities. While larger cities such as Austin and Houston might have the resources to customize PACE, smaller communities do not.

The toolkit specifies that small communities can partner with one another regionally to work together to implement PACE. This may result in clusters of communities creating PACE programs collaboratively.

Building a Standardized Solution

Keeping PACE in Texas partnered with a large network of groups to develop a simplified, standardized solution that communities and regions throughout the state can use.

PACE-in-a-Box contains standard documents for all of the major transactions involved in local PACE programs – from public hearings to lender negotiations.

According to Rachel Stone, Policy Coordinator at South-central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resource (SPEER), PACE-in-a-Box provides many resources for program developers. These include model contracts for providers and lenders, open market financing instructions, a model lender notice, a technical manual for ensuring the viability of energy improvements, a model application, and a series of tests of financial ability.

“We’ve tried to do as much as we can to make this easy for local governments to use,” Heydinger said.

PACE-in-a-Box encourages property owners to select their own contractors, lenders, and equipment manufacturers.

Stone said she believes this market demand will stimulate economic growth. “PACE helps in places where the economy has been depressed and people want to make capital improvements.”

The toolkit encourages third-party financing of loans, but municipal bond financing is also an option.

Loans may be serviced by the local PACE program itself, via a county tax assessor or collector, by the lenders, or by third-party servicers.

Stone said PACE-in-a-Box recommends a savings-to-investment ratio of greater than one for each project. It also recommends total investment of less than 20 percent of each property’s assessed value.

“We are only doing deals that make sense in the business community,” Heydinger said.

This article was originally published by Clean Energy Finance Forum, a news website sponsored by Yale University. To subscribe to our newsletter, please visit our website.



January 6, 2015 0 comment
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Alternative Market Solutions Could Ignite Renewable Energy Finance

Alternative Market Solutions Could Ignite Renewable Energy Finance

written by Kat Friedrich

How can alternative financing solutions help expand clean energy through capital markets? Industry experts convened at this year’s Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) East conference in Miami on Sept. 20-23 to discuss these possibilities. Yieldcos, crowdfunding or peer-to-peer (p2p) markets, and property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financing could supplement the role of securitization and may deliver the capital the renewable energy industry demands.

John Joshi, head of capital markets at Plant and advisor to National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said, “We started doing these panels four years ago or more and were looked upon as the hippies. Now we have rock stars – Fortune 500 companies, Fortune 100 companies, and energy companies; it’s an amazing evolution.”

In reference to low-to-moderate-income consumers, Joshi said, “ABS has a chance to do tremendous good.”

Yieldcos

Currently, yieldcos may be a preferable financing alternative to securitization. Panelists noted that yieldcos could eliminate many of securitization’s challenges and attract lower costs of capital.

For example, SolarCity’s first and second securitizations saw yields of 4.8 and 4.6 percent, respectively, while yieldco investors can expect slightly lower dividend yields of 3-5 percent. According to Allan Riska, senior manager at SunEdison, investors find yieldcos appealing because this dividend is expected to grow.

A yieldco is a publicly traded company that is created for the purpose of owning assets that produce cash flow. Some yieldcos specifically focus on renewable energy assets. The income from these assets is generally distributed to the shareholders as dividends.

Yieldcos and securitization are fundamentally different. “Equity markets are more liquid than any fixed income market,” Sullivan said. “You will [have] different volatility, a different investor set, a different tax strategy and a different target market.” Sullivan said both options add value because they bring in capital that wouldn’t otherwise be tapped.

While yieldcos are structured as normal taxpaying corporations, yieldcos that own renewable resources can use the tax benefits associated with clean energy investment to avoid paying corporate-level taxes. These tax benefits, called net operating losses (NOLs), must be used and carried forward to deliver dividends.

Yieldcos do not eliminate all risks. Dividend growth is reliant upon a sufficient pipeline of assets and the associated NOLs. A yieldco partnered with a strong developer that can keep feeding the pipeline will mitigate that risk, said Dan Sullivan, principal at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

“We have a lot of projects from the SunEdison pipeline that are going to go into the yieldco and grow that cash flow,” Riska said.

Interest rate risk is another major concern which is ultimately managed by investors. But these fears may be overstated. Andrew Giudici, senior director of the Structured Finance group at Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA), said interest rates will rise over time but investor demand should keep rates relatively low compared to the broader market.

Riska said SunEdison is currently looking at how the equity from its yieldco, TerraForm Power, interacts with the cost of debt. This will allow SunEdison to optimize its cost of capital. Financing projects with debt at the leverage ratios they had before may not be optimal.

“We might be leaving money on the table. We might have securitization and yieldcos work in the same structure to optimize cost of capital for us,” Riska said. To do this, SunEdison would securitize at the project or fund level before the project goes into a yieldco.

Crowdfunding and P2P

Crowdfunding and p2p networks are also an emerging financing alternative. Clean Power Finance operates an online business-to-business platform that connects institutional investors and lenders with residential solar professionals who need solar finance products to grow their businesses.

Clean Power Finance is interested in any conduit that provides the cheapest cost of capital to pass through to homeowners and installers, said Kristain Hanelt, senior vice president of the company. He said that, for crowdfunding, even major platforms get most of their funding from banks and most are venture-backed. He said he has not seen costs of capital extremely dissimilar from those on Wall Street.

According to Dan McMahon, senior vice president of Hannon Armstrong, the problems with p2p are achieving scale and deploying small increments of capital efficiently. In some respects, he said, Hannon Armstrong and SunEdison are crowdfunding at around $14 to $20 a share because “the whole point of going public was to hit a broader investor base.”

“I just don’t know how you can service and manage such small investments from so many different people,” McMahon said.

PACE

In PACE financing, an assessment is placed on a property to install a clean energy project, which is paid for over a 15- to 20-year period.

Renovate America recently issued over $104 million in PACE-backed bonds, which were rated AA by KBRA. According to Giudici, the HERO transaction by Renovate America had an advance rate of 97 percent.

The advance rate is the maximum percentage of the value of a collateral that a lender is willing to extend for a loan.

KBRA’s credit analysis of the HERO transaction proved it was impossible to break the deal, Giudici said.

KBRA found that, under a default scenario based on historical trends, a default will result in a temporary disruption of cash flows while the property owner is in foreclosure, but ultimately those payments will be made.

Giudici said a tax assessment for $2,000 would not drive a property foreclosure. Even if foreclosures by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac occurred, credit supports like excess spread would absorb those losses. Additionally, many municipal districts do not allow homeowners to make partial payments on their tax roll assessments.

Excess spread is the difference between the interest rate received on the underlying collateral and the coupon rate paid to investors. The excess spread is usually deposited into a reserve account and serves as the first line of protection against losses for security holders.

According to Giudici, PACE is an attractive security structure conducive to ABS.

PACE steps away from many issues that solar securitization currently faces – including operational costs, tax equity, and credit enhancements – and is one of a multitude of options that will be around for a while, Sullivan said.

This article was originally published by Clean Energy Finance Forum, a news website sponsored by Yale University. To subscribe to our newsletter, please visit our website.

The author, Marley Urdanick, is a student in the Master of Environmental Management program at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She writes regularly for the Clean Energy Finance Forum, a news website which is sponsored by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment.



November 10, 2014 0 comment
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Interview: JP McNeill, CEO and Co-Founder of Renovate America

Interview: JP McNeill, CEO and Co-Founder of Renovate America

written by CleanTechies.com Contributor

Making the Energy Efficient Choice Affordable: PACENow’s David Gabrielson Talks with JP McNeill, CEO and Co-Founder of Renovate America.

David Gabrielson: JP, tell us about your background and how you got interested in PACE.

JP McNeill: Being a father and a spouse and wanting to promote sustainability led me into solar energy. I joined SunEdison, a company working on large scale solar PV projects for commercial, municipal and utility customers and worked with home rule municipalities that could write their own legislation to put assessments on properties in their jurisdictions, and subsequently issue bonds to fund large solar PV installations. This was prior to the first two PACE programs being launched in Berkeley and Palm Desert, CA. In 2008, once I learned about the passage of statewide PACE legislation in California, I left SunEdison and started Renovate America with the goal of creating a solution that would catalyze the mass adoption of EE/RE and water conservation measures at the household level. When home owners move forward with a project that saves them money, they realize that being more energy efficient is in their financial interest, and, ultimately, the concept of being green is not only good for the environment, but is also good for their pocket books. This realization changes people’s behavior further, when they consider what other things they can do to live more efficiently or sustainably. Thus, I think PACE can serve as a catalyst to live more sustainably.

DG: You are talking about community based awareness that comes out of individual homeowners making decisions in their best interest, and in turn sharing sustainable practices with their neighbors.

JM: David, one can make an argument that building a nuclear power plant or a PV system in the desert is a positive thing, but it doesn’t change the behavior at the household level. Putting a solar PV system on one’s home and seeing the impact that it has in terms of saving money, ultimately, results in making other decisions that create a more sustainable culture, which is what I want to be a part of.

DG: So you started in Riverside County and builtthe HERO program that has been successful.  What you think is the key to this success?

JM: The HERO program is an energy efficiency financing program and these types of programs, whether they have been implemented by utilities, municipalities or public agencies, have been around for more than sixty years in North America and Europe. Operating any energy efficiency financing program means doing hundreds of things on a daily basis that impact the consumer experience. This covers the gamut from policies, processes, software, workforce training, marketing, etc. It is a culmination of doing many things really well that resulted in the success we have achieved. I’ll give you an example, last month, we handled 30,000 calls from property owners and contractors, received about 3,000 applications, and funded over 1,000 projects. There is a lot of interaction that goes on behind the scenes in order to create a better consumer experience and achieve success.

DG: You also made it simple for contractors, who are the key sales force in the residential market, to sell PACE funded energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades. 

JM: One can create a program with accurate documentation, but in order to achieve high levels of participation, it needs to be viewed as a consumer product. Contractors also need to view PACE as a product that can help them. Each property owner and contractor have certain expectations about how things should operate. Similarly, when we use cell phones or turn on a light in a room, we have certain expectations. So if a program is not aligned with a property owner’s and contractor’s expectations, neither  party will use it. It requires a tremendous amount of work to build a program that meets consumer’s and contractor’s expectations.

DG: How do you market PACE to property owners?

JM: Homeowners want two things: first they want to know what options they have when it comes to home improvements. Secondly, they want to select the best product, the best contractor and the best financing option.  In terms of getting the word out, we do some outreach to homeowners, but it’s difficult and expensive to do a lot of outreach to homeowners. Many homeowners call their bank to see what financing options are available to them.  Contractors also inform homeowners what payment options exist, which also includes credit cards and HERO.   HERO is a much better option than credit cards, because interest rates are lower, payments are fixed, interest is tax deductible and the payments stay with the property.  Thus, we work with contractors to educate them on the benefits of HERO.  From the property owner’s perspective, HERO protects them by ensuring that only contractors who are licensed, bonded and in good standing with the program can participate; only products that meet the U.S. Department of Energy Star minimum efficiency standards are available; permits must be pulled for all projects; the contractor must provide fair pricing; and the project must be completed and homeowner must be completely satisfied before payment is made.  Unfortunately, if a homeowner uses a bank or credit card, none of these consumer protections exist.

DG: Have you put together a training program? If so, how many contractors have you trained?

JM: We have a certification program and a continuous training program for contractors. So far, over 5,000 people who have registered with the program, which includes field reps, technicians, office staff, and marketing staff.  Also, we built partnerships with big box retailers: Lowes and Home Depot. The interaction with the contractor community is never ending.  We have a team of people that work with contractors on a daily basis. Our team makes sure that contractors understand how to answer questions from property owners and when to use the call center.

DG: In the commercial arena, contractor training and certification seem to have brought great results in markets where this is being done. Are you seeing an 80/20 rule in action, 20% of contractors you train bring 80% of the leads?

JM: HERO is a new product so there is an adoption curve associated with it. The 80/20 dynamic is more typical in mature markets. The new product paradigm is different. Each one of us adopts new products within a different time period.  Some of us are early adopters and some of us are laggards. Over time, as the product matures, more people use it and then I think we will see the 80/20 rule.

DG: Tell us more about the approval process for HERO financing. We’ve heard it’s easy and fast?

JM: We are meeting consumer expectations and providing a service at the level they have been accustomed to. If you don’t meet consumer expectation as it relates to a timely response, they look for alternatives. And credit card financing is an option many homeowners use, not because it’s the cheapest financing, but because it meets their expectations.  We are working really hard to offer them a more affordable option.

DG: How many communities in California offer HERO financing? Where do you expect to be in 6 months?

JM:  Today, there are 140 cities and counties that have approved HERO. Five of the top 10 cities, 10 of the top 20, and 49 of the top 100 make HERO financing available to their constituents. Over time, we think every city and county will adopt HERO, and probably other programs as well. The ability to offer multiple options will raise awareness of EE/RE, , improve service and lower the price for homeowners.  Cities will benefit by creating more jobs, a higher economic stimulus and lower emissions.  Plus, they reduce risk, because they shouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket by just offering one program to their residents.  Many cities are doing this including San Diego and San Jose.

DG: Is HERO offered anywhere outside of California?

JM: People underestimate how difficult it is to create a successful program, whether it covers a city or a region. We are focused on creating a great consumer experience within the markets we operate in and overtime we will expand to new markets outside of California.

DG: How many homes took advantage of HERO financing? What types of projects were these?

JM:  Over 11,000 homeowners have utilized HERO to make improvements to their home to lower their energy bill.  Approximately 2/3 of the homeowners financed an energy efficient measure such as insulation, weatherization, efficient furnaces, efficient air-conditioning, efficient roofs and other products that consume less energy.  About 1/3 of the homeowners used HERO to purchase solar PV systems and charging stations.  We are also seeing an increase in homeowners using HERO to finance water efficient measures due to the drought in California.

DG: This is impressive. Are you seeing any trends with mortgage foreclosure rates?

JM: I don’t know if you have ever done a home improvement project, but it’s not what most people want to do on weekends or weekdays.  These people move forward with higher quality projects that use less energy because they want to lower their bills and increase their disposable income.  As a result, it doesn’t surprise me that we are seeing homes that participate with HERO have a lower mortgage foreclosure rate than homes that would otherwise qualify for HERO, but did not participate. This is important because the lending industry would love to lower utility bills and increase disposable income so that homeowners can pay their mortgage.  In fact, the lending industry has long sought to create a financing product that would enable adoption of EE/RE measures for this reason.  If we, as an industry, can demonstrate that a PACE product, with proper underwriting and consumer protection, can lower the mortgage default rates, protect the consumer better than other financing products and have a positive impact on job growth and environment, it will be a compelling value proposition for the mortgage industry. We will continue to monitor our portfolio and share data.

DG: Moving on to your position on home energy audits. Do homeowners take advantage of audits through the HERO program?

JM: We certainly encourage audits, but at the end of the day it is up to the property owner to determine whether they want to take advantage of one. When homeowners are in the market to replace broken or poor performing equipment, they are less inclined to purchase other products (audits) with it. Property owners undertake audits when they are looking to do an evaluation of their home. Historically, analysis of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs in North America and Europe shows that the more hurdles a program puts in front of a property owner, the less likely it is to achieve a high participation rate.

DG: Let’s talk about the recent securitization of residential PACE bonds.

JM: We started the process to securitize PACE assessments four years ago and began working with rating agencies and attorneys, who went through a very thorough analysis of our portfolio. We are very happy with the outcome.

DG: This issue was privately placed? Are they municipal bonds?

JM: It was a private placement. It was a not a municipal bond product, but an asset backed securities product.

DG: 4.75% seems pretty attractive at this point, but might still be a bit high given the credit strength. It’s still a very illiquid market.

JM: You have to look at the weighted average life of the pool and at the spread: 180 basis points over the swap rate at 11 years. More than anything these numbers are a function of the illiquidity of the asset.  When you have a small inventory of assets, you aren’t going to have a significant amount of trading on the secondary market. So any product that was purchased will more than likely, won’t be traded. Overall, credit is strong but liquidity is weak, which has an impact on price.  As far as it being AA rated by Kroll, it is hard to find too many AA notes with and 11 years average life that trade at a tighter spread.

DG: What would you tell a homeowner about HERO program?

JP: Consumers have a variety of choices, not everybody qualifies for HERO and there are people who might be able to get a lower cost of financing elsewhere, (although one can’t get the same PACE characteristics in a mortgage or a home equity line). Homeowners should look at all alternatives and find the best option. Our goal is to create a financing mechanism that enables homeowners to select the products they want to save them money.

Article appearing courtesy PACENow.



May 8, 2014 0 comment
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Keep an Eye on Virginia: State Group Positions to Transform Energy Efficiency Market

Keep an Eye on Virginia: State Group Positions to Transform Energy Efficiency Market

written by Elisa Wood

It’s my home state so I’ll admit it, Virginia is no Massachusetts* when it comes to energy efficiency. The southeast state ranked a lowly 36 in the 2013 scorecard by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

But change is afoot here, as evidenced by the first-ever energy efficiency census report released today by the Virginia Energy Efficiency Council.

“We’re not as sexy as solar or wind turbines or as well recognized as power plants, but this report confirms that energy efficiency is a critical part of the Commonwealth’s energy mix,” said Bill Greenleaf, a member of the VAEEC governance board.

This the first-time Virginia’s energy efficiency industry has spoken in one voice to influence state policy and law. The report documents the role energy efficiency plays in Virginia’s economy, and proposes a path to avert at least some of the new power plants likely to be built here. Virginia will need more than 7,000 MW of new electricity capacity by 2020, the equivalent of 3 ½ North Anna nuclear plants.

Conservative estimates by VAEEC indicate that energy efficiency is a $289 million industry in Virginia, employing 9,400 people. The findings likely understate the market because of the limited number of companies that responded to the survey – largely those in building science and energy efficiency implementation.

Missing are insulation and HVAC companies that do not perceive themselves to be in the energy efficiency business, so did not respond. This occurred despite the fact that a single HVAC business might employ “hundreds of workers as installers, service technicians, estimators, and salespeople for high efficiency heating and cooling products,” the report said.

Thus, VAEEC estimates that only 25 percent of the state’s energy efficiency companies responded to the survey. So industry revenue is likely to be two to three times higher than the reported $289 million. The organization plans to work on encouraging the missing companies to participate in future census undertakings.

What’s ahead

Since 2000, the energy efficiency business has grown by 191 percent in Virginia, largely in the building sciences, the report said. Enormous opportunity exists for growth. Trane estimates that $1 billion in performance contracting opportunities remain, following a $550 million run of projects from 2001-2012.

Further, Virginia’s government has set a goal to reduce electricity use 10 percent by 2022 (over 2006 levels). The largest utility Dominion Virginia Power expects to reduce electricity use by 5.1 percent. That leaves 4.9 percent on the table¸ says the report.

Virginia also is home to an innovative effort to build a virtual power plant. See an update on the project here.

The energy efficiency industry offers true value to the state because the work remains local. Retrofitting buildings can’t be outsourced to a foreign country.

“More than three-quarters (78 percent) of the energy efficiency/ building sciences companies serve their local markets within 100 miles of their offices. An additional 32 percent serve regional markets,” the report said.

VAEEC laid out a series of recommendations, among them formation of a gubernatorial commission that would come up with practical strategies to reach the state’s 10 percent energy savings goal. The three-year-old group also called for:

  • More state support for the residential Home Performance with Energy Star program
  • Creation of a statewide commercial PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program for nonresidential buildings
  • Expanded performance contracting in state-owned buildings
  • Adoption of IECC 2012 building code for new residential construction without revisions

“These recommendations represent the first time policymakers and regulators have heard the collective voice of the energy efficiency industry,” Greenleaf said. “We’ve outlined specific ways we can further bolster the industry, spur economic growth and meet our energy demands.”

The report is part of a larger four-state effort to gauge the clean energy market in the Southeast. The region has been seen as an industry laggard, especially when compared with areas like the Northeast and West Coast.  But recently the Southeast has taken several steps to boost its clean energy sector.

Virginia was the only state to focus its data gathering almost solely on the energy efficiency industry. The other states – North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia – looked closely at renewable energy, as well. The Southeast Clean Energy Industry Census estimated regional clean energy revenue of $7.5 billion annually, based on self-reported data of 1,283 companies.

The Virginia Energy Efficiency Industry Census is available here and The Southeast Clean Energy Industry Census  here.

This article is published under a cross licensing agreement with EnergyEfficiencyMarkets.com



April 1, 2014 0 comment
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HERO PACE Financing Poised To Move Into Most Of California

written by Walter Wang

A little more than two years since it was launched in Riverside County, the Home Energy Renovation Opportunity (HERO) financing program is on the verge of an expansion that will take it into 70% of California’s cities.

“The past two years have confirmed that California

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February 18, 2014 0 comment
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Energy Efficiency Market Face Financing, Big Data Challenges in 2014

written by Walter Wang

The efficiency industry, driven largely in 2013 by intelligent innovations such as energy management software and virtual audits, will face financing, big data, education and accountability hurdles this year, according to a survey of executives by GTM Research.

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January 8, 2014 0 comment
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Former New Jersey Governor Talks About Meeting State’s Energy Goals

written by Walter Wang

New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan (EMP), last revised in 2011, sets out the Garden State’s strategic vision for the use, management, and development of energy in our state over the next decade.

The EMP puts an emphasis on keeping energy costs down and continues to promote clean, alternative energy production and preparing for a challenging

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January 2, 2014 0 comment
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Financing Renewable Energy

written by Walter Wang

Every year, American building owners lose billions of dollars as they overpay for energy to power their lighting, heating, and cooling systems, as energy is wasted in obsolete equipment or leaks out of a porous building envelope. The right energy efficiency measures can reduce costs by 20% to 40%, but they can also require substantial upfront sums. Additionally,

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October 31, 2013 0 comment
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The Future of Sustainability in Australia?

written by Walter Wang

What will Australia’s carbon emissions policies look like come end of 2013?

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama released a National Climate Action Plan signalling the US had entered a deliberate new phase in global emissions reduction by taking a commercially and socially driven approach, enabling “climate action” on a domestic and international level.

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September 26, 2013 0 comment
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How to Convince Wall Street to Invest in Energy Efficiency

written by Walter Wang

In the depths of the Great Recession three years ago, California’s chief fiscal officer John Chiang gathered his deputies and posed a question: “Is there any way we can put capital on the ground in California to put people back to work in ways that would make sense for the long term?”

After some debate, they settled on what they called

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August 28, 2013 1 comment
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Residential PACE Energy Programs Pursue Innovative Approaches

written by Walter Wang

Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has created strict requirements for residential property-assessed clean energy (PACE) programs, a few states and cities are continuing to develop programs and pass legislation.

PACE programs make it possible for homeowners to

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August 27, 2013 0 comment
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St. Paul Port Authority Can Now Issue Bonds to Finance PACE Projects

written by Walter Wang

A little-known statewide program to promote energy efficiency in large commercial and industrial buildings will be funded with $10 million in revenue bonds through the St. Paul Port Authority, a leader in energy savings programs.

The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday gave the

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August 23, 2013 0 comment
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Teamsters Union Hall is First Los Angeles County PACE Funded Project

written by Walter Wang

Every month, Teamsters Local 848 pays an average of about $2,500 in energy bills to power its meeting hall on the 3800 block of Cherry Avenue.

But when it’s done with its energy-efficient project, the group representing some 7,000 delivery and bus drivers and warehouse workers can see that cost shrink to as low as $10 a month.

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August 5, 2013 0 comment
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Combining Solar And PACE In Connecticut: A Potential Game Changer

written by Walter Wang

In my last post about Connecticut’s clean energy finance efforts, I alluded to an important innovation in their Property Assessed Clean Energy (“PACE”) financing program for commercial properties. PACE programs have been in place for several years, and the basic concept is that property owners are able to pay back clean energy financing

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July 25, 2013 0 comment
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