Financing Solutions Working Group
Co-Chairs:
Keith Welks, Deputy State Treasurer for Fiscal Operations, Pennsylvania Treasury
Bryan Garcia, President, Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority
View Financing Solutions Working Group members.
The mission of the Financing Solutions Working Group for the State and Local Energy Efficiency Action Network (SEE Action) is to provide responsive financing instruments and mechanisms (loans, leases, and power and service agreements) that support widespread adoption of energy efficiency technologies in the United States. The working group recognizes that effective financing is a vital tool that can encourage implementation of energy efficiencies by strengthening the value proposition of investments consumers consider making in energy conservation.
Working Group Scope
The Financing Solutions Working Group has established its primary focus on the residential energy efficiency sector because it:
- Represents a huge untapped market with needs for substantial physical improvements while being one of the least efficient capital markets
- Uses well-understood credit evaluation criteria (FICO score, debt/income ratios) that make financing more straightforward than in some other markets
- Employs a standard set of energy efficiency measures that rely on well-established technology (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning, building shell measures).
The working group has established a secondary focus on the commercial sector, which:
- Similarly requires huge physical improvements but has traditionally encountered multiple barriers to financing related to borrower creditworthiness and reluctance to take on debt
- Generates larger deal sizes as a whole than residential markets, which can be of greater interest to financial markets since large projects are often more capital-efficient than many small residential projects
- Requires huge capital improvements.
Each of the sectors the working group has identified complements recent DOE programmatic efforts (e.g., Better Buildings Grants), the Federal Housing Administration Power Saver program, and other initiatives.
Priority Solutions and Actions
The Financing Solutions Working Group has identified three pillars that frame its proposed approach:
- Develop a better understanding of the financing needs of financial institutions and customers
- Develop toolkits that include data and analysis for utilities, government entities, and financial institutions interested in supporting financing products for energy efficiency
- Develop more robust data on loan performance that will assist utilities, financial institutions, and others in developing and offering financing products for the residential (and commercial) sectors at attractive rates and terms.
Recognizing the broad implications of developing more responsive financing instruments, the Financing Solutions Working Group plans to inform its efforts through interaction with state and local governments, large financing institutions and local lenders, utilities, and state public utility commissions.
Learn more about the Financing Solutions Working Group's priority solutions and actions.
Contacts
For more information on the Financing Solutions Working Group, contact:
- Rima Oueid, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Brian Ng, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency