Develop the procurement, outreach, and loan support resources required to perform your financing activities.
Showing results 1 - 38 of 38
Communicate the results of your financing activities to internal and external partners.
Focus on the continuous improvement of your financing activities by tracking and evaluating data, responding to feedback, and modifying strategies when needed.
Launch your financing activities in coordination with other program components.
Establish an evaluation plan that will allow you to determine how your financing activities are impacting the market.
Determine if enhancements to existing financing products or the development of new products are necessary to allow you to achieve your goals and objectives.
Develop a plan to implement your financing activities, with defined roles for financial institution partners, contractors, customers, and your program.
Identify and partner with financial institutions that can provide capital, underwriting, and other functions to enable your customers to access financing.
Establish goals, objectives, and timeframes for your financing activities.
Determine how your target audience currently funds energy efficiency services, to what extent upfront cost is a barrier, and whether improvements to their financing options would increase the uptake of energy efficiency measures.
Ensure that your program’s customers will have access to affordable financing, so they can pay for the services you offer.
Establishing strong, collaborative partnerships with one or more lending partners is critical for successful delivery of affordable home energy lending. These partnerships are typically created through a request for proposal (RFP) process which can encourage market competition and help to attract...
Many programs that focused on a specific neighborhood or other small geographic areas have found it difficult to generate enough customer interest, partner interest, and upgrade activity to meet program goals. Regional or statewide approaches are often more attractive to contractors, lenders...
In order to overcome lenders’ concerns over the risk associated with energy efficiency loans, many Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners offered credit enhancements to lenders (e.g., loan loss reserve funds) to attract lender participation and to mitigate lender losses in the event of loan...
Complicated loan and program application processes have deterred many potential customers from following through with an upgrade. Delays and overly burdensome requirements raise barriers to participation. Many programs have successfully employed strategies to reduce the number of requirements that...
Publication Date
This presentation includes a series of case studies to highlight effective efforts by state and local agencies, non-profits, and utilities to bring energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE/RE) to low-income households. It explores the topic of linking and leveraging EE/RE programs for limited-income households, including the need to coordinate with other energy assistance programs.
Publication Date
This presentation provides an overview of energy efficiency financing for low- and moderate-income households, including a sector overview, consumer protections, financing products, and lessons learned.
Publication Date
This presentation provides an overview energy efficiency financing products and opportunities for consumer protections and program expansion for low and moderate income customers in the single- and multifamily residential market sectors.
Publication Date
This presentation covers Elevate Energy's full service comprehensive approach for improving low income multifamily housing.
Publication Date
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on strategies in building interest in and introducing energy efficiency to affordable housing.
Publication Date
Provides a sample or preliminary term sheet for single family residential energy efficiency loans that can provide a basis for discussions and negotiations with prospective lending partners.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
This paper investigates the credit enhancement value of NYSERDA's on-bill energy efficiency financing program relative to its similar conventional unsecured loan program. In the raw data, while both loan pools perform well
relative to credit card lending, the on-bill loans default more often than the unsecured loans. This paper shows that this result persists: on-bill loans default more often, and this finding is not sensitive to model specification. This paper also shows that NYSERDA's alternate underwriting mechanism based on mortgage and utility bill repayment history performs well, and that projected dollar savings from the installed projects do not significantly influence loan performance.
Publication Date
This SEE Action report offers state and local policymakers, state utility regulators, program administrators, financial institutions, consumer advocates and other low- and moderate-income (LMI) household stakeholders an understanding of the relationship between LMI communities and energy efficiency; lessons learned from existing energy efficiency financing programs serving LMI households; and the financing products these programs use and their relative advantages and disadvantages.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
Keystone Home Energy Loan Program (HELP)
This report examines participation of low and moderate income borrowers (LMI) in the first WHEEL portfolio. This is the first report in a multiyear project by EPC on Residential Energy Finance and the LMI Market that will take a close look at the market for residential energy efficiency and renewable energy loans to in order to increase the number and rate of the retrofits they facilitate.
Publication Date
This paper analyzes Bank of America's $55 million initiative to provide low-cost funding and grant support to advance energy efficiency investment in low- to moderate-income communities. The funding supported community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in developing and enhancing efficiency programs for residential, commercial, and multifamily buildings. We report on loan performance, energy savings, and the degree to which the savings offset the cost of the energy efficiency investment.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
Elevate Energy
This paper examines the current state of energy efficiency financing, highlighting segments of strength such as cars, green buildings, and energy service companies, and offering areas that are underserved, including residential low-income and moderate-income households and multifamily housing
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
Elevate Energy,
Enhabit
This paper analyzes Bank of America's $55 million initiative to provide low-cost funding and grant support to advance energy efficiency investment in low- to moderate-income communities. The funding supported community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in developing and enhancing efficiency programs for residential, commercial, and multifamily buildings. We report on loan performance, energy savings, and the degree to which the savings offset the cost of the energy efficiency investment.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
Elevate Energy
This paper examines the current state of energy efficiency financing, highlighting segments of strength such as cars, green buildings, and energy service companies, and offering areas that are underserved, including residential low-income and moderate-income households and multifamily housing.
Forum on Enhancing the Delivery of Energy Efficiency to Middle Income Households: Discussion Summary
Publication Date
This document summarizes discussions and recommendations from a forum for practitioners and policymakers aiming to strengthen residential energy efficiency program design and delivery for middle income households.
Publication Date
This report provides state and local policymakers with information on successful approaches to the design and implementation of residential efficiency programs for households ineligible for low-income programs.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
EnergySmart,
Windsor Efficiency PAYS,
Berkeley Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology (FIRST)
Report that identifies and evaluates the sufficiency of available financing options to help low-income populations, particularly communities that have been historically overburdened by air pollution (i.e., "environmental justice communities"), invest in resource-saving measures, such as energy efficiency and water conservation.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
This report addresses a key bottleneck for private capital: lenders declining to underwrite energy efficiency loans for multifamily housing because they lack confidence in energy savings. It presents findings from an analysis of 230+ buildings, assesses total savings achieved and savings as a percentage of projections, and provides a starting point for an underwriting methodology.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
This policy brief describes how NYSERDA's Assisted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR Program increases access to financing through tiered underwriting criteria.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
Efficiency Maine
This presentation from Efficiency Maine shows early adopters and higher income residents tend to take advantage of large incentives, but smaller incentives may be a way to engage a broader range of income levels.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
Keystone Home Energy Loan Program (HELP)
Presentation describing AFC First's (a lender's) aggressive underwriting and smart product delivery as part of the Keystone HELP program.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
Presentation describing NYSERDA's alternative underwriting approach for its target market.
Publication Date
Primer for Clean Energy works Portland financial offering. Includes loan term and rates, transfer of ownership, and underwriting criteria to expand access to financing for low-income residents.
Publication Date
Organizations or Programs
Enhabit
This case study highlights Clean Energy Works Oregon's (now Enhabit) low interest, on-bill financing and alternative underwriting practices which have achieved a low rejection rate while also maintaining a low loan default rate.